The House In The Woods

Chapter 4- House Hunting

They both got into the truck and headed on out of the driveway. Diane turned the radio onto a country station and rolled her window down to enjoy the cool breeze on her face while looking at the scenery as Jack drove. He picked up his pack of smokes, lit one up and cracked the window. "I'm so excited, I can't wait to find the perfect home for us. It'll be fun decorating and mum can help me!" "Don't go getting too excited, we've got a budget to stick to and depending on the home we end up going with, we might have to put money towards fixing up the place." said Jack while blowing a thin stream of smoke out the window. "Yeah you're right, and anyways we'll have the rest of our lives to do what we want to do with the place." Diane said with a smile. "Take a right at the stop sign," she said pointing, "that'll take us down the road mum was telling us about."

They drove a couple miles and saw a bunch of homes for sale. Pulling into each one of the driveways they'd get out, look at the price and assess the property. After looking at the last property, they got back into the truck disappointed. Jack looked at Diane and said glumly,"Well sweetie, they ended up being either too high, not enough land or the place needed a crapload of work." "Yeah I know, maybe we'll get lucky in a month or two. Let's take the long way back home and at least enjoy the rest of our ride together." "Sounds like a plan." he said playfully trying to cheer Diane up while giving her a couple quick squeezes of the hand. They drove a few minutes talking back and forth when she spotted a small, weathered "home for sale" sign. "Look honey another sign, and it says drastically reduced! Let's go take a look." "Yeah, what's drastically reduced mean to them, $150,000 like all the others and higher?" he said sarcastically. "You never know and we're out here anyways, let's just go look." "Alright, if you really want to we'll go look." said Jack a little irritably. They drove down the old graveled driveway which looked like it hadn't been driven on in a long time. It was about a mile and a half and surrounded by woods. "So far I'm loving it, woods....no neighbors....now if only the price is right and the house ain't in too bad of shape." Jack said hopefully. Diane just sat looking out the window tying to hide her excitement after hearing Jack's statement. As they neared the end of the wooded tunnel, they began to see the house appear from behind the trees as they drive closer. The house from what they could tell was at least 100 years old if not older. The once white coat of paint it wore was just about all chipped away and dingy looking. Some of the windows were broken and others cracked. It's roof had green shingles, which seemed to still be in good condition. It had two full stories and an attic area that you had to walk around hunched over in. "This place is huge! Tons of acreage and room to grow...what do you think?" Diane asked with eyes gleaming. "It needs a ton of work no doubt, but I love how it's in the middle of the woods with no neighbors. Let's see what the asking price is and we'll go from there." said Jack a little uncertain. They headed up the walkway towards the front door and beside the steps they saw a small white sign which was also pretty weathered like the other one by the road. "Hmm...$20,000, o.b.o.? It's so cheap, this makes no sense in the least bit." he said suspiciously. "This is such an amazing offer honey! 50 acres and a 2.5 story house in the middle of the woods, we need to jump on this deal." she said while tapping Jack's shoulder fast in excitement. "I'll tell you what Diane, let me get ahold of the seller and see if I can get them down to $13,000." "Why $13,000?" she asked. "Cause I honestly don't think this is the right home for us, but I do believe things happen for a reason. If I can get them down to my favorite number 13, then I'll consider that a sign that it's for us." he said while still staring at the house. "Ok, deal! Now let's head on back home and tell everyone about the house we found!" she said with a smile.