Housing updates...

So we decided against the cute adorable wonderful little bungalow in a nice neighborhood downtown. In case you were wondering, it was the one that was "decorated by a demented clown". When we saw it in person, we could see that the floors weren't actually painted black, they were just darkly stained, and the fireplace wasn't pink and orange and green, it was just covered by a screen, and the bathroom was actually quite nice, and not out of a shop of horrors. It was really, really cute.

But things are really up in the air. I don't know if I have a job past October 14th (despite being a 6 credit class, it meets for only 1/2 the semester). Jim's job is technically a 1 year contract, even though it's almost certain that they'll renew for at least a few years. We can't decide whether we want to live in town (and be walking distance from everything! with apparently friendly neighbors! but near barking dogs and cars and with a smaller yard) or out of town in the mountains (big yard! privacy! near hiking! no neighbors! no neighbors, or worse, weeeeeird neighbors, and bears! and bears... lots of bears...) And maybe we'll win the lottery and can afford a house in one of the other towns closer to Fairfax (unlikely, unless it's the MegaMillions - those towns are really steep, and snobby).

So in a nutshell, our plans are:

Friday-Saturday/Sunday- State College to finish cleaning and pack up my office
Sunday/Monday- Back to the apartment, and a day off? maybe? please?
Tuesday-Friday- work, continue in apartment
Saturday/Sunday- move (again) into rental in mountains, near the Appalachian Trail, on a small, manmake lake.

The rental will be nice! I hope. It's a two bedroom house, with a screened in porch, and an AMAZING deck with views of the center where Jim works (including apparently occasional glances of African mammals, such as ibex and wild horses and wild asses). We'll still have the cat-free guest room/office, and it has a big yard and privacy and a decent kitchen and a little propane fireplace. It's not very big (900 sq feet), but the outdoor space should help with that a lot. We can have a garden there too. It also has a laundry room that is only accessible from outside the house, which means it has the same issue as the apartment with the kitty litter (the most foul substance on the planet). I think we might put the kitty litter in the screened in porch and let the fresh air do away with its odors. We'll figure it out, I guess.

Disadvantages of the rental include the driveway, which is very steep and pointed directly at the house beneath it (so if you lost control of your car, you'd plow into the bedrooms). This gives me nightmares. We might build a wall. Also, it's hard to meet people when you work more than an hour away, and you live all alone in the forest. And it's really quite a small house, which means we may have to keep using a storage unit for some things (although a smaller, cheaper one).

Jobs are going well. Jim's happy with his class and mine is keeping me busy too.

Other than that, not too much new.... We'll post pics when we have them!