Rod and I just got back from a 5 day trip up to Cincinnati, (The move is happening in 2 weeks now-and time is rapidly winding away). We were so grateful to my mom, who came and stayed with our kids for the week. The trip was rough on us, but it would have been awful on the kids.
So, Cincinnati. The drive in from the airport is gorgeous. The old buildings and neighborhoods are pretty (from a photography and cultural perspective they are unique, weathered, and original) Until our house sells we will be juggling 2 house payments and need a smaller place. In our price range there were "limited" options.
We got off to a rough start for the first 5 days. Yes, I do mean every day. We had a difficult time getting in to see anything because rental companies were unresponsive and would only show one property. We did not anticipate how difficult it would be to get in to look at things. Many of the neighborhoods go from one street being clean and upkept and the next being a broken ghetto. I wish I was kidding. We took to driving the neighborhoods and weeding out homes that way. My favorite story from last week was the homeless guy sitting in front of the FOR RENT sign of a house, and then Rod glancing out the window while he hit the gas and said "NOPE". hahaha.
We narrowed it to 2 homes that were completely different. One was a 3 bed 1 bath (completely updated) home that was gorgeous inside but on a pretty busy road. The other was a very very old home up on the hill in an amazing neighborhood. (everyone knew each other and the kids and there were lots of little's Caily and Grayson's age. The home was charming and quirky. The thing about homes like that are all the surprising spaces, rooms aren't boxed out but expanded to give space where there is. It had four floors including a finished basement and attic. Lots of space. Lots of old. The washer and dryers and most applainces looked like they were from the 60's or 70's. The real drawback of this house was the steep steep stairs and the amount of maintanance it would need. The updated one went off the market when we went to put in an offer.
The last day we were in town a listing came up that we decided just to go check out before going with the old house. Luckily it was perfect, a middle of the 2 houses we liked, updated, in a quiet neighborhood, and in our price range. Only 6 other families thought so too. When we showed up the house had only been for rent for hours but there were all those families there. It was a little awkward. And their process of renting was different than other places we lived. It was given to the first person to apply and qualify, no preference was givin to renters based on any other criteria. We didn't find out that we had the home until we were in Houston.
I won't feel completely better about it until we get the key though. I get nervous about stuff like that.
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