everything is temporary, except misery

i got the ipad & apple pencil, so y’all can stop calling santa about it.

but, before that surprise, we spent about three weeks pretty sure we were going to lose our home.

the landlord’s mortgage renewal was going cost so much more that our rent was no longer going to keep the house self-supporting and she was going to have to sell if we didn’t agree to an 12% rent increase (the legally allowed increase for 2023 is 2% for comparison).  after a look at the current housing market, we realized we were utterly FUCKED in trying to find an equally-priced home big enough for 5 people. we could just barely absorb a 4% increase, but 12% was entirely out of the question with our current financial situation.  all of the current options in the rental market are shitholes, 3-bedroom apartments or way outside the area we need to be in for the kids.  it’s DIRE out there for renters right now.

we did come up with a plan to stay in place temporarily until we could move somewhere less expensive, but it involved other people’s agreement & sacrifice which came with a LOT of landmines we’d have to tip-toe around.  #cryptoblogging

the plan as a whole is still in effect, though:  we’re staying in place until we can get a unit in a co-op, which is so much more affordable and has a lot of other benefits for the kids in particular. we just won’t have to involve the trickier people now as my dad offered to cover the rent increase.  after i got over the shock and cried just a little bit, i told him we would only agree to it for as long as it took to get into the co-op and not any longer.  he didn’t say anything specifically about my imposed condition, so we’ll see what happens.  he’s tricksy that way.

it’s really conflicting to be a 50-year-old woman who still needs her daddy to rescue her financially.

i never, EVER asked him for this.  i had only been telling him about our housing issues as they were unfolding as it was the current news in my life.  he brought this up while we were on our way to lunch.  i’m thankful to know that it’s not a financial hardship for him (he’s FAR too practical to spend money he couldn’t afford), at the very least.

so, yeah.  it could take anywhere from three months to two years to get into the co-op, so we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.  it will be a significant down-size, though, so we desperately need to spend that intervening time getting rid of the stuff we’ve filled the house with over the last 5.5 years.

it sucks so much.  we love our house.  it’s perfect for us.  we really didn’t picture our lives anywhere else.  heck, even my mom was obsessed with buying it for us so we’d never have to move.

(that’s another kick in the cootch about the whole situation – thank god she’s not here to have to worry about this.)

oh, and on top of it all, dad was the one to get me the ipad for christmas.  *sob*