My windfall of $150,000 arrived like a godsend from another planet, entirely dedicated to the happiness of a single inhabitant of Earth: me! Originally from Philadelphia, sunny California was still calling to me as loudly as it did when I was six years old and I told my dad, "I'm moving to California!" » After an exhaustive search, I found foreclosure.com and my dream home. . It was a white two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment built on a hillside in Laguna Hills that bordered Irvine. My boyfriend, Justin, who was studying computer science at the local University of California, could finally stop paying his rent! It was perfect, with one caveat; It took a bit of work! A shaggy Joshua tree guarded our small front yard, swaying heavily in the gentle ocean breeze. Our new home was a short sale, where the bank assumed the remaining mortgage from a previous owner. The bank's primary focus was never on being a landlord, so the whole thing only cost $64,900! This totaled $72,688 after closing costs and taxes. I have type I diabetes and my dad had two weeks off, so he volunteered to help me move and renovate if I transported him home. No problem! We easily established that I needed my light van, so we hauled everything. This included my black iron sleigh bed with mattress topper, dishes, furniture, computer, books, clothes, desk, and a rescued sixty-five pound greyhound frightened by thunder, wind, and large appliances , Abel: instantaneous. A 2,703 mile adventure! U-shaped transportation of the 4x8' cargo trailer costs $420.00. Abel perched comfortably on my towels behind the seats of my truck while my father, a mechanical engineer, ate and slept in the Eastern States. We shared our driving schedules, so we didn't need a motel room. My red shifter had a ten gallon ta...... middle of paper...... with matching blue accents that would match the bathroom. Its main color was golden with intertwined leaf patterns. Under our bed I placed a sturdy black version. Justin can't stand sunlight; I tease him that if he had his way, we'd live in a bat cave. Even though our new house wasn't, one of our last actions was to make sure he felt comfortable. We purchased heavy blinds for each upstairs bedroom window, totaling $8,000.00. Disregarding the Joshua tree, which consumed much of our small yard, our exterior was devoid of color, so Dad and I built a circular garden of square quartz sandstone around the tree. We added pink pebbles for water percolation the day before he returned to Philadelphia and considered ourselves accomplished healers and savers. Even with the extreme expense of flooring, we still have $49,192.92 left in our appliance fund..