It Could Be Worse....

"It could be worse" 

that was my mantra all day Saturday after we stayed up all night Friday night fighting over three feet of water flooding into our basement. It's just clothes, and Holiday decorations, and our washer and dryer that are probably ruined. It's not like we can afford to go buy new stuff to replace it, but the house is still intact and we are safe so it could be worse.

 

Sunday morning comes and we check the water levels in the basement again only to find that a concrete wall has broken and pulled away from the side of the basement.  Now we are waiting on a contractor to come out and determine the extent of the damage. I never in my life thought I would see a day where I actually felt pings of jealousy when I saw photos of other peoples flooding and it was just "stuff" damaged. 

 

But it happened. The "it could be worse" situation might have come. If the contractor says that the foundation is damaged and the landlady can not afford to have it repaired or the cost is more than the house is worth, I won't just be losing stuff I will be losing most of my world.

You see, four years ago when we started looking to move, it was because we were still in the city I was born and raised in my entire life. We were moving almost once a year in that city trying to find a good school for my daughter. In kindergarten she came home with a bruised face and a bloodied eye. When I asked her if she told the teacher she told me yes but the teacher told her not to bother her during computer time. I thought, this can not be true so I called the teacher and the teacher repeated what she had told my daughter and said that she did not see anything wrong. DONE. How she could not have seen a black and blue face and eye ball that has popped blood vessels is beyond me. 

 

The next time we moved the only school choice was an ESL {English as a Second Language} school. Well it turned out even though it was all the district kids that went there, they only focused on the non English speaking kids and my daughter fell further behind on learning to read and math.

Next move during parent teacher night the teacher announced that they were no longer going to teach science or history. The school had such a high failure rate that they could only focus on teaching reading and math to keep the kids test scores up. And this was supposed to be a blue star school for that township!

 

DONE. 

 

All of the schools were in the same township and had a failure rate of over 60%.

We kept moving in the same area because we were poor and couldn't afford anything anywhere else. I kept thinking surely one of these schools will be good enough to give my children half a chance at some sort of future. But it never got better. 

 

Then an opportunity came, a farmhouse with 5 bedrooms on 4 acres in Zionsville, a town with some of the BEST schools in Indiana for $800 a month.

 

Finally a chance for something I can actually do for my children. A chance to give them something a good, a shot at a good education so they don't have to suffer in life like I have. I was a high school drop out, a product of the same schools I had my daughter in. No chance or dream of college or a better life in my future. 

 

$800 a month was more than we could afford, we had never paid that much for rent anywhere else. But I was NOT missing this chance. I sold half of my furniture, I sold our only vehicle. We came here with a hope and a dream.

 

The need to be able to pay this higher rent than we have ever paid is what spurred me to start my business.  

This house IS The Vintage Farmhouse. It is the heart and soul of everything I have accomplished in the last four years.

 

The kids have flourished with roots, made friends, have a better chance in life from the amazing schools here. I have created a business from the ground up, raised chickens, grown gardens, become some one who doesn't see just a bleak future ahead.

 

So now maybe you can see why I am scared. Why I am praying that the repairs can be made to this house and we won't have to leave. This town is the 3rd most expensive town in Indiana. There is no way we will be able to afford another house here. To this day I can't believe what kind of luck landed in our lap to find this house at this price to begin with. $800 a month in Zionsville is unheard of. 

 

I'm praying, it's all I can do. Just pray that the "it could be worse" situation is not upon us.  

 ♥

Nicki

The Vintage Farmhouse