Thursday after school we started driving the direction of Knoxville. We went through a few towns that no longer exist, and Chattanooga got hit pretty hard by tornadoes as well. All this tornado action I have gotten in the last 2 weeks is almost overwhelming. You know sometimes how if you see something all the time it disappears? Well not this. I am emotional every time I see even a broken tree, and getting home and back has been a serious challenge. I feel like I am preggers I am so emotional lately, let me be clear I AM NOT WITH CHILD, just really emotional at all the destruction I have seen. We have seen all along the 65 corridor and now the 20 and 59 corridors as well, plus our nieghborhood. It is really incredible. Anyway. We got about 20 miles from Knoxville and stopped for the night. We looked at a few more places online and went to bed.
Side note: After I spend hours and hours looking for houses, making calls, scheduling appointments based on how far houses were from each other, mapping out 2 days of viewings I determined that The BF could take control this time. I honestly could not do the same thing again, I was taking calls during class the first time and with testing going on I can't have my phone even on much less answer calls. The BF took the opposite approach of me. He had looked at a few places, made calls to people who lived in the area, and decided we would just play by ear. I tried to warn him that these people do not answer calls they call back, and that many of the houses online are already rented. I would say around 80% of the houses are already rented or have an application. He thought oh this will not be that hard. Also we do not have GPS, so in my plan I had directions from house to house all lined up going from south to north based on the 2 days and the appointments were scheduled accordingly. Justin had no clue where anything was, and he has no internal compass so he gets really frustrated at me for constantly saying we are going the wrong direction.
Back to the story. We drove in Friday, and had an afternoon appointment. Checked into the hotel, got directions and went off to this and one other house close that we had the door code for. The first one he hated. It was an awkward layout but it had storage and space inside but little outside space. It was a duplex and I honestly think he was done when the car next door was a little beat up. I hate it but he is so brand oriented. The next one was in a cute little neighborhood, wood floors in the TINY living space, basement with man cave space and office space, the other half of the basement was storage and there was an outdoor storage building. Upstairs were 2 small bedrooms and a slightly larger master with a TINY half bath. The kitchen was tiny and there was a chandelier right in front of the glass doors to the deck. I think it would have been really awkward to put a table there, it was right in front of the door but if you didn't you would hit your head constantly. The BF of course loved it due to large deck, wood floors, and man cave. I was more hesitant due to TINY! The lady showing us the house did not give us a second to talk or anything she just stood there and somehow I talked him down seeing as this was only the second house we looked at and we were not really even sure we wanted to live in the area. The lady called later and said the other couple took the house. I was thankful, I think The BF was upset at that point. He had no other things scheduled so we made some calls and off we went to Weaverville, a town north of Asheville.
There we looked at a townhouse, brand new, great appliances and all the stuff people usually want. No storage, no parking, even smaller than the house, and it was a middle unit. It said fenced in yard, and there was no chance there was going to be a private fence, maybe all the houses in back would share a fence but Cricket can be a bitch when it comes to neighbors so that place was out. We really liked that town, there were lots of people out and walking parks all over ect. so we drove for a while looking for signs. We called on a few and most of them were no dogs, or only one bathroom.
We decided to go have dinner downtown Asheville and start fresh Saturday in Hendersonville.
Parked behind a place called the Thirsty Monk. Walked around a bit. A random dude dressed in a nun outfit ran across traffic into the thirsty monk... Just up the street was a traffic triangle around a park. In the park was a drum circle. There were lots random people just dancing in the park, kids playing hackey sack, and a guy with those sticks that have the tassels on the end, I am not sure the point of them. We walked around and listened for a while, it is kind of infectious the feeling of just move the body. Of course I was hungry and wanted to potty so we found the nearest place with drink specials listed outside, a place called Tall Gary's Cantina. I think the memo got crumbled on the way to the company that made the awning though. Outside it looked like some place called tallgarys and it was in that font that indicated Italian food. Anyway $2 Margaritas and top shelf tequila shots for $5. oh yeah and appetizers were $3. The server told us they are smaller portions than normal but holy cow we could have both only eaten the "smaller portion" appetizer and been full.
We went back to the hotel and I took a dip in the hot tub! I have been wanting a hot tub since last weekend when the hotel there advertised a pool and hot tub and they were closed. BOO I say.
Saturday we did a drive by of quite a few places. None of which The BF wanted to really look at, he had his reasons for all of them. He is much pickier about the neighborhood we will live in, I grew up in Checotah after all!
Then we moved to the south toward Hendersonville. He had chosen a townhouse in a neighborhood that we both though we would like. It is a gated community with lap pool so I was in for my tri training. We had to go in a talk to the sales team since we could not get in the gate alone. He told us there were no rental houses at the moment inside, but there were some for sale that he thought may rent. He showed us around, and clearly wanted us to buy a lot and start building a house. Forget the fact that we only have 2 weeks, but he did show us inside one of the houses for sale and despite the really 90's deco it was a really nice house. It had storage in the basement, 3 bedrooms with huge closets, a large eat in kitchen and large living/dining room. He said the main reason the house is still on the market is the carpet colors (teal and forest green) and the matching counter tops (teal!) No maintenance yard. Blah Blah The BF wants this house, it is $1300 a month. I tell him we will look for ways to budget that much but he will have to make sacrifices not just me. I knew this was going to happen, he is so predictable. Set a budget, and all along he kept saying I am not going to limit my looking to that budget but if a house offers something else and is more expensive I am going to look at it. Here he decided that the pool (which he will never see) and the guard gate (which will be a thorn in my side every time leaving you have to go through the gate) are worth $300. I really like this house as well, but am really hesitant. When The BF also hesitated I knew we were going to have to talk about it and sacrifice a lot to make it work.
We went to drive by another house. This one is a funny story, I called the guy who listed it on Craigs List and he literally spent more time talking me out of looking at the house then he did telling me about it. He insisted that the house was very rural and not really in Hendersonville. It is 4 miles from center of town, and the whole 4 miles there are houses, hoods, stores, and road leading to the highway. It did however sit on an acre and in front of a neighborhood with maybe 4 acre lots. Rural compared to Manhattan but downright booming metropolis compared to my definition of rural. We decided to go back and see this one inside if we don't take the other place. The bedrooms looked really little, but otherwise it looked nice. I later found out that it has no AC and although he plans on putting in a window unit I am not sure I want to spend that week long summer in agony from heat. The lot is shaded and all but I am hesitant since I have never experienced a summer where 90 is really the hottest it gets, and that is only for a few days. I don't know how to deal with this kind of summer yet!
We went to find a hotel and watch the Kentucky Derby. It was fine, we had 2 places we liked and knew we wanted to stay in Hendersonville. Pretty accomplished for 2 days and if he had to come back I was not going to make the trip. His standards are obviously much higher than mine so I am ok with that, and I know even though he may want to he will not get us in over our heads without serious consultation. He hates serious consultation!
I spent a few hours thinking about how to tell him if we take the house for $1300 that means no cable until I am working and we have paid off some of our debt, and managed to save 2 months bills: a minimum of 6 months and preferably the whole time we are in that house so we can save even more than that just in case! (PS if you are going to ask me to marry you, you will need some money saved up that I don't know about, I am glad he does not read my blog)
Anyway we went to downtown Hendersonville and I am seriously in love. Asheville had all the shops like Mass St. in Lawrence: local coffee shops, bars, restaurants, breweries, random kitch shops, furniture... think Lawrence plus bums and homeless dog people. Are they really homeless I dont know, but you know the type with the random dogs. The BF talks to them all and tries to explain that he is not blowing them off, he really has no cash. All of this in his clean polo shirt while these people clearly could care less they just want money not the story.
Side story: When we were in London we stopped in a pub one afternoon in Kensington right off the high street. Harrods around the corner. He went out to smoke and I had noticed this lady walking back and forth with a stroller, but with the cover zipped on the opening like it was raining. She was the gypsy type. He came in and asked me if I have any bills. I said for what, he started telling me some sob story and looked up to the window. There she was this lady, huddled under the awning and the stroller just hanging out in the sprinkling rain. I know I said the thing was zipped up but still you would at least put it under the awning if there were really a baby. He tells me he only has change in his pocket and I freak out. Do you know that some of that "change" is worth more than a dollar? I looked up at the lady and caught her eyes, she took off. The bar man at the point also asked if that lady was begging and called the police. The BF had given her about 8 pounds which at the time was $16, he is really compassionate, one of the main reasons I fell for him turns out to drive me crazy sometimes now!
So back to Asheville, I can see me getting really annoyed with bums but at the same time I like the artsy parts of the town.
Hendersonville has the old downtown, with courthouse square, all the local shops and restaurants although here it is a little more antiques than fair traded goods, but it is less touristy also. We had dinner at a pub: 2 beers, appetizer, dinner salad, and burger all for $25! I don't know about where you live but here we can not go to the local bar that has mediocre food and get a beer each and share an appetizer for that price, much less a really good burger and organic locally grown salad with fresh house made dressing.
I am totally sold! Every house we looked at has a snow shovel! The BF should be excited about that part, and I know I said I would never move somewhere that cold again, but all the locals say that you only have to shovel your driveway and the roads are cleared in a day. No one works that first day and then you just get to enjoy the views! And the views are incredible holy cow almost everywhere you can catch a really special view. Autumn is the season to be there I guess. All the B 'n B's have specials for fall already. You can't book less than 3 nights in many of them during that season. I am really excited for that.
Our server one night told us that we have never experienced 4 season living like we will there! That is exciting, and it makes winter more tolerable if you know that you get a spring and fall not just from cold to hot and back again!
Yesterday The BF got a call from his new boss and they decided to push the start date back 2 weeks. There are a few reasons, but mostly I think that The boss's house got hit by tornado as well and he has not gotten as much done as he wanted to before The BF started. He did find out that he will be getting a Ford Escape for his car. I had been thinking about them again, due to my not really car shopping, car shopping. It is down to a small SUV (Escape or Rav4) or a Subaru. I am actually leaning toward Subaru, but if I can buy that one when The BF's get the 50,000 miles on it that may be a better deal We will have to see how it drives, longest test drive ever!
As a result The BF turned down the $1300 house yesterday. I am glad, and I think it was the right decision. Now with 2 more weeks to look and find something more in the budget I think we will be happier. I think that no cable during football season is a serious enough trade off that he will really have to love a house to propose to me again that we do something that high!
I am hopeful still about getting a job there in a school. Hendersonville is a lot of retired people so they are paying for schools they are not using. The guy we talked to said his daughter is in 1st grade and last year they had 2 students over quota for student/teacher ratio in the whole grade. So a week into the year they hired a new teacher so they would have lower student/teacher ratios. That was really good news! There are 2 high schools in the immediate area and Asheville is really close, plus there are county schools all the way up the road. It sounds like a better situation than Alabama at the very least, which is something!
So we accomplished really nothing in the end, but we do have a narrowed down idea of where we want to be and we have realized that we are on a budget no matter how sure we are that I get a job due to our need to pay debt and save! I feel good about where we are right now.
Oh yeah and we learned that Clemson is closer than UT or UGA which we thought were the closest chances of seeing Auburn play in the next few years and AU plays Clemson in Clemson this season! The BF is happy and he has not been there for a game, double bonus!
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