Spring has brought a lot of changes for me in Portland.  In March my landlord announced that he was looking at doing a few remodeling projects and then would be selling our house.  So as the rain poured and the wind blew a bathroom was added to our upstairs, new front & back doors were put in, and our beautiful vegetable gardens were removed. 

My roommate Corey and I search through rental ads, touring rental properties, & drove around looking for rental signs.  It is not a good time to be a renter in need of a new home in Oregon, I've heard that there is only a 2% vacancy rate.  I would see a posting for a rental & call in the same hour that it was posted only to be told that the home had already been rented.  We also toured some very interesting homes, one was advertized as having a unique floorplan; it had 2 kitchens, one with a sink & dishwasher and one with a stove & refrigerator.  The first kitchen was on the ground floor, the second was downstairs but you had to go outside to get to the stairs that led downstairs.  Oh the joy of being a renter.

We were able to find a nice small house, just in the nick of time.  We actually had to be out of our old home on Friday night and were not able to move into the new house until Saturday morning.  So all of our posessions were stacked in a garage & a UHaul sitting if front of a friends house.

Its a good house, which needs a good scrub and some polish.  The yard needs some care (a few sunny days to allow us to pull weeds), we are slowly working on establishing a vegtable garden and sorting out what is a weed and what is a poorly taken care of plant.  The neighbors are nice, a younger crowd then the old neighborhood but sill established homeowners mixed in with college aged renters (the house is just 2 blocks from a university campus).

Its a new chapter for my life in Portland...

Tiah