pre-homelessness.

we discovered the house on fleet st was going to sell the same week as celtic soltice. this meant i was home long enough to sleep each night. the realtor told us we had until saturday, jan 15 to gtfo. with the holidays around the corner, i didn't start looking for a place until i returned from TN, and ryan was stuck in the NJ snowtastrophy that hit at the same time, delaying his return to charm city. still, we stayed awesome and found a super house that we fit our bill perfectly. it was in canton (bonus points for being in brewer's hill) right next to blue hill tavern. it fit our budget. it fit our timeline. it was a 6 month lease. super sweet, right? WRONG.

mon, jan 10 (homeless day minus 10)- i take my car to dundalk for some body work to be done after a slight oopsies from driving back from phunt run jan 2 (see also: the time cheese's hood flipped up while driving down I-95, like in Tommy Boy). this proves to be not-so-super, as they tell me that it'll take until jan 28 to finish repairs.
also the same day that ryan turns in our rental applications for 936 S Conkling St (the super sweet house that was our answer). that night, i discover the Conkling House Owner (CHO) changed her mind and the house won't be ready until jan 28. and we might not get it, bc some other people are interested. wtf, right?

tues, jan 11 (HDay -9) - i talk to CHO, and somehow by the time 11pm roles around, she's convinced that they can rent to us for a year lease if we pay 6 months up front. eff you conkling, i'm hoppin' on the train to homelessville before i do that! ryan and i also look at several more houses today with Realtor Roxanne before finding super sweet house 2, aka 925 S Ellwood Ave. again, super sweet location (3 blocks from pickled parrot, walt's inn, and the square, and pat's). super view from the rooftop deck. a few awkwardities, but we'll get to that later. done. we want it.
later this night, we discover that ellwood house lost its certificate of occupancy (who does that???), and that they still need to do a little work (cleaning out the garage, removing more junk, undoing a failed attempt at a half-bath...), but the house should be ready by early next week. after jan 15. not-so-super news. i hit the whiskey for the duration of the night.

wed jan 12 (HDay -8) - good news! pat, the new fleet st house owner, will let us stick around for another week and pay him rent. also good news, the city is gonna inspect the elwood house, hopefully setting us up for a move-in date of thursday, jan 20. remember that date.

fri jan 14 (HDay -6) - the city inspector supposedly came and everything looked good. he couldn't sign off on anything bc there was a power outage, so he has to come back monday (MLK day) tuesday to make sure the smoke detectors work. sounds super. also good news, bc new owner pat is renting his current place soon and said we gotta get out jan 20.

sat jan 15 (HDay -5) - upon returning from a workout in columbia followed by tom and patty's annual anniversary race in which i edged out arjun for a narrow win, ryan and i arrive at the house and find that the garage door won't open. no worries, i'll run inside and push the button. interesting, the stove clock is out. now the garage won't open from inside either. ruh-roh. BGE cut our power, DirecTV cuts satellite, Verizon cuts our internet. power comes back a few hours later, but we have no more tv/internet.

tues jan 18 (HDay -2) - we get word that roxanne is coming tomorrow morning for us to sign a lease to move in thursday, jan 20. i stand by my "i'll believe it when we sign papers and have keys in hand".

wed jan 19 (HDay -1) - we sign the lease! supposedly the inspector just made it over today. i go to work excited to be almost done w all this.
ryan calls later, apparently the inspector found galvanized pipes, which have been illegal in the city since 2008. they'll have to change the pipes and have the inspector come back before we can move in. hopefully by the end of next week, probably by feb 1, definitely by feb 4. sadface. still, we gotta move all of our stuff into that house on jan 20, bc we gotta get out of fleet st. so we're moving, but can't stay or set up in the ellwood house. how does this happen?