I’ve spent the last month desperately looking for a home. The landlord wants to sell this place and FHA loans won’t cover it…long story. Needless to say, this has vastly increased my stress levels. But, we finally found one that will suit our needs.

The unfortunate part is that we’ll still have to wait before the paperwork is finalized. So, I’ll have to move my 20-year-old and myself into temporary housing.

It might be kind of fun, though. I’ve always wanted to try living in a hotel. And thanks to my best friend, my cats have somewhere to stay until the move-in date.

How the Stress Was Eating Me Up

Not knowing where you’re going to live in the next couple of weeks creates quite a bit of stress. In reality, I was more concerned about my pets and my son, who just moved up here to spend time with me.

And the whole experience was taking its toll on the various aspects of my life.

Distracting Me from Work

Between finding it difficult to focus and then spending most of the day looking for a house, it’s been a chore keeping my clients afloat. It’s hard to stay focused when you’re screaming at the top of your lungs on the inside.

But, I prioritized client work and made sure they were taken care of first thing. So, at least I was able to earn my pay for the day. But, that meant everything else I’m doing was put on the back burner.

Taking Time from Making Videos

One of the things I miss most is making videos for the WriterSanctuary YouTube channel. It’s been difficult to squirrel away some time to make the things I had planned out.

I recently hit 500 subscribers, which is a significant milestone for me. And now, I feel like I am robbing those supporters by not being able to create more.

Disrupting My Blogging

Spending time looking for houses to buy or rent has eaten up a large portion of my day. As soon as my client work is complete, I jump onto Zillow, REColorado, Rent.com and anything else that might have properties.

Then, the stress of looking at house after house put a damper on the blogging I wanted to do the past month. I was able to get a few things put together and published. But I didn’t get nearly as much done as I wanted.

Difficult to Get Into Finishing VII

And lastly, the stress of finding a place to live made it hard to focus on finishing VII. I wanted to complete it in February, but that’s when the trouble started.

It just got worse over time. I would still like to have it done before my birthday in July. Which should be easy enough, as long as we’re able to get into the house and settled soon.

The Stress and Experience of House Hunting in 2020

I remember 20 years ago, if I needed a place to rent, I could just walk in and sign some paperwork and hand over some money. Then, I would have a key to my new apartment in minutes.

Nowadays, the system is so convoluted. Everyone’s charging fees per person, some will tack on as much as $50 per pet rent, and still make you wait a month before moving in.

Being Outbid Over and Over

One of the hardest things was how often we were outbid on houses. In one case, we were the highest bidder but the current resident needed a month to move out. Which meant they needed a carryover and wanted free rent from us.

Luckily, the house we won, we were the only bidders. Probably because of both the location and the fact that it’s going to take more than a month to get into the house.

But after the sheer stress of this entire experience, we just wanted something, anything, that we could get into. On the upside, it’s a house we actually wanted. So, we didn’t have to settle on the first available thing that came by.

So Many People Looking at the Same Rental

The problem is that there are too many people without homes and not enough houses to go around. Out of all the people I saw every time we went to a new house, I never saw the same group twice.

This means there are far too many people in similar situations.

During the weekends, I have at least six people in my house. That’s because the girls visit almost every weekend. So, we need a place large enough to accommodate. Small, 800 square-foot, apartments aren’t going to cut it.

The house we won, on the other hand, eases that stress as it is nearly twice the size of the house I am sitting in right now. And more bathrooms to go around.

Still Pushing for the Year of Effort

I am still focusing on the Year of Effort. The past month was merely a setback. Now that the stress of not having a home is over, it’s time to get back into production mode.

And I am excited about this new path. I get an office, my own private bathroom, and enough square footage that the kids don’t have to walk behind me to get to the freezer.

Pushing for More Videos…ish

Although the house is a bit of a mess from packing things up, I want to get back into making videos. I’ll even make them from the hotel until I can establish my office at the new house.

But now that I can focus on more than just the stress from house hunting, I am excited where I am going to take the channels this year.

At Least I Can Get Back to Blogging

One of the big highlights to living in a hotel is that I can focus more on my writing. Because there will be very little else to do. I suppose this would be a good time to run my case study of writing every day for Vocal, Medium and Hubpages.

At any rate, I should be able to consistently crank out content for the blogs I’m managing. And that is truly exciting for me.

I Can Work on VII from Anywhere

As I wait to move into the new house, I’ll have plenty of time to finish writing VII. Who knows, perhaps editing it for publication will be the first major task in my new office.

I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, though. I still need to finish writing it, first.

However, I’ll have plenty of time for that.

The Stress isn’t Over Yet, Just Minimized

The major part of the stress is gone…I have a home. I just have to wait until the end of April to move in. And since the landlord here is north of being a douchebag, I’ll still need to find temporary housing.

But this pales in comparison to finding a permanent residence. I can easily afford something like Quality Inn indefinitely.

It’s going to be a rocky couple of months, but at least there is a light at the end of this tunnel. And that’s what really matters.