When Genna Met Sally—Anticipation and Cold Feet

This is a continuing story. Part 1 is here.

As the doorbell rang, Genna looked around her home. She thought she hadn’t seen it looking so good in a very long time, not since the holidays when her family came. She’d been putting things away and cleaning for the better part of a week knowing that Sally was coming. That was her at the doorbell. Genna was nervous and hopeful.

Sally was coming to see the house and they were going to talk about whether they might live together. They had met at church, introduced by another church member who knew that Genna was looking for a home-mate and that Sally was stressed about her finances.

Since then, Genna had emailed Sally the ad she had put together that described both the space and what she was looking for. She reread it before she sent it. Hard to believe that it had taken so many drafts to get to this simple statement. The part she most particularly wanted Sally to see were the financial details.

“Two rooms, private bath on second floor of remodeled farmhouse. Large kitchen, family room. Close to public transportation.  Older woman seeking same to share home, some meals. I’m an active church member and volunteer, love to play bridge, retired insurance broker. You would be mature, independent and friendly. No cats (allergies). A dog possible. Fenced-in back yard. No smoking. $650 including all utilities. Security deposit and last month’s rent required, as are references.”

Sally had responded that the ad looked fine to her and asked when she could come and see the house.

That’s when Genna suddenly got cold feet. She was surprised with herself. She’d been actively pursuing the idea of having a home-mate and now that she’d actually met someone — from her own church no less — she was having all sorts of thoughts about ways in which it could go wrong. It was keeping her awake at night.

She reread her worksheets where she had listed all the reasons why she wanted to do this. She went back to the Sharing Housing website where she had bought the book and workbook.  She noticed again the Home-Mate Compatibility Assessment Toolkit. She read the description carefully. If they both did the assessment they could compare their answers. Maybe this would be a way that she could know ahead of time if Sally and she were a good match and could live together. She decided to give it a try. She bought the Toolkit.

Genna was amused as she completed the assessment. The questions weren’t hard. They were different from what she expected. They were all focused on how she lives in her home. She took her time answering. Each item had a space for comments and she wanted to be thorough as she considered each item. After she completed the assessment, a copy of her answers and comments arrived in her email.

She emailed Sally and asked her to do her own assessment. She then forwarded to Sally an email Genna had received as part of her Toolkit. It had instructions on how Sally could take the assessment without paying for it. Sally wrote back to say she had taken the assessment and asked if she should send her answers to Genna. Genna replied that she should print out her answers and bring them with her when she came to see the house. By email they made a date for the following Saturday.

Here it was Saturday and Sally was at the door.

Click here for Part 3.