Circling our prey - a home

Wednesday we went to see the original house on Oak Street that brought us to this neck of the woods and to see a place on Alberta Street as well. It was a rather hurried and crazy afternoon after lounging at The ‘Rents as a break from the cave at the 6.

Oak Street is a renter’s hell, the owner clearly doesn’t care about it and the poor house needs so much TLC but had a lot of potential. We went to see it because after initially ruling it out because of the super tiny lot, I learned it came the small lot to the left of the house which made it a much more appealing property. There is an extended family set up inhabiting the house and it was a total pigsty. According to the daughter the front parlor room is the nicest room, which they kindly let us see even though it is clearly where her parents “live”. If this is what she considered the best space of the house, well, dayum! Awful fake wood paneling and a cloud of cigarette smoke hung in the space while grandma and grandpa lounging in their underwear with a table top filled with pill bottles next to the bed.

From there we went over to the next property. On the way Holly introduced us to Galen, the neighborhood cat rescuer with some of the most gorgeous cats I have ever seen. I’ve seen and had a lot of cats so that’s really saying something. Anyway, she introduced us as his “new neighbors but we just don’t know which house”. This place is just gathering us into it’s arms, you know?

Alberta was a couple's attempt at a flip and boy did they screw it up! It didn’t work out the way they wanted so they turned it into a rental. Tenants had done nothing to improve the property, which is putting it kindly. The owners had turned a closet (at least I think it was originally a closet) in the front parlor into a bathroom so they could call it a "master bedroom", one which if the lights are on at night and the bathroom door is open one can see the toilet from the street. Galen let us in on this tidbit.

In the end we decided to make an offer of Oak Street. Yeah it was a rush decision in some ways but we liked the house, saw it’s potential. Holly and others (Theresa in particular) would love to see this house rescued. In a flurry of signatures I had officially said, Yes I want this house! We asked for the owner to get back to us in 48 hours.

Friday morning we moved to a better location since the Cave 6 room was getting to us. Tiny, dark, irregular internet connection and no way to save money on food. Extended Stay Amerika offered us a much larger space, a dresser, a microwave and fridge along with consistent wireless access which was important for home searching.

Forty-eight hours, Friday afternoon, later there was no response, which surprised none of us. Holly once again said she wanted to hook us up with Karin, who she claimed knew everyone and would be a great resource. A few hours later my phone rang – it was Karin. We had a great conversation about our needs, her knowledge, and some of her properties. The connections we were making in this area were amazing and we felt unbelievably welcome and accepted. It was huge surprise to both of us. Back in August when TGF was expressing doubts about going back to Dayton and worrying over how it would feel, I promised to show her a Dayton she didn’t know existed. Barely here and I was accomplishing my mission, much to our great happiness.

The hunt begins

Monday, October 1^st rather than starting her job TGF had her “official” interview. Since we were still down to only one car and rather than potentially go stir crazy I went along for the ride and hoped for hopping on some wireless at a close by café. I wouldn’t call where I went a café, not in the Northampton or Berkeley sense of the word but there was wireless to be jumped on. Well until my battery threatened to die out since there were no outlets by any of the seating. See? Not really a café like I’m used to hanging at. Also, yes this did mean that this little interview went on for quite sometime.

In an attempt to be proactive regarding our housing situation I wrote to Maureen to double check about the brick beauty we had driven past the day before. She wrote me back while I was still researching housing and surfing the net to say the house was available. In fact she give the name of the realtor, Holly. The house was bought by Michael, Holly’s husband, because he and Theresa were key people in this rehabbing of South Park. Later I called Holly leaving a message about the brick house on Hickory that we drooled over. Maureen, the SP head cheerleader actually called Holly so she was expecting my call. Wow.

TGF finally comes around to get me, seriously over 2 hours later, maybe it was closer to 3, who remembers anymore. All sounds good. The following Monday she goes to corporate training in Indiana for a couple of days and then they will put her in Boy Wonder’s store. This is good because the opening of the Springboro store had been pushed back again but they want her working for them ASAP. We want that to since income is always a good thing. We make an appointment to see Hickory and invite TGF’s mother along.

Tuesday finally arrives and we see two rental properties in the neighborhood before going to Hickory. I feel good about doing this because motel living is getting to me and we really need to get our lives in gear. The first rental is doable and kinda cute but it’s a shared, tiny yard which puts TGF off. “What if the neighbors suck? There isn’t room for Wyatt to run, no fence.” The second, eeww! We didn’t want to touch anything even though it had be “redone” it was all so hideous and badly done that we couldn’t wait to leave but the realtor was very nice.

Finally we approach the amazing house. It’s an older brick home, two stories, on a double lot and has a garage. It’s higher than we want to pay because funds are short for a down payment and there is a question about if I could get a mortgage for that amount though the monthly payments would be totally doable. My dear friend Jennie only buys yarn that makes her heart beat faster. My heart was beating so fast walking through this property I thought I might go into cardic arrest. All the wood work on the first floor had never been painted. Never! It had a beautiful pocket door. It was huge, beyond huge – like 3000 square feet. The bones on this place was just beyond compare. However there was mold, we were all bothered by it. There was no way I could live in this house and work on it in that state. Mold remediation can be a very expensive endeavor. We knew we had to walk away from the property. Holly said that she thought Michael had bitten off more than he could handle with this one but at least they would secure it to prevent vandalism until something more could be done.

Later we met up with The 'Rents to a Rat Pack type of restaurant to celebrate my birthday. Mostly all day I forgot it was my birthday. Seriously. There was so much to adjust do, errands to run, and potential housing to look at, a thing like a birthday was just far down in priority for me. The Pine Club is one of those places with a limited, but old fashioned high end menu. Translation: lots of meat. No windows, dark wood paneling everywhere. The waitress was lively and the food was tasty (I got fish).

On the way back "home" (aka Mot*l 6) we drove by two other properties I had scouted earlier. I had already emailed Holly about these and we wanted to scope them out a bit. I was on a mission!