This is going to sound nuts, but John and I have GOT to get out of this house.

Let me explain.

For those who didn't know, we live in a duplex with 3 other people. John, myself, and our roommate Brian live on one side, and Jeff and his wife Sue live on the other. (They used to have a roommate, but she moved out two months ago.) Jeff owns the duplex, so he calls the shots. Here's why this is a problem.

Jeff is trying to save the whole darn world again, and while admirable, its going to be an issue.

Our friends Tom and Chrissy are getting evicted from their apartment complex at the end of July. Tom just got his graduate degree in Library Sciences. In March, he competed for a scholarship program that would have led to a federal government job two years later. Tom is rather cocky (most grad students are) and thus assumed he'd be one of the 700 they take into the program every year. Because he was so confident, he never formulated a back-up plan.

The wrench in the works? The program had to downsize, so they only took 400 applicants this year. Tom was not one of them. The job he had through his university ends in two weeks. His wife, Chrissy has a job, but the cafe' where she works just cut her hours in half. Between the two of them, they are making less than $300 a week. He refuses to get a retail job for whatever reason, and because he has no corporate experience, he's having trouble finding jobs in the public sector. To top it all off, because they could not tell their landlord if they would be staying for another year when he asked them on April 20th, they have to leave their apartment because the lease is ending.

Jeff has offered them the back-up plan of moving into the duplex on his side. The issues with this are as follows.

1-The only available room in his house is his wife's sewing room. There isn't a whole lot of room in there.

2-Tom and Chrissy have two cats. Jeff has one, and Sue will be getting another when she gets back from Canada. Plus, they have a dog, and WE have three dogs. This is going to complicate things with the county, I'm sure.

3-Tom and Chrissy have a LOT of stuff. Where on Earth are they going to put it all?

4-I'll be honest: Jeff's not the cleanest guy in the world. If his house is sparse, he's better at keeping it clean. With all the added pets, people, and stuff, I doubt you'll be able to breathe in there, much less walk. Heck, he pays ME to clean his house NOW. What's he going to do when the others move in? My rates will go up, that's for darn sure. I don't think he'll like that very much.

5-Tom and Chrissy aren't the only ones who will be staying here at the end of July. Jeff has "slaved" someone for Pennsic. (Translation: He takes care of that person financially for Pennsic, and in exchange that person does the chores around camp that Jeff would normally have to do.) Tomas will be here in less than 3 weeks. Where the heck is Jeff gonna put HIM?!?

6-Any drama that happens on that side of the house never stays on that side of the house. Crowded spaces + lots of pets + strong personalities = LOTS of drama.

Because of all those issues, I've put my foot down with John. We have GOT to move.

John owns property exactly 117 steps up the road from the Duplex. 4.75 acres, actually. He has two barns built there already. Heck, two years ago we lived in a yurt up there while we were building the barns. Quite comfortably. (More on that later.) The only thing stopping us from living up there is the fact that neither barn has its Certificate of Occupancy.

It will take a little grunt work and some carpentry work, along with some drywall and a nail gun, but I think we can get the last part of the second barn finished in time to get the C.O. on it before August 1st. If so, we will secretly start converting it to an apartment/guest house sort of deal, and move up there. That is my goal.

If we are able to pull this off, it will save a LOT of headache here at the Duplex, and for John and myself, too. To start, the dogs will have room to run for goodness' sake. That's what dogs are meant to do. Secondly, our living expenses would be cut by at least a third, if not cut in half. Jeff has already agreed to let us tap off his wireless internet (a SECURE wireless LAN, so nobody panic) until we can get our own set up there.

John and I both have cell phones. That would work until we got TWC digital phone or Vonage. We won't need cable TV since we usually watch TV with Jeff, Sue, Brian, Tom and Chrissy anyway. For the time being, we could "foster" our TiVo with Jeff or Chrissy.

We have running water up there. We have a bathroom in there already. John knows how to put in a drainage system for the shower/tub that we originally bought for the house we were buidling. (Again, I'll post about that later.) We have a washer, dryer, stove, sink, ceiling fans, AC units, heaters, and furniture already. All we have to do is set things up. I've already determined that we can live without carpet on the concrete floor until November at the very latest. (I've been researching Legatto carpeting from Home Depot. Might be worth it since we can always take it out and move it to the house with little effort once it is built.)

I plan on keeping track of our progress here, on my LiveJournal, and on PhotoBucket. So, we'll see what happens.

Wish us luck.