My windfall of $150,000 came as a boon from another planet, entirely intent on the happiness of a single inhabitant of Earth: me! A native of Philadelphia in sunny California, he still called my name as loudly as he did when I was six years old and told my dad, "I'm moving to California!" After extensive research, I found foreclosure.com and my dream home. . It was a white two-bedroom, two-bathroom house built on a knoll in Laguna Hills that bordered Irvine. My boyfriend, Justin, who was studying computer science at the local University of California, could finally stop paying rent! It was perfect, with one caveat; it needed some work! A wiry Joshua tree sheltered our tiny backyard, swaying heavily in the gentle ocean breeze. Our new home was a short sale, where the bank took over the previous owner's remaining mortgage. The bank's main plan was never going to be to have an owner, so the entire package only cost $64,900! This amounts to $72,688 before taxes and duties. I have type I diabetes and my dad had two weeks off, so he volunteered to help me move and renovate if I brought him home. No problem! We easily determined that I needed my light truck, so we hauled everything. This included my black iron sleigh bed with pillow case, dishes, furniture, computer, books, clothes, desk and a sixty-five pound greyhound scared of thunder, backfires, wind and big rigs rescued, Abel : Instant 2,703 mile adventure! The 4x8' U-haul cargo trailer costs $420.00. Abel perched comfortably on my towels behind the truck seats while my father, a mechanical engineer, ate and slept in the eastern states. We split driving times, so we didn't need a motel room. My red shift had a ten gallon ta...paper center...with matching blue accents that matched the bathroom. Its main color was golden with intertwined leaf designs. Under our bed, I placed a durable black version. Justin can't stand the sunlight; I tease him that if it were up to him, we'd be living in a bat cave. Even though our new home wasn't, one of our last actions was to make sure she was comfortable. We purchased heavy shutters for each window in the upstairs bedroom for a total of $8,000.00. Excluding the Joshua tree, which consumed much of our tiny yard, our exterior was devoid of color, so Dad and I built a circular garden of square quartz sandstones around the tree. We added pinkish pebbles for percolating water the day before he returned to Philadelphia and considered ourselves skilled home healers and savers. Even with the extreme flooring expenses, we ended up with $49,192.92 left in our appliance fund.