Waiting.....

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Nick, Addie and I are still staying at Fort Belvoir temporary housing while we find a place to live. Actually, we have found a place, but it is taking forever to get the lease drawn up and to get the final stamp of approval from the owner of the townhouse we will be renting. Hopefully it will go through today or tomorrow, otherwise we may have to start the whole search over again. Needless to say, we are frustrated. I think it was easier and faster to buy our house in Kansas, that it has been to lease a place in the DC area.



Last Wednesday we started looking on our own at houses that we had found on the Internet. We were sure that we were going to find a nice house with a nice yard with an easy commute for Nick. Ha ha! How wrong we were! The first house was very nicely done, had a great Turkish owner (who talked to us forever) and was in a great location. But, it was tiny, tiny. We kept wishing it would have just one more room because there was no way we could cram ourselves into it. We left that house hopeful of finding something similar but bigger. No luck. In fact, all that we could find were 'Moldy oldies' (just as you advised Marie). I actually cried after we went into the last house. It was so awful inside, I don't think I would have let my dog stay there! That night we called our friends Marie and John, who we knew in Germany, and are now living here. Marie had lots of great advice, which helped us a lot on Thursday. On Thursday we switched gears and started looking at townhouses. There are everywhere here, are usually well maintained and close to the commuter lines, and are surprisingly spacious on the inside. We had originally ruled out a townhouse because of the size of the yards, but after Wednesday's tours of the moldy oldies, we decided a newer townhouse was the way to go. There was actually a great unit for rent just across the street from Marie, but by the time we called on it, it had already been leased. We were disappointed, but continued our search with the help of a realtor this time. To shorten things up, we looked at 5 units, and the one we chose was a clear winner. This unit has three bedrooms all on the same floor (sometimes a rarity in townhouses), three and a half baths, a finished walkout basement, a separate dining room, family room, eat in kitchen and a garage. It even has a small fenced backyard for Smokey. It is not as newly updated as Marie and John's place, but it really is a nice space and should suit us well. Now, if only the realtor will call us with some good news.

We'll keep you all updated as we have more news to share. With any luck we will have a roof over our heads soon and have our things from Kansas delivered before we go get the kids in Michigan next week!