Any given situation always has more than one side to it; there is good even in bad situations. We had barely moved into our new old home here in Sinclairville when we got a phone call from a younger couple who wanted to rent our home in Cassadaga. They were about to be married, and the home she had had on the market for a number of years suddenly sold, leaving them without a place to begin their married life. I have known the woman since she was a young girl, so we had no worries about the care our house would receive. So, for a year and a half, our house has paid for itself with the rent. Sure, we have had to do a few things to it, like replace the hot water tank, have a leaky window fixed, and just last week, another major repair to the crappy high-efficiency furnace we had installed soon after we moved in.
Our tenants have found a house, and moved out last week, a bit sooner than we had planned, but so it goes. They had no sooner vacated the house when we were asked if we would rent it to a couple who a few days before had had a fire. We agreed, showed them around the house, and fully expected it would be immediately occupied again, saving us the upkeep and heating expense through the winter. Except they decided not to rent from us. That's the bad side.
Yesterday, Linda met with the realtor while I was visiting my mother in Rochester. When I got home, she asked if I wanted the bad news, and I said, "sure." It seems the market for homes in the Cassadaga area has gotten a bit soft, and our idea of a reasonable price was a bit optimistic. We have put a small fortune into the house over the past years, improving it immensely from when we bought it, and now it appears the going price won't be much more than we originally paid. Someone is going to get a great deal on a house, with improvements that cost far more than reflected in our asking price. That's the other bad side.
I have a choice here. I can be angry or depressed because we probably won't get nearly what we had hoped for, or I can be grateful that for the past year and a half, it hasn't cost us any money, and the people who lived there took good care of it. Linda thought I was going to be upset when she gave me the news; once upon a time, I would have been. I would have seen only the gulf between what we had hoped for and what we are likely to get for it. But I have a choice, and I choose to be grateful for the home we loved for thirteen years--our very first home--and for the resources we had to turn it into the place we wanted it to be for us. That's the good side.
Hopefully very soon, some family will come along and see how it can be the home they dreamed for. We were happy there, are happy here, and we had the privilege of transforming both places from house to home. In the meantime, I am grateful that even if we don't get what we had thought, it won't break our bank. God has blessed us beyond our wildest imagination, and we are grateful.
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