Sad--and then happy

We didn't get the house after all.

I'm sad, and a little angry. Mostly at the world at large, and mostly because we missed the boat when it comes to housing. Even two years ago we could have bought a great house with land in our little rural town for less than $100,000. Now we're going end up paying significantly more, and we can't even afford the land at all.

I'm also a little relieved, because deep down I think we were getting in over our heads. I love that house. Really love it. But a $1300 month house payment would have been a struggle.

We looked at a different house on Friday. It has almost zero land (5000 square feet), but the house itself is perfect for us. It's also two doors down from our towns community garden. We can get a 10X12 plot, and if we go for this house I'm going to ask my parents to get one too and let me plant on it. 20 X 24 can house a ton of veggies. This little garden is new, and I've noticed that some people have planted fruit trees near their plots.

There is also a city corrals about two miles away. For $50 a year I can lease a corral for chickens, goats, whatever. The trick is that they're all leased already, and improved upon. You have to buy the improvements from someone who is ready to sell their corral. And at only $50 a year maintance, people hold on to them with the idea that they might want to get a horse or something someday. There are some empty ones though, so I'm thinking maybe a newspaper ad once we know where we're going to land.

What really gets to me is that even fixer uppers are priced so freaking high. The owners want to get the price for the potential of the house, without getting it up to that potential. That sucks.

On a more positive note: I got an email from a publisher today about a short story I submitted--it's being passed on to the second level of aquisition. Woo!