Month 3 of the search

In the throws of my busy season, tax season, I am looking at houses at every opportunity. I have become immune to pretty paint and floors. I can walk through a house in 35 seconds and say yes or no.

I have begun looking at houses by myself as we have approached the 150 marker of homes we have looked at and arguing with my mother about the houses and how they can be changed before we even like the floor plan is making me nuts.

We got so desperate to see one house we gave them proof that we could actually buy the house with a pre-approval and proof that we had the funds to actually buy the house. It was a wonderful house on 10 acres with a pond and a couple of out buildings. Exactly what we thought we wanted. 

What we thought we wanted until my oldest child, my mother, and myself started having watery eyes, running noses, and coughing. Apparently we are all allergic to the outdoors and would probably die of anaphylactic shock within two weeks of buying the place. 

I swear our realtor is a saint. She just said "okay I will change your portal to look for track homes instead of country properties, I'm going to go home and have a drink." I think I am going to make this poor woman into an alcoholic. 

In the mean time we had heard that our friends would be staying put and not losing their home. One less parameter to worry about. 

A wrinkle in the plan

After looking at houses for over a month my mom and I went down to visit some friends.

It appeared that they were going to lose their home and that maybe if we got a house with property they could get a trailer and park it there.

At this point my honey lost it. "Ummm so now we get your mom, your grandmother, your mom's best friend, and your oldest childhood friend who is in a wheelchair? "

"Well jeez when you put it like that it sounds like a lot!"

It didn't strike me as strange or weird to open my home to people who may need a little extra help. Its what you do for family.

I am pretty sure the realtor was ready to kill me at the prospect of changing our parameters of what we wanted again. We had already looked at over 30 homes and hadn't found what we wanted. God bless that woman for putting up with me and crazy....or crazy and my mom.

The search

This is the email I sent my realtor....

I am going to be house shopping and selling houses this year. Looks like I need something with a mother in law sweet, cottage out back and even better both…..I may be moving my mother and my grandmother in with me. I think my budget jumped but really would like to stay under the original amount I told you if possible. My house, my mom’s house and probably my grandmother’s house will go on the market (though I think she will want my uncle to sell it)  Lots of work to be done after tax season. If you hear of anything can you let me know? 

My realtor sent me a link on the MLS and I started shopping, sending my mom links to houses and finally setting up some time to look at said houses. 

Almost a month after we started looking online my grandmother informed me that if we didn't hurry up she would want to move into temporary care facility until we found the right house so the search was on for real!

Living with a Saint...Sometimes...

After the conversation with my mother. I called my dear, sweet, loving, patient, saint of a husband. This man has already taken on kids that aren't his some who have special needs and a crazy woman.

"Hi love! So I just left my grandmothers."

"How was she?"

"Good......"

"What???"

"So........how would you feel if we looked for a house that would fit her and my mom.....?????"

"Okay." (What is wrong with this man? Why doesn't he run? I would have run. I tell him to run all the time but he stays.)

"Okay....you sure? You know you are damning yourself to a life with 3 strong willed women under one roof and the kids?"

"I love you. Let me know when you find something."

RUN MAN RUN!!!!!!!! It is one thing for me to gladly anticipate living with my family members...Its a whole other thing for someone else to live with my family.

Why I have not been blogging.......The Idea.....

The idea to eventually move my mom into our home has always played in the back of my mind.

Even though I know my mom has enjoyed living alone over the years as she gets older it seems less and less practical for her to do so.

I toyed with looking at different new homes, they have some really nice new ones with in-law suites attached with their own entrance and everything.

Earlier this last year I was discussing this idea with my grandmother who was debating moving to an assisted living facility. She is in her mid 90's, still driving her own car, and living alone since my grandfather passed a few years ago.

"Well we could start looking now and you could move in and mom could move in after you pass." (We are a morbid family.)

"If you find something we will think about it, but I think that sounds like a good idea."

I never in a million years expected her to say maybe let alone yes. She is so independent and determined that no one will ever take care of her. I was in shock, not that I didn't want her to move in with us I think it is a huge benefit to my children but I just really thought she would tell me to piss off that she really wanted to live in a facility.

I left her house that day in a daze. I called my mom and told her what had just happened.

My mothers response was "if your grandmother is moving in so am I. I am tired of living alone." WTF just happened?  I just went from a roughly 2800 sq foot house to a monstrosity in 1.2 seconds