The good news: the buyers removed the contingencies on our house. We are rejoicing that even a previously  undiscovered water stain in the ceiling isn’t going to tank the deal and the house will be theirs as of November 15.

The bad news: we are scheduled to move in a week and we still don’t know where we’re moving to.

Am I feeling panicked? If the fact that I responded to a “too good to be true” rental listing on Craigslist that was actually a Nigerian internet scam is any indication of my desperation, the answer is definitely yes.

Although I had been looking at rentals on Craigslist for the last couple of months, the choices seemed to range from too much house for too much money, to too little apartment for too much money. I could practically recite the 17 listings that came up when I searched “Petalumawith cats.” ”Birch, wonderful, beautiful, never been lived in, eastside, downtown, townhome” and on and on. We had either looked at them all or ruled them out when the best feature of the house that they could put in the listing was “central heat.”

A ray of light broke though the clouds in my head when I decided to expand the search to Cotati/Rohnert Park. A listing for a townhouse in Cotati that is available immediately popped up. While 10 minutes further north from church, school and work, at least it wasn’t the east side of town, a.k.a. Gaucho Gulch where our Petaluma H.S. band member and cheerleader refuses to be relocated.

However, the more I thought about it the better it seemed. We would be back to paying what we could actually afford. Steve and I went to see it today and I have to admit that unless the photos in the posting were extensively Photoshopped, I was primed to like it and ready to write them a check for the deposit.

The place was just like the place that I had imagined us moving when we started down this road of selling our house more than year ago. It was charming, cozy and cheaper than anything else we had seen, with the exception of a self-storage locker.

After huddling with Steve and Jennifer in the garage, we agreed it was a good fit for us and filled out the application.

 Fingers crossed, we’re waiting for their approval.