Cody: Well, we finally got the new chapter done! I started a new job recently, so there hasn't been much time to work on the new chapters lately. Luckily, I don't have to work weekends, so we should be getting a new chapter for One Of The Pack up pretty soon, probably by the end of the day today. Just a heads up right now, this chapter will be a bit shorter than normal, but there wasn't really a WHOLE lot going on in this one.
Lilly: If you don't count what happens as "a whole lot"...I think it was. Looking for a new place to live, after all...Anyway, we'll let you all enjoy the new chapter! Oh, Cody forgot to mention chapter 34 will skip ahead again, probably a week or two again. We're getting really close to putting in our story twister, and we already know you guys will LOVE it!
Cody: *chuckling* That's true! Just keep stickin' around a little longer and you'll see what happens! Like she said, it'll be a story shaker, that's for sure! So, enjoy the chapter everyone!
Later in the evening after Lilly and Cody got home, they were all in the living room after having dinner. She'd suggested they should get the kids involved in the house hunt so that they can not only help decide what would be best, but also so they weren't confused anymore by everything going on. Cody spent a little time before dinner narrowing all the saved houses he'd found down to about five that fit the budget, looked comfortable and had plenty of space for them all, along with any future additions to the family.
After they all finished eating, Cody was washing the dishes when Lilly said as she sat up on the couch "Hey, everyone? We've got something we all need to talk about. It's pretty important." Dakota clicked the TV off and Crystal asked "Is everything okay, Lilly?" She nodded and said "Yeah, everything's okay, it's just something we all need to talk about as a family." Crystal nodded and a minute or two later, Cody went down to the bedroom, coming back out with his laptop and a cable to plug it into the TV. He plugged it in and turned the TV back on, opening the page of houses he had saved.
"So, we've been looking around and thinking on this for a couple weeks now, and we both know you're all wondering what it's about. Well, it's time we get you all in on it as well…." Cody said as the listings came up all on separate pages. They all looked at the screen to see one of the houses; A really nice one up in the mountains a little. "We're looking at houses? Why?" Dakota asked, obviously confused.
"Because, as much as we don't want to, we'll probably end up needing to move into a bigger home. It's pretty tight here already now, but with the pups on the way, it'll be even more so. We need someplace with a lot more room for us all to live comfortably. Lilly and I found a few good ones that would fit just fine, so we need to make a choice tonight which one to pursue." Cody said, putting all the pictures of the first house in a slideshow type setting. "This first one is up in the hills a little, but not really too far away." Lilly said as Cody slowly scrolled through the pictures, letting them all look closely at them.
"I really like the view of the lake there!" Crystal said, smiling at the view of Flathead Lake in the background from the living room. Lilly giggled and said "Yeah, I really like that, too! Remember, it's not just all about the view, though. It's what looks like it'll work the best for us all." Crystal nodded and they spent a little over an hour looking at the five different listings, pointing out the good and bad things with each house. For example, the cheapest one looked quite comfortable for the price, but it was in a not-so-good part of town while the most expensive one looked VERY nice and had just as good views, but it wouldn't be easy for Cody to make the payments every month and still have enough for them to live comfortably.
After the hour or so of deliberation, they narrowed it down to two houses to choose from and look at; The one up in the hills a little and the other about a mile from his parents' house. "Alright, so out of these two, which do you guys like better?" Cody asked, putting their individual pages side by side. They all looked between them for a few minutes until Alexis said "I really can't decide, although I'm more partial to the one in the mountains." He nodded and then Dakota said "I like the one by your parents' more. It looks a little bigger inside." It ended up being a tie between the two; Lilly, Alexis and Cody more toward the mountain home while Dakota, Chase and Crystal like the other more.
"Well, I guess that settles it for now. All we can do now is go actually look at them. I think then we'll be able to settle on one as a family choice." Cody said, chuckling a little. Lilly giggled a bit as well and said "Hopefully! When do you think we could do that?" Cody looked at the calendar on his laptop and said "I think Saturday would be fine. Day after tomorrow." Lilly nodded and then Crystal said "Sounds like it'll be a good day!" A little bit later, Cody got in contact with the realtor for both houses, which was the same person, actually! They decided on Saturday afternoon to take a tour of both houses, which worked out perfectly.
Two Days Later – Saturday Afternoon
It was about noon on Saturday now and everyone was milling about the apartment, talking about what they think makes each house better than the other. Cody and Lilly went over to his parents' house to let them know what was going on, and not surprisingly, they were thrilled for them all! They knew it wouldn't be long until they would be moving into an actual house when they heard about Crystal being pregnant as well. They had a good feeling about it when they told them Lilly was, but it was Crystal who make it final. She was actually feeling a little guilty that she was the reason that they'd be having to move, but they all assured her it was going to happen eventually anyway and that her and Dakota having pups again only made it happen faster instead of just thinking about it for a long time.
Right about 12:30, Cody came out of bedroom after taking a shower and getting dressed, saying "Okay, everyone ready to go?" They all said they were, so they headed out and down to the car, getting in and driving off to the first one up in the hills. It would be about an hour drive up the highway, not too long for an everyday drive to work, especially since the morning wasn't filled with traffic very much. Soon after leaving the parking lot, everybody settled down for the drive, quietly talking amongst themselves or taking a bit of a nap.
It wasn't long until they turned off the highway onto the road leading to the house, which was up a small dirt and gravel road a few hundred feet from the exit. It was actually a rather nicely taken care of road; Smoothed and kept a little damp to keep the dust down. After driving up the little road a little way, they eventually came up to a group of four or five homes, one of them with a "For Rent" sign out front.
"I think that's it there!" Alexis excitedly said, her tail wagging. Cody chuckled and looked at a Post-It he wrote the address on, saying "Yep, that's it! Good job, little girl!" She giggled a little and they parked in the driveway behind the realtor's car, everyone piling out and immediately looking around. Within moments of stopping the car, the realtor came outside and over to them, saying "So, you guys found the place okay?" Cody smiled and said "Yeah, it was pretty easy to get to."
"Well, that's good! You must be Cody then, right?" The man asked, holding out his hand. Cody nodded and shook it, saying "That's me, and you must be Charlie then." Charlie nodded and said "And this is your family?" He smiled and said "Yep, sure is! This is my wife Lilly, our son Dakota, daughter-in-law Crystal and their kids Alexis and Chase." They all smiled and Lilly said "It's nice to meet you, Charlie!" He smiled too and said "Nice to meet you all, too! I must say, and I don't mean this in a rude way, but you've got an odd family here." They all laughed a little and Dakota said "Yeah, we're pretty strange." Crystal playfully pushed his shoulder, making him chuckle a little and he kissed her nose.
"Well, I'm glad you could all make it! I think you'll really love this place…." Charlie said as they all walked to the front door and he opened the door, letting them all walk inside. As soon as they went inside, Lilly gasped as she looked around, saying "Oh my god, this is beautiful! Much better than in the pictures!" Cody nodded and Charlie said "It was remodeled about two weeks before being put on the website. The pictures don't do it enough justice…." They all split up, going to different ends of the house to look around more. Lilly looked around the living room and bedroom right next to it while Cody walked around with Charlie in the kitchen and hallway. Dakota and Crystal were checking out the two bedrooms down the hall along with Alexis and Chase, giggling about who'd get which room.
"Cody, look at this!" Lilly suddenly yelled from the bedroom, immediately getting his attention. He chuckled and walked to the bedroom, going in to see her in the attached bathroom, her tail wagging like crazy as she stared at the bathtub. "Ah, the lady found the bathtub it seems! It's a full jacuzzi tub and shower; Sixteen jets, fine control over the water temperature and there's even a radio built in for those….romantic nights." Charlie said, chuckling a little as he nudged Cody's shoulder. Lilly giggled too and said "It looks so nice! A lot more room than our current one, that's for sure!"
After about a half hour, everybody was done checking the place out inside, so they decided to go outside and look around more. The front yard wasn't really that big, but had a good amount of grass and space. There was a detached two car garage a few feet off the side of the house with a walkway between them. The backyard was absolutely amazing, though! Nice, large area to enjoy, a concrete patio area for a good size barbecue and a beautiful view of Flathead Lake off in the distance. What would make it even better is the sun would rise over it in the morning, which would give an even more beautiful sight!
They spent some more time looking around the entire property while Cody and Charlie went to the garage to check it out. It was plenty large enough for his Jeep to be able to work on it and would probably even have space left over to park his car if he decided to keep it after the Jeep was going. There was good lighting inside, textured concrete floor, good heater built into the wall and a few three tier shelves, too.
"So, what kinda care are you planning to occupy this space with?" Charlie asked with a chuckle. Cody smiled and said "Well, I've got a project Jeep parked at my parent's house right now. All the parts plus the Jeep itself takes up nearly the entire garage." Charlie nodded and said "A project, eh? What's wrong with it?" Cody chuckled and said "Nothing, really. Surprisingly clean of rust for a snow country vehicle. I'm actually working to put a small diesel into it."
"Oh, okay! Sounds like an interesting project!" Charlie said, smiling as they walked out of the garage. He pulled the door down closed and they headed back to everyone still walking and sniffing around the backyard. "So, what do you guys think?" Cody asked as they walked up. Lilly smiled and said "I really like it, actually! I could see us living up here…." The kids all nodded in agreement, aside from Chase, who said "It IS nice, but I'd like to stay down in town, really."
"Yeah, I know, buddy….Just think about how nice and peaceful it is up here, though! Not to mention the air is a lot cleaner, too." Dakota said, taking a deep breath and smiling. Chase was too and said "I know, Dad, but still….We grew up down there. It's home…." Crystal smiled too and nuzzled him, saying "It'd be a change, yes….No doubt about that. We're not gonna try and force you to like this place. If you don't, you don't."
"I didn't say I don't like it. I do, actually! It's just the whole leaving home thing." Chase said, looking around and up at the trees swaying in the breeze. He eventually smiled and said "But, I think I could get used to it. It really is a lot nicer up here…." Crystal giggled and kissed his cheek, making him smile more and Cody said "Well, we'll still need to go down and look at the other place, but it seems we're rather partial to here now." Lilly nodded in agreement and Charlie said "Well, it's pretty easy to like a place like this. If you're all ready, we can head back down and go see the other place now." With that, they all piled back into the car and headed back down to town, going over to the other house by his parents'.
It took a little over an hour since it was a bit longer drive, but the soon pulled into the driveway there in front of the slightly smaller house. They all got out and looked around, none of them feeling any more impressed with this place compared to the other. "You know, it's not too bad, actually. I'm not really liking the lack of a front yard, though…." Lilly said, looking around. Cody nodded and said "That's one bad thing about these housing communities. They tend to have smaller yards, if any." Charlie pulled up and got out of his car as they headed to the front door, soon going inside to the immediate living room. It was almost the same size as the other house's living room, but still smaller.
"This place has three bedrooms as well, all down the hallway there. Only one bathroom, though, so I'm not sure if that's a concern or not." Charlie said as they went down the hall. There were only two doors, one on either side and Lilly asked "Where's the other two rooms?" Charlie opened the bedroom door and there were two more doors on either side of the bedroom and he said "They're connected to this room, so you have to come through here to get to them. I think it's meant more for a couple with younger kids who want their own bedrooms, but still need to be close by."
"Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm not so sure this would work too well for us….Privacy would be a big issue." Cody said, unsure of the place. Charlie nodded and said "That's understandable. The price sorta makes up for it's shortfalls, though." Cody nodded and said "That's true. We'll look around a little, but I think we'll need a little time to discuss which choice to make." Everyone nodded in agreement and Dakota said "I'm already gonna vote for the mountain house."
Charlie chuckled and said "Hey, I would too, honestly. I'll let you all look around where ever you like then. I've gotta make a quick phone call….My wife left me a voicemail." Cody smiled and nodded before Charlie went outside, leaving them all to look around. As soon as he was gone, Lilly looked up at Cody and said "I really don't like this place too much….It's quite a bit smaller than the other and the rooms just wouldn't work to well, I don't think."
"Yeah, I think you're right. Then again, the price is still rather good for a place this size….The other isn't very much more, though, not to mention a lot more comfortable." Cody said. "I think we should go with that one, then. What do you guys think?" Crystal asked, looking at Alexis and Chase. They both nodded and Alexis said "I think so, too." Cody smiled again and said "Well, I guess that settles it then. When we get home, I'll call my parents' and let them know what we decided on." They all nodded again and about then Charlie came back in, saying "So, did you all look around a little?"
Cody shook his head and said "No, not really. We decided on the other house after all." Charlie nodded and said "Alright then. I personally believe you made the better choice there. That house is $800 a month with a $500 security deposit. Since you said you're renting an apartment, I can save you all the legal and policies spiel….While you're not the first family to show interest in it, you ARE the best family I've seen since it went on the market. A lot of the people asking about it don't have very good credit or have a history of damaging a place."
They all spent a few minutes longer there asking questions about the house they decided on, mostly just when they could move in. There would be a little bit of a wait while there were some small repairs being done to the main bedroom, but that would only be a couple weeks longer. As soon as the real estate company got word they were done, they could move in. They were all pretty excited about having a new and bigger place to live now, but still a little sad about leaving the place they've called home the last few years. Then again, they all knew it would be a lot better than the apartment, even if it was a completely new place.
So, looks like the family found their new home! It'll be a little hard to leave the place they've called home for so long, but it'll be worth it in the end. Sounds like a really nice place, too! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Remember to leave a review!