3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths

     Well, it's been a stressful few weeks. I had no idea how bad the housing crisis was in Elliot Lake. It came right down to the wire. By the time housing got back to us they had only two townhouses left and one was way out of my budget. We rented the one that was left but we had to take it for the first of September or they wouldn't be able to hold it for us.

     By the time we got home, we were feeling quite satisfied. We knew we now had a roof over our heads and we wouldn't have to spend the winter in the pop-up trailer.  I was going to spend some time on the phone calling hydro and the moving company but I was just so exhausted. I decided that I would start fresh Tuesday morning. About 7:00pm I noticed the red light was flashing on the phone. Retirement Living had called and left a message. Michael's first response, "We're not getting the townhouse." Well needless to say I didn't sleep most of the night.

     Tuesday morning I called them back only to find out the unit they showed us was already gone. Someone hadn't entered it into the computer. Now what? That poor little pop-up trailer was beginning to look more like an option. I kept seeing myself going out and brushing the snow off the canvas every morning.

     The only unit left was $75. per month over our budget. I had no idea how we were going to be able to cut costs any more than we already had. We had to go back into town Thursday to look at it but I was certain we would have to take an apartment. I was devastated. We were so close to having what we wanted only to have the rug pulled out from under us yet again.

     Thursday morning I was up bright and early. When we arrived at the office everyone was so apologetic. I know things happen and life isn't always fair but what could I do? That was when they made us an offer we couldn't refuse. Because the mistake was theirs they offered us the more expensive townhouse for $75. less than the asking. I was so amazed and I almost started crying. It doesn't have as many upgrades as the first one but it's clean, freshly painted and it heats with natural gas instead of electric baseboards. It does have some upgrades that were not in the first house. 

     I can now stop holding my breath and maybe get a decent night's sleep. This afternoon I'll start making my phone calls and arrange for transfers and hook-ups for services. It's time to move on to all the packing and purging. All I can do now is pray the rest of the move is uneventful. Yah, right but I can hope.