Warning, incoming tl;dr!
I've been looking at apartments for when I move out, and it's not very promising. The bare minimum for a studio apartment in a questionable complex is ~600, and the absolute most I could spend is 800 and even that's really pushing it. Talked to my good friend/ex-roommate the other day and she mentioned that she and her fiance had tossed around the idea of seeing if I wanted to rent their extra bedroom in their 2 bedroom house. HOUSE. Not apartment. As in, with a yard. A YARD. Their rent/utilities are ridiculously cheap, so the total per month for each of us would be around... $190.
Omg.
I lived with her for a few years on and off and we were great roommates, and I get along with her fiance just fine, too - he's a good guy. Rowan would get to live with his girlfriend Kaylee again. Heck, I'D get to live with Kaylee again! I adore that little dog. If I could've gotten a Kaylee clone as my second dog, I would've done it in a heartbeat. She also has a couple pieces of agility equipment and we could build the rest. Their house is close to the place where I want to get Rowan into agility classes, too.
The biggest downside, and that's saying something because it's not that bad, is that they have cats. I am allergic. Going over there for a few hours leaves me messed up for a day or so. I don't think they vacuum much because they aren't allergic, though, so if I vacuum often and keep the cats out of my room, I can minimize the issues until they go away. I've lived with cats in previous situations and after a couple of months, I build up a tolerance to that particular cat.
My goal now is to really work hard on Riff's manners. Cassie's fiance is only reluctant because of Riff, but he's also only seen Riff at his worst. My little dude gets pretty anxious visiting other people's houses, and he's also never seen cats before, so he was incredibly high-strung and frantic when we were there a few nights ago. We just need to go visit more often so he gets used to the house, and the cats (he made a pretty big improvement just in the one night.) Work on a "settle" command. Be more stringent with manners... I let him get away with a lot because it doesn't bother me. Let her fiance see how he is in his own home environment, because otherwise he's pretty much on board with the idea, too.
This would be a major positive change in my life. It's still hinging on a few things, like getting this job I applied for, but that's looking really hopeful... so I'm trying not to get too excited, but... well, I am excited