Palace Life, Lesson #1

I can still remember the first day we went to see what we later named "The Palace."

After deciding that the four of us would in fact like to live together, Jamie, Renee, Heidi and I began the search for a place to live. In a college town, with college budgets, that can be a very daunting task.

I don't remember who found the listing, but I sure can remember our excitement about going to see the perspective home. As we pulled in to the narrow driveway, and tried nervously not to hit the stone wall to our left, I think we were all overwhelmed by the magnitude and beauty of this home.

"It has a porch!"
"This place is huge!"
"We could definitely have great parties here!"
"Is that a frat house across the street?"

All our heads turned and directly across the street was not one frat house, but TWO! (I didn't know it at the time, but our soon-to-be new home was actually at the bottom of Kansas State's Greek Row (otherwise known as the street we put most of our frats and sororities on).

As we knocked on the door, there was no way for us to know how meeting our landlord was about to teach us all a very important life lesson.

Her name was Marie. She had very long, stringy, uncolor treated graying hair. By her appearance you would never know she owned several houses.

She showed us around the first floor, the Budweiser light fixture hanging in the den caught all of us by surprise. I seem to remember asking if that was leaving with the current tenants, concerned about how it would fit in with our own decor, of course!

We headed down to the basement, and couldn't believe how big the house really was. There was a fireplace in both the finished room of the basement and the first floor den made out of the same beautiful stone as the house.

The other half of the basement was not finished, but had more than enough room for our ping pong table and washer and dryer. Perfect for parties, just perfect!

As we toured the third floor with the bedrooms and full bathroom, we were all already picking out which room would be "ours." We had fallen in love with the idea of living in this house.

I can remember standing in what was soon to be Jamie's room, and telling Marie that we very much wanted to be her next tenants. We were ready to sign the lease and put down the deposit.

"I am glad because I was only going to rent this house to girls," she stated.

"Oh, really? Why?"

"These boys have been awful tenants. They never mow the yard, they are dirty, and they let people park wherever they want. I will never rent to boys again. Ever."

Clearly, she had a point. I mean, obviously any group of boys that would hang up a gigantic Budweiser light fixture in a house that gorgeous had problems. I remember feeling sorry for Marie. Sorry that these guys had disrespected her so much.

Over the course of the next twelve months we would come to learn a very important life lesson; there are two sides to every story. And when signing a legally binding document, it would be beneficial to at least ask the previous tenants about their side of the story.

To be continued...