Saturday, July 9, 2016

The Landing


We were literally down to the wire.  We had absolutely NO lead on a rental property, because living in Paso Robles is expensive. Rent is easily 3 times the amount of a modest mortgage payment.  I am not kidding you.  Shitty little apartments and crappy houses....sometimes with no central air for $2,000-$3,000 per month.  No joke.  And to top that off, if you can't prove you make 3 times the rent in a month, you don't qualify.

Yeah.  Fucking ridiculous.




We had one property manager tell us when applying for a 3 bedroom house that they would *wink* at our income if we didn't have teenagers....because teenagers are expensive (at the time we were desperately seeking a place for the four of us...my son was working fulltime AND going to school at Cuesta and my daughter is in high school).

Ummmmmm.....huh?
A roof is a priority. Like, the first bill to be paid. What the hell?

LOL.
I can laugh now.

No I can't.

Because my son had taken to sofa surfing with friends while we sought housing.  Family offered us temporary (emphasis on temporary) lodging, but since Nathaniel was an *adult* (18....going to school full time....and working) he could find somewhere else to stay. No lie.  I can understand that kind of "help with stipulations" if we had proven ourselves to be untrustworthy, opportunistic or irresponsible, but we have NEVER asked friends or family for ANYTHING.  We have always taken care of our own and done "the right thing".  This broke my heart and really angered me. I swallowed the lump of anger in my throat and said "Thank you, but we are staying together as a family."

It was almost the midnight hour when Rick's sister remembered that her in-laws had a vacation rental in Atascadero, went to bat for us and put a roof over our heads for a couple of months.  It really was a miracle and I will forever be thankful to Cindi, her husband and her in-laws for giving us this breathing room.  The little pace was fully furnished (we no longer had furniture...remember we had to abandon big stuff at the house) and we had a couple of months now to continue our search.  Nathaniel was staying with a friend just down the street from us, but had to quit school and get a second job to pay bills.  My heart ached for him....for us...but at east we were on the same street.





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