Needs a Good Home

This weekend found us in Cincinnati, Ohio searching for our next home. While we are Michael is very familar with the south side of Cincy (ie Kentucky), we are brand new to the northern side, which is where my new job is located. We drove one of our cars up, bunked in with family, and started our introduction to Ohio.

The property search is a long process, and we have put in two 8-hour days so far. Fun is not the word I would use to describe it. We have searched the internet, sent emails and made phone calls and then we sit and wait for a response back from the contact person, which is the most frustrating part since our search window is only 3 days.

 On our drive from Florida I was able to set up 4 appointments for showings and printed out the listings at my sister's house. I was quite proud of how prepared and organized we were for day 1. So Day 1 began and our first listing was... icky. Loved the neighborhood and location but the house was cramped and needed work. Fortunately our second listing was more of an option and we spent a lot of time there with the owners. The neighborhood is wonderful and quiet, and while there is ample space in the basement the living space and bedrooms were a bit tight but clean. It's on our short list. We headed to our third listing and when we turned down the street I asked, "is this the road our next property is on?" When Michael replied "yes", I told him in that case, we're not stopping. Then when he said we'd already passed the property, I said, "Ok, we're definitely not stopping. Just go, GO!" Yikes!! So we dashed off to our last appointment and since we were early we walked around the house and determined that the location would definitely not work for us. We headed home. In rush hour and a thunderstorm we got a phone call from a realtor for a listing we had passed in beautiful Glendale. This house was built in 1865 and sits right beside the quaint town square. It's on the list of historic homes (the Bartlett house) and somewhere along the line it was transformed into 3 apartments. I would have loved to have seen it in its glory days. The 2-bdrm apartment was on the right side of the house with a spectacular living room with 12-ft beamed ceilings, floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases, a fireplace and huge windows. The dining area was small and the kitchen smaller and upstairs there were 2 bedrooms. There was also a 1-bdrm apt on the second floor, and if we opted to rent them both, they'd punch through the hallway wall and join the units, giving us 3-bdrms, 2 kitchens, and 2 living rooms. While there were features I loved, overall it felt stuffy and dark and it didn't seem accessible and convenient for us with Adam. End of day 1.

Day 2 -- new hope! We had 3 appointments scheduled for day 2. The day before we had concentrated on properties inside the I-275 loop around Cincy for a closer proximity to our family in Kentucky, and we quickly discovered that we'd be better off going farther north. We started in West Chester, where my office will be moving to by the end of the year. This was a split-level home, and would be a wonderful fit for us with ample living space (but smaller bedrooms) and a large fenced back yard. The only sticking point was the move-in date -- July 15th. Since my job starts on the 11th, this isn't feasible for us. We later called the realtor and questioned whether the date is negotiable. We may not find out about that until Monday at the earliest. This property is on our short list as well -- at the top. We then saw another split-level (all brand new interior but sketchy neighborhood) and then headed to a Cape Cod home in Greenhills. We had high hopes for Greenhills, as it is completely surrounded by Winton Woods park. Unfortunately the neighborhoods were old and bit run-down, and the house needed Much work. Defeated, we slunked off to Frisch's Big Boy and sat in relative silence wondering where we go from here. We'd exhausted our appointments and were having trouble finding additional options to look at. We left a few more messages for potential showings and then headed out to see what the apartment-complexes in the area offered. We drove all over the place. We got a call back from one of the realtor and toured a townhouse (again, clean and new inside but not as nice exterior). We called several of the apartment complexes and many did not offer a 3-bdrm option. One offered a 2-bdrm + study/den option but availability was tricky. There was one left that was on a verbal hold and we toured the model. The complexes were our back-up plan, and even that was falling through. End of day 2.

So where does that leave us? Still hopeful for Day 3. Ideally day 3 would have found us following-up with a property we had our hearts set on. Instead, we'll be calling additional listings and pleading for a showing. We'll also be scouring the Sunday paper for the most recent listings with the hopes of new opportunities there. Overall, I have been surprised at how few properties are available for rent in this economy... or maybe they just get picked up so quickly because of a larger need. Either way, our options are slim and I just have to remind myself that we may not get everything we want -- but it's only for a year. God has been good to us with this job opportunity so far, and we are praying that He will see us through to a wonderful, clean and safe home. Feel free to pray along. :)