About 3 weeks after begin the search, we had the opportunity to sign a lease on a 7 person house. A few of the guys were unsure if they wanted to live there, and we ended up passing it up. A few more weeks went by and I found another place that was a little farther away, but cheaper. It was a four bedroom place and we had 5 guys. We planned on sharing one of the rooms. We decided we were going to put a deposit down and I began collecting everyone's money. The night before I was going to turn in the deposit, one roommate complained about the room he was going to have. He called another roommate to try and switch but it didn't happen. The next morning, 4 hours before I was going to put the deposit down, he called me to tell me him and another guy were out. It was so frustrating to put all this work into finding a place for it fall through at the last minute.
I was very discouraged at this point. There were two guys that dropped out, leave me and two other guys. I wanted another roommate so we got a guy from my Ultimate team in. I kept looking every day for a house, but it was get tough. One evening, a friend suggested I look at one of our mutual friends Facebook status. The status read, "Anyone looking for a place to live in Eugene?" or something like that. I Facebook messaged him, and got his brothers number. I call his brother and he referred me to his current landlord. I then email the landlord about places. She said there were two places available but they were both 3 bedrooms. I asked if we could share a room and initially she said it might be too small. I thanked her for her time and said I'd look other places.
She emailed me back on that Sunday afternoon saying I should check the place out before I write it off. That night I went and looked at the house. It was in an awesome location, two blocks from the rec center and Hayward Field. The inside was nice and the third bedroom turned out to be quite large. I immediately emailed her and siad we were interested. It took her awhile to get back to me, but it just happend that she would be in Eugene Tuesday afternoon. I made an appointment for us all to look at the house and hopefully put a deposit down. We all looked at the house and liked it. We each brought a check for $250, put down the deposit, and signed the lease right then. It was a great feeling to finally have a place to live. The house is everything I wanted. It has a great location, decent size, and low rent. I will be sharing a room with my friend from Ultimate and we will each only pay $325 a month.
I learned a lot for the whole experience. I learned how difficult is to organize 5 college students and work with others schedules. I learned that nothing is for sure until it happens. I was sure we had the second place, I was a few hours away from putting down a deposit. It turns out that it was probably a good idea we didn't get the second place because the roommate dynamic wouldn't have worked well. Additionally, I learned that you should never write something off before you check it out. I could have easily said "no thanks" to the house. In fact, I did. But thankfully the landlord told me to take a look anyways.
One of the biggest things I learned was to trust God. I kept trying to complete the whole process by myself. Every time we let a house go, I thought it was because we just couldn't get it together. Now I realize that God closed these doors for a reason. Although they seems good, God wouldn't let me settle for anything less than best. I also realized that we find more value from things we work for. If I didn't struggle for almost 2 month, I wouldn't value the house as much.
I'm very thankful I've been blessed with the process and the house. My lease starts July 1st and I'm excited to move in and hang around Eugene this summer.
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