Awry

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

- Robert Burns, To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough

This quote is particularly apropos today, seeing as it concerns a poor mousie being turned out of her housie. On Friday, the condo deal fell apart. The appraiser - who I seriously think was on crack at the time - couldn't find true comparatives, and the final combined appraised value on the unit I had offered to purchase came in appallingly low; everyone from the current owners to my own banker were shocked.

The bottom line is that I'm walking away; it's not worth the effort to fight the appraisal when there are so very many condos out there ripe for the picking. I sent a e-mail saying so to the seller's agent Friday night, and started looking at the listings again.

After a hair appointment Saturday morning (lots of blonde highlights - a last gasp of summer) I came home, had a late breakfast, and started trying to prioritize the four condos I'd selected to view the night before. During the course of doing so, I discovered one of the units was having an open house - in half an hour.

Like the mouse, I scurried off. Pros: tons of visitor parking immediately outside the unit, newer construction, pretty kitchen, laminate and ceramic tile floors, brand new frig, security system, fieldstone surround on the gas fireplace, dream laundry room (truly - largish room with more shelving and counter space than in my current walk-in pantry), walking distance to a Target store. Cons: Seems small (after the two story ceiling and loft of the first place, everything will feel small, even though this place has cathedral ceilings), large covered balcony faces east (no afternoon light at all), walking distance to Target.

There are several more to be seen, this week, if possible. The most promising one is an unfortunate distance from work, but I'll take a look anyway. The agent at the open house was kind enough to press on me a folder with every available condo in the city in which that one was located; I hadn't the heart to tell her I had already looked at all those listings and hadn't found anything else there worth seeing.

So - back to square one. I'm not one to keep looking until I find "perfection", whatever that is, and I've a limited time frame if this is going to happen this fall, due to various work commitments and the timing of possible moves. God has a plan; at some point, I suppose He'll need to let me in on at least some of it.