MOVE IN UNREADY

Panic set in this morning as I opened the garage door and saw that their furniture had not yet been moved out and the 'touch up paint gone wrong' re-painting upstairs had not been completed. Though I had signed the lease a week ago, I decided this time to keep quiet as I remembered what happened two weeks ago when I lost the house. So, for a few more hours I kept my silence in hopes that the work would be finished.

In the meantime, I took a longer drive than expected as I searched for a backup house in case this 'last resort townhouse' did not work out. The address of the house was not searchable via GPS since it was in a new subdivision under heavy construction. Somehow I ended up going west through Jonestown and into Lago Vista.

The drive would have been relaxing given different circumstances. I imagined owning a house out in the country one day. For now, though, I have to settle for another rental. Since the backup house ended up being thirty minutes east of my children's school, this option was no longer a viable one.

Stress followed panic two hours after noon when I drove by the townhouse again and noticed no change. I decided I now had to say something so I texted the landlord who happened to be out of town as she and her husband are moving up to the New York area.

She assured me the painting would be completed and told me there was no need to cancel the deep cleaning for the carpets I had scheduled for early tomorrow morning. Since I was paying for it and it was more expensive than regular steam cleaning, I did not wish any more work being done inside as I stand by my 'no shoe policy' inside the house.

There was not much more I could do but go home and wait. I had moved as much as I could, given the limited space and having to wait for the upstairs carpets to be cleaned. As I looked around the dishevelled house, I wondered if I could get this all done in time. I have moved too many times in my life and never had my move been this close and so scattered.

Five minutes before the setting sun beckoned my camera to capture its beauty, I drove by the townhouse to see that the furniture in the garage was still there though it was moved forward to allow me to move boxes along the back wall. Once inside, I noticed the dusty model home drapery from ten years ago was removed per my request and the wall plates were put back into place but the painting was never finished. My guess was the landlord ran out of time or simply did not wish to be bothered by the extra work.

I wondered what was the point of my having to delay moving in if the reason for the delay never came to fruition. 'Available now', I have come to realise, does not mean what it should. 'Move in unready' is a more accurate description. But with three days left before I have to turn in the keys to this house, I have no time for better options.

I long for the day when I can finally settle into a place of our own. A place where we five can live for at least the next ten years whilst the children finish school. A place where I can unpack the boxes in the garage and set up a comfortable home. Until then this state of unrest remains for the foreseeable future. The only thing I can do is to make the best out of the current situation and believe that things will be better one day.