Stalemate

The ‘relationship’ I have got with my house resembles how I play chess. I contacted the agency for rental houses and within only a month time they offered me a lovely but pretty expensive house. It was love at first sight. Not that ‘stricken by lightning’ kind of love but more a comfortable, cosy feeling of coming home. Without a second thought I said I'd take it. I play chess only now and then. I am a beginner. Learned it about three years ago from a friend. I never expected to learn it anyway until then. I have played only against three live opponents so far. The one who taught me is unbeatable to me because I can’t foresee more than two moves at a time. Renting the house was comparable with a well known opening move in chess, namely white pawn to d4. I prefer to play with white. This move is somewhat slower than the popular e4, because white will not be able to castle for three more moves. Like I was not able to move houses in the coming years.

With hindsight it is easy to tell that both fulltime studying and building up my own practice was not an ideal situation to rent a house with monthly payments above my budget although I had some savings at that time. Black answered against my odds with pawn to d5. My second move, pawn to c4, or spending a huge amount of my savings to invest in advertisements was my logical response to challenge black’s d5. My dreaming beyond reality took off as soon as the first few customers responded to the expensive advertisements. Among them were several clients who wanted to extend their computer competencies another passion I have, teaching computer skills. To make that part of my practice, which I pictured for myself as a big institute in the future, more official, I joined the foundation for European Computer Driving Licence ™ as an authorized testcentre for computer exams. I was imagining renting the house attached to the right side of mine as well. In my imagination I already divided that house into an office where I would work, a room for counseling sessions with phobic clients and a computerroom as a multiple test facility. The living room would be an extension for my own living room and I would partly tear down the wall connecting those two rooms. I could already picture myself in the twice as big backyard. My neighbors were completely unaware of my secret daydreaming I hope but I encouraged their search for a cheaper house quite a lot. Anyway, until that house would be available I still managed to do all my business in only one room of my own house where I felt like a queen in a humble castle. I have had a few setbacks then. Black’s move from pawn to c6. First of all were the annual payments for authorization pretty high. Second my dog died after being hospitalized in an university pet’s hospital. The bills from the vets afterwards were almost as much as I invested in marketing.  I could see the bottom of my piggybank looming. Black was declining my offence and was reserving an open diagonal for his queen’s bishop.

However, the feeling for my house only grew stronger in the following years.  Only my plans for expanding my private practice moved a little to the background because studying was more  time consuming than I thought it would be. Without much financial foundation I dreamt about buying my rental house one day, without having a strategy to fulfil that dream though. Rumour had it that the investment company,  owner of the houses in my block, was debating to sell them. I was determined to take that chance when that day would come. With great confidence I moved my knight to f3 . Then one day my neighbours told me they were moving houses. A little too early to my plan. Black indeed moved his queen bishop and attacked my knight at e1. I was not really enthusiastic when a new neighbour moved in their house a few months later. But after learning that he was planning to stay temporarily I felt relieved. I moved my queen’s knight to c3.  

Eventually the financial crisis was bugging me also. Which made me calculate what the consequences would be when I was paying mortgage instead of rent.  I had figured out that it would even be cheaper to buy this house, instead of renting it. That’s because the Dutch tax system allows one to deduct the interest of the mortgage payment from income tax. I didn’t want to face the fact that getting a loan from a bank to buy a house is a lot harder when you are an entrepreneur. It would require a minimum of three years of a stable income at least. I was not there yet as I was still studying fulltime. That’s why it was way too soon that my prayer’s of the opportunity to become owner of the house were answered, when there was an unexpected transfer to another investment company. This new owner of these houses was offering them for sale to the renters. Without much hope I had gone to see the mortgage broker. After calculating the maximum mortgage I would possibly qualify for, and the largest repayments I could manage, he made it clear to me that it was impossible to get a loan. Black pawn to e6. He told me that really it would be better if I bought the house with someone else. Although I am lacking long-term strategy I was sure that that was not part of my plan ever, it had to be mine and mine only. I am still thinking about what move to make next. But like chess I have some time left to think things over. If only I could see beyond two moves ahead.