Boise

I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd go ahead and tell you about my trip to Boise for house hunting and meeting with the department chair for computer science.

Mom and I drove up Wednesday morning and met my realtor, Jennifer. She works in my office in Burley but has family in Boise, so she went up the night before. Then she and her daughter went with mom and I to check out some houses. What I've discovered is that it's actually cheaper to buy than to rent as long as you can get the loan and down payment. The main idea of the trip was to see if there is anything clean AND safe for my budget. We had three appointments but one fell through, so I was able to look at two town homes. I really hate the stairs, but there doesn't appear to be anything one level or at least not in my price range. However, I like the idea of a town house or a condo because I simply don't have the ability to maintain a yard with my arthritis, so association dues are a good idea in my case. 

The first one we looked at was a 850 square foot, two bedroom, and 1 bath town house, but it came with a garage. It hasn't been on the market for long, and I think the price is a little high but thought it might be negotiable.

The second one we looked at has been on the market for longer, and they've dropped the price a couple of times. I really, really liked it! It has about 1400 square feet, 3 bedrooms, and 1.5 baths. You walk in and the main floor is all done in laminate flooring. There is a small living room, small dining room, a medium sized kitchen with lots of cupboards, and a powder room. Off the back is a tiny enclosed patio that I could barbeque but not much else. The stairs are carpeted and a little too steep for Mom's liking, but all the upstairs bedrooms have the Pergo again. The one bathroom as an en suite entrance from the master as well as a door to the hall. It only has only one sink, but it has nice square footage as well as a bath/ shower combo. The master bedroom is HUGE (16'x15'). The other two bedrooms are very nice sized. 

Living Room

The drawback to house hunting now is that I'm not ready to make an offer, and I've never been a particularly good window shopper. I've got to get my ducks in a row and find out if I can even get approved for a loan.  Most of the properties being listed are foreclosures and short sales, which aren't impossible but it's complicated and loads of work for the realtors. I have to remind myself that the trip was about research and not buying. I guess I'll just have to see if what's still on the market in a couple months after I can get pre-approved and can get a little closer to moving to Boise (my loan would require I move in within 60 days of closing). I'll meet again with the bank in a few weeks after I receive the statements I need to send to the underwriter, and I guess we'll go from there.

I also met with the department chair for Computer Science (CS), Dr. Medidi. He was able to give me a list of classes that I need to take and a map of when I should be able to take them. Most of the classes are prerequisites for later classes which are prerequisites for more classes. They build on each other, so the University assumes that you'll only take 2-3 CS classes a semester and fill out the schedule with generals. The down side is that means I won't be able to pile them up in a semester and rush through them like I was hoping. Plus they don't offer CS or math classes during the summer because they believe you need more than eight weeks to learn the topic. But, the up side is that they'll take all of my generals from my earlier degree (except they'll require me to take a philosophy and communications class). Dr. Medidi says that I should finish in six to seven semesters. I was hoping to go year round, but I'm going to have to rethink things since that's not possible. I can still get student loans if I maintain six credits, so I'm trying to decide if I want to try to get a part-time job and go to school part-time (and not attempt to take Calculus this fall), or go full-time and try to finish up a little earlier. There is just so much to consider that sometimes I feel overwhelmed. I feel like it's a good decision to go to school, but trying to figure it all out is going to be an adventure!

So, really long post! Sorry about that. I guess I had a lot on the brain and figured I'd just get it all out on "paper." Oh, by the way, I just realized that I went to Boise on Wednesday, Rexburg on Friday, and in two weeks I have a doctor's appointment in Salt Lake! I haven't had an oil change on my car for five months because I was way low mileage and now I'm going to put on over 1,000 miles in less than a month :). Life is funny.