There’s something about talking to friends and family about problems that put them into a totally new light.

We’ve spent much of the past week searching for housing. Our realtor, Patti, isn’t feeling all that helpful. Don’t get me wrong, aside from not communicating as much as we’d prefer, she’s done a great job selling our trailer.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that we feel she’s pressuring us to make choices without allowing us to think them through.

For one thing, she’s basically declared that there is only one park in the area that will take us and that the current trailer she’s trying to show us is our only option. On top of that, she’s being awfully patronizing and is constantly calling us “hun.”

Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Friday, we began looking for homes. I called Patti and requested to see a couple homes in the Woodland Estates trailer park located in Rockford, MI. She refused to show them to us, claiming they’d be too expensive and the park would never allow us in. BUT, she told us she had a double-wide we could see Monday if we were willing to wait.

So we spent the weekend packing and otherwise relaxing. We’re pretty well squared away, much of what we have out can easily go back into the same boxes we got them out of. Though we threw out all our book boxes back when we moved in, thinking we’d have a few years before we needed them again. ;_;

Monday comes around and Patti tells us that the double-wide trailer we wanted to see sold over the weekend. (Wha -??) BUT, she had one that would be perfect for us. But it’s clear over on 54th street, which is clear on the opposite end of the city from us. My mom blew her off, saying she only had a couple hours of sleep, and we went and looked at a few used trailers being sold by Cedar Hill Mobile Home Service.

Mom fell in love with the first trailer we looked at. It was 16×80 and was just really nice; only problem was that it already had a bid on it. The other was filled with trash and had the most revolting red carpeting through it. Thinking ahead, Trudy — the owner of the business — had us fill in an application for financing and promised to fax it in.

This morning, we received the good news and the bad news. Bad news was that bid on the trailer mom loved was accepted. Good news was that we qualified for financing.

Now… if our credit reports are so awful that no other trailer park would take us — why was the bank willing to finance us only asking for a W-2 and proof that our current trailer was paid off?

Second good news was that there’s another trailer we could look at which is newer and is already located in a park somewhere. Since mom was asleep, I asked for pictures and we’d see about going to it tomorrow.

Later on, we took off and checked out a few other trailers, but they needed ALOT of work, so they were a no. We then went to look at the trailer Patti was so fixated on.

Let me tell you, it was “cute” but we really didn’t like it that much — even for only $8,000. It was only a 2 bedroom and felt extremely tight. Maybe that was because the family had the windows completely sealed shut, but it felt almost clausterphobic. They’d built cubbies through the whole thing, which added to the “tight” feeling. For a shower they’d somehow rigged a shower head to spray inside a jacuzzi tub, which was situated inside it’s own little cubby.

The “computer room” as they billed it was another cubby-hole, which was smaller than some closets I’ve been in. It was little more than a broom-closet with a window.

Since we were trying to be polite to the owners, we said it was “cute.”

Patti was instantly after us to put in an offer, without letting us discuss it or think it over. We requested time to think it over and she tells us that we can’t take too long to think or else it would be gone. She then proceeds to tell us to stop by tomorrow at 4pm to fill in the bid.

Umm… no.

We got home and after supper, I made one last phonecall to a trailer that was a for-sale-by-owner in a park we already know we’d like. Angie said the minimum she’d be willing to take would be $15,000, since that’s what she has left on her mortgage. BUT — since we were able to get financing through one bank, maybe we can get financing through another.

Finally, tomorrow we’re expecting about 5 phonecalls from various calls we made earlier in the week. (And probably a dozen from Patti, wanting us to come down and make an offer on the tight thing we looked at.)

This evening, I talked it through with Theresa, Poppa, and Jodi.

Between the three of them, things have been put into a better perspective. Momma-elf discussed ideas for jobs and possibly relocating; Poppa suggested that we look into an apartment, and Jodi really put her thoughts into the trailer issue. “Don’t let [Patti] pressure you.” was the resounding message.

Anyway, I’m off for bed. Please keep your fingers crossed for us, everyone. The little glimmer we got from the bank might just turn out to be something. *HUGS!* Love you all.

To start this off, I have to stress that it’s not a case of us being completely innocent victims. I hate that idea of people passing themselves off as completely innocent of any wrongdoing; Alpine Meadows has been pulling that with us for the past few weeks. So I’m not going to try that myself. We were in the wrong. We didn’t pay our rent and didn’t have the courage to ask for help when it could have been easily given.

And we were evicted because of it.

That being said, I feel that our treatment at the hands of Alpine Meadows, the courts, and the realtors at First Choice Mobile Home Sales was completely deplorable. We’re not criminals, we’re not trash. We’re people who just happen to be poor.

This entry is kind of rambling and VERY long (9 pages, 3873 words). I broke it up into pages to keep it straight. (Lj cuts if you’re reading it there.) I’ll include dates and times so we can stay clear about the timeline, since I do tend to jump around a little bit.

Ick… I’m sorry to hear that, Theresa. I was hoping my bad luck had just passed, not passed on to someone else - especially not you. *hugs tight* After we’re hooked back up for internet and stuff, I’ll try to catch you on MSN. *super big hugs* Give everyone a hug from us!

Oh, and before I forget…. The ice-cream is Ben & Jerry’s “Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch”, Mom and Jass got “Brownie Batter.” ^_^

We purchased the manufactured house today! $22,000 later, we were given the rules for the community we’re moving to and were told the house should be ready to move into on Monday. ^___^ That includes Deposit, Lot Rent, and Pet Deposit so we should be all set for a least September. They have to finish a few repairs and get the Gas company in to connect the gas and it should be all set. We’re going to be calling Two Men & A Truck tomorrow and setting up the move for the 24th or 25th. Packing is almost complete, but I feel like we’ve reached an impasse. The prior owners here [not new house] left tons of junk around and we’re required to get rid of it before we leave. Fortunately, bright and early tomorrow morning the trash is being hauled away. Later tomorrow we’re also going to be looking for a new car. After that point, we should be just about set, aside from getting jobs when we get there.

I promised myself I wouldn’t begin the Lunaescence.com redesign until after the move was complete, we were well settled in, and I had a job. I’ve never been good at waiting. ^^;; I made out a rough sketch for each section (Main, FanFiction, FanArt, Forums, etc.), suddenly I was in Paint Shop Pro forming the images, and then I was in Notepad laying the dumb thing out.

I don’t think I’ll ever get positioning in CSS, though…. For the index, I have two menus on either side of the page and then the main content between them. I got the menus placed beautifully, but then the center section wouldn’t work. When I got it to work it didn’t want to move up where it belonged vertically, but when I fixed that, it was no longer where I wanted it horizontally. :-P Frustrated, I gave up and made a set of nested tables that I nudged down where it belonged using CSS. Now that solution worked. A few more hours more work and the layout should be ready to put up… only to be benched until I finish moving, have internet connected, and settle in. XD