When I first separated from my ex, my beloved, generous, social sister said "Come live with me and we'll be the Golden Girls." So what if we are both brunette and in our 40's. We both laughed. I decided since I wanted the support and companionship of my family that I would take her up on her offer. We discussed that I would pay rent/contribute to household expenses. She said don't worry about money but that seems leachlike to me so I insisted.

As I was preparing to sell and move out my brother invited me over to his home and offered to finish his basement off into an in-law apartment. The offer was totally out of the blue, completely unexpected. He told me to take a couple of days to think it over.

You have to understand that I live in an ex-urban area. We are about 25 minutes away from Washington, DC at the closest point. The county is a penninsula surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River. There are only 4 high schools but all of them made Newsweeks top 5% for High Schools and 2 made the top 2% for all HS in the USA. It is an excellent school system and housing prices and incomes match. I remember the fight for public water in a town center area that the citizens fought tooth and nail in an effort to keep out apartments, condos, townhouses, ect (you know, low income folks, their opinion not mine). They won the battle. So, what you find are in-law apartment housing in huge homes on 1-5(or more) acres.

My brother and sister-in-law work in the travel industry and are away from home for 3-6 days at a time every week. My nephew is away from home at college and does internships during the summer. They also own a home in South Baltimore near the Inner Harbour. So they are away from home alot.

Since I am home evenings and during the summers even more, I would live there and also sort of house sit. Although, its not part of the deal, my SIL loves to have a garden but doesn't have the time to devote and she knows I love to garden and will turn the area around her home into a colorful flower garden and probably sneak in a few vegetables. She told me to just give her the bills for any plants, supplies, ect I purchase for the landscaping and she will reimburse. I even get my hobby paid for, is that to much or what.

So, there are advantages to both of us. I get an apartment to rent and they get a more secure house plus gardener. They offered to rent me the apartment for $500 a month and that would include utilities except phone. I would have Directv, electric and water included in that price. That is an excellent deal for me expecially in this area. Usually, rents for in-law apartments run $850 for a studio, utilities include except phone.

I have to decide on and pay for phone service. This is a bigger decision than it seems, so I will discuss it in my next post.