Now that I had a job in the mountains, the hard part would begin. Leaving my current position, packing, finding a place to live, moving, and finally starting a new job. My head was spinning so fast once I was offered the job that I wasn’t entirely sure where to start. I spoke with my principal to tell her that I would definitely be leaving shortly after the start of the school year (I work in a year-round school) and then submitted my resignation. I began breaking the news to my co-workers, who were all completely shocked. I know it came out of the blue for many of them. The funny thing though was that as I started to tell more people, everyone began telling me how jealous they were of this opportunity. So that makes me think… why don’t more people take that leap of faith to do something they really want to do? I guess sometimes it’s just easier to stay put than to make a major life change. When you only live once, I really think it’s important to make the absolute most of that chance.
However, what’s a job in a faraway place worth without a place to live in? It was time for some serious research. We decided we didn’t want to buy a house right away and would find a place to rent instead. We really want to get to know the area well before we commit to a mortgage in an area we don’t like. If we’d done that when we first moved to our particular area, we would have been incredibly miserable. For now, I had to begin looking for rental properties.
I headed straight to Craigslist to see what could possibly be available. While there were many listings for the area, it was much harder to find a place that would accept pets, let alone a German Shepherd. After watching the ads diligently every day, I finally found four possibilities and lined up appointments to see the houses. It was time for a ROAD TRIP!
We loaded Gabby up in the Expedition early on a Saturday morning for a one day 10 hour round trip adventure. Our first appointment was for 11am and we had 3 more in 1 hour increments after it. The first stop was a 2 bedroom/2 bath cabin with detached garage on 2 acres of land located off a dirt road. We talked extensively with the owners then took a look at the home and immediately fell in love. No matter what else we saw that day, nothing would compare. This home was *exactly* what we were looking for. However, the owners said they were showing the home to one other person who had contacted them before us and they felt they needed to offer them the home first if they were interested. I told her I understood and we would just wait for her to let us know.
We were then off to our second appointment. This house was not nearly as nice and had an unusual driveway. It must have had an angle of probably 50 degrees or more. And although it was listed as having an acre of land, the house was situated on one corner with another house about 10 feet behind it. Definitely NOT what we wanted. We politely declined and headed to the next home where we arrived about 20 minutes early. The home was set back a few feet from a busy street and as we waited to speak with the owner (who was in the middle of showing the house to someone else), we must have counted at least 5 cars go racing by. Again, not exactly our cup of tea, which was fine because the owner finally came out and told us the people before us were going to take it.
Off we went to the last home. It was a very small 2 bedroom/2 bath home on the side of a mountain with a lot the size of a dime and absolutely no room for Gabby. Not to mention, the road getting into the home was so narrow that our Expedition was almost too wide. How in the world would we get a U-Haul up to the house? Again, we politely declined and then hit the road for home. Out of 4 possibilities, only one was what we were looking for and unfortunately, that wasn’t a sure thing. All we could do was wait, and starting looking for more homes.
I few days later, I got a call from the owner of the first house. She wanted to offer us the house! Imagine our relief and excitement. We couldn’t have asked for a better home. I’ll have to drive about 25 minutes each way to work, but the view from the front porch is amazing and we’ll be able to have a HUGE garden along with chickens. The location makes the commute worth it so I definitely won’t complain. Not to mention we’ll be in the middle of a national forest, 10 miles from the Appalachian Trail, and about 30 minutes from a major national park. What could possibly be better for someone who loves the outdoors? Everything was falling into place for our move to the country. Now on to the hard part…. packing.
