Thursday, March 25, 2010

and then everything happened at once

This past week has been a complete roller coaster, and I regret that I didn't think to document it here as it was happening, because now it's all so anti-climatic. In any case, here's a run down:

First we decided to take the leap on house #2, which was really at the limit of our budget, but before we signed anything, we had the house inspected. Because we qualify for a government loan with zero interest, we had to be sure that the house wouldn't need too much work, as one of the conditions for the loan is that everything is brought up to code within three years. So of course the electricity needs to be completely redone, as well as a couple of other things. That effectively closes the door on house #2 for us.

We went back to the website of the realtor we've been working with, and saw a house for sale that was well under our budget but instead of having a garden, only has a porch. The house is quirky and charming, and we pretty much fell in love with it. So of course someone bought it before we could even make an offer on it.

Now we're kind of stuck. All the houses available either need too much work, have too much land, or are simply out of our price range. I've made a radical suggestion to Stéphane: buying an apartment. There is one available that is slightly larger than where we live now, but it is in excellent shape and would allow us to save a bunch of money. I could even start my own business with the money we'd save. The problem is that Stéphane grew up in a large apartment block and has vowed to never live in one again. I will absolutely respect this, but there's a chance this is a smaller building with only a few apartments inside, which he's agreed to. I may go check that out this week.

Meanwhile, I was up for a very cool job about an hour away, but I was to receive a call by the end of the week if I got it, and nothing. So that added a loopty-loop to the roller coaster as well.

So that's where we are now. A lot of disappointment this week, hoping something else will turn up soon!

Monday, March 15, 2010

the other shoe drops

After a few very tense days over the last couple of weeks, I finally learned last Monday that my contract will not be renewed. When I first started to suspect that this would happen, I confronted my boss about it, but in the end, he was just as much in the dark about it as I was, since the decision came from higher up the food chain. Anyway, between the time I started to suspect and I finally knew for sure, I made peace with it and then was ready to be rid of it - as much as I love the extra income, the crap hours and the way this company treats their employees just aren't worth it.

In the meantime, I started looking at my old projects and made another pitch to Stéphane about starting my own business. As much as I love my dear husband, he is not a risk taker and until now has completely resisted the idea, but now he is a little more open to it. And when I say open, I mean perhaps a crack. So I'm slowly starting to piece information together to create a business plan, which will likely take a little time but I'm getting more and more excited about the idea.

Of course, the main thing that's going to slow me down is that I'm going to become a stay at home mom again next week. Three months is huge amount of time at Fry's age and he's not the same boy I hung out with before I started working. It's going to be a heck of a challenge at first, but I'm looking forward to some extra Fry time.

In the end, even after losing my job, we crunched some numbers and decided to make a new bid on the house last week. The last time we bid, four months ago, we got a negative response in about an hour, and now it's been five days. Don't know what that means yet. Even if we don't buy that house, I want out of this apartment, even if it's into another rental. It's just not Little Dude friendly and it's starting to drive me crazy.

So whatever you do, don't feel sorry for me about losing that job! It allowed us to put a little money in the bank, I got some French experience on my resume, I am finally going to get my very own Social Security number (I've been on Stéphane's all this time!) and we got to treat ourselves a little with the Wii and a weekend away coming up. Nothing but good stuff around here!