Carmen and Genaro really wanted us in their neighborhood if possible, so they took us to see several houses, all of which were either too small, for sale rather than for rent or Carmen declared the neighborhood as “no bueno”. She was frustrated that she couldn’t find anything close to them. Our attitude was “God will provide”. We ended up taking off and looking on our own. We had several adventures over two days.
One experience was asking at a small neighborhood store if they knew of any houses for rent, which they did, a yellow house within sight of the store, owned by a lady named Carmen who lived just up the street from the house. So we ventured off, peeked through the gates of the potential rental and tried to find the owner. Another little store on the block was called Carmelita’s so we knocked and sure enough she was Carmen with a rental. Turned out it was a tiny studio apartment above the little store! The OTHER Carmen was across the street to the left…so we were off again. This Carmen invited us in and introduced us to her daughter and her brand new, 15th grandchild, a darling 13 day old little boy! We visited for quite a bit and then she got around to the house…$4,000 pesos, well above our rent cap! Bummer. But wait! They have another house, presently occupied, but she thinks the Canadian who is living there now plans to leave soon. She would find out and then call us and let us know when we could look at that. Alas, she never called us back!
Then we had the phone number of a lady who had a house for rent in an area that was new to us…when we called she sent her son and son-in-law to meet us. We waited for them for about an hour and the house was really nice, but again, significantly above our rent cap!! But they also had another house, a smaller two bedroom in another neighborhood. Currently being renovated, but very nice. So off we were following them a few kilometers through new territory to the other house. Nice older neighborhood…and walking through the door I was thrilled! Beautiful old floors, brick arch between the living room and the kitchen/dining room. The kitchen and bath were being completely renovated and brought up to date, the first bedroom was fairly spacious. We were excited…maybe this was it. But when we asked where the second bedroom was they just said, oh I guess it only has one bedroom! Three rooms is not big enough. So we were on our way again!
Our best adventure God saved for last…we found two houses in a neighborhood near Carmen and Genaro, but across the highway. The first house was a duplex owned by a nice Christian lady named Yolanda, but it was way too small, muy, muy chica!! The other house was just two doors down and the neighbors across the street knew the owners and offered to call them for us. They couldn’t meet us just then but would call later to arrange a time. In the meantime we had a nice visit with Roberto and Virginia, who made the call for us. Really lovely people. They’ve lived there six years, been married for 18 years. They allowed that there are very good neighbors, not a lot of parties and its very quiet. They love it. They are both teachers, and in fact he used to teach at El Bollio, which is a little pueblo just a little bit outside of La Cruz. They told us how nice the house was, even though it needed work, and how nice the owners were. Really doing a sales pitch! But, the owners never called back and we finally had to leave…we went back to the hotel hoping they would still call, but they never did.
We continued to pray about what to do: stay another day and keep looking or head back to La Cruz. As we prayed this house kept coming to our minds so we thought we’d run back out there and take another shot. Again, Virginia made the call and yes, the owners had tried to call us but didn’t realize that our cell was long distance for them and couldn’t make the connection! They agreed to meet us, and again Roberto and Virginia entertained us while we waited.
The house is very nice, and so is the family that owns it. It’s been empty for a while, owned by the brother who was disabled in an accident and can no longer live there. We loved the house, it has kitchen cabinets and a bathroom with a sink!! And Sandra, the owner’s sister, was trying to explain that the kitchen cabinets were set up for a small stove and that you could not cut the cabinets for a big stove. Not to worry, we have a small stove. She was apologizing for the condition of the house because it was dirty, the dining room floor is unfinished, they were painting, etc. As we continued to look we kept asking how much…and finally she told us and it was way above our rent cap. Arrrrggggghhhhh!!!
We were sad and discouraged, but as we talked she decided she wanted to call her mom and talk it over with her. Since part of the house (one bedroom, one bath and sun room) are unfinished with concrete floors and no fixtures, and since we will not be using the little store front that is built into the back corner of the house she thought perhaps they could drop the rent a little. Then Sandra told her mom we are Christians and that sealed the deal for her mom. They dropped the rent to just below our cap!!! Praise the Lord! We now have a home in Mazatlan! We are going to pick up the keys later in the month and can move in any time after March first! We can scarcely believe that we are moving again but God has definitely paved the way.
This is a view of the house, the unfinished part is above the cochera, all along the outside wall to the back, basically half the upstairs. All along the orange front is the cochera and a small patio. There is a living room, small dining room (concrete floor), kitchen, half bath and service porch downstairs and two finished bedrooms and one finished bath up, plus the unfinished space. You can see the tiny little store front at the back of the house. The hole in the wall by the side window upstairs is for the air conditioner. The stairway is curved and tiled and has no hand rails so pray we don’t crash too much on the stairs!!
Thanks so much for your prayers as we struggled along, particularly these last five months. We thought we wouldn’t make it, and on our own we could not have…we need our Lord and we need your prayers! Bless you for praying for us!
No comments:
Post a Comment