Well, the last month has been interesting. I hope never to repeat it ever again.
I learned some important life lessons from my month of having nowhere to call home. Here is one.
- Do not move to a town EVERYONE wants to move to at the same time that EVERYONE is moving there. (You can do this if you want, but the stress and annoyance will be HUGE.)
We did not follow this sage life lesson, so I spent four weeks trying to find a rental and getting more and more frustrated. So many places do not take pets. (I understand that many landlords have been burned by pet damage. However, in my personal experience, HUMANS cause way more damage to rentals than PETS!) We have pets, so finding all these ideal rentals that did not take pets was discouraging. Sigh.
We were getting more and more desperate, but my stress did not go off the charts until I toured the perfect rental in the perfect location. We wanted this home. It was made for us But we were not first in line. The odds of us getting it were about one in five. (That wasn’t as bad as the great apartment that had a waiting list of 46 people.) When we didn’t get other rentals, I didn’t care, but this time I did, and waiting stressed me out.
It turned out we were second on the landlord’s list, and the first people didn’t have a good credit score (ha!), so we were offered the home. Our credit score is excellent, so we got the rental. I had no idea how stressed I was until I was handed the keys, and I knew our search was over. I hope I never have to do that again.
I still can’t believe we now live where we do. When we visited the area in June to check things out, we both agreed that Paradise Valley south of Livingston would be perfect; however, we figured it was too remote, and from the highway, all we saw were resorts and lodges – no houses.
Well, that is because you can’t see the houses from the highway. They are all hidden, and now I live in one of these hidden gems. The road I have to turn on has no name, and you can’t even see the mobile homes from the highway. It is crazy. However, I have learned that my turn is the third one after the KOA, so I don’t miss it.
Here is the best part of where we live. There are three lanes that have homes on them, and my home is on the farthest back, so all I see are rivers and mountains (and both are really close.) I’ll be taking many photos of the mountains, but the smoke is back so I’ll have to show you my amazing view later.
Another great thing is that we are on the highway to Yellowstone. The north entrance through Gardiner is just forty miles from my home so we look forward to many day trips to the park. Just perfect.
They say that good things come to those who wait. I guess sometimes that comes true. We found our slice of paradise in Montana.