For the 22 years that I have been on this earth, there is one thing that I have definitely learned so far: Just when things finally seem to be going your way, life slaps you in the face with a sock full of quarters! What makes me say such a dreadful thing? What happened to my family and me last year is the greatest testament to this opinion.
             I guess I should start from the beginning of our dilemma. It all began in February of 1999. My father-in-law had passed away almost 2 years before and took with him his income. After giving our financial situation much consideration, my mother-in-law, husband, and I came to the decision that our two family house in Belleville, NJ must be sold. We spent most of that month preparing the old house for sale by dry walling, painting, and lots of cleaning in an attempt to hide the many imperfections that the house contained. By the time March arrived, the house, which we not so lovingly referred to as "the money pit", was ready and so were we. We put the house up for sale with Century 21 and hoped we could at least sell it for $115,000. This way we would be able to pay off the mortgage and still have enough for some kind of a down payment toward a new home. Our real estate agent told us not to be so optimistic since the house was old and needed a lot of repairs, but we held out hop!
             e anyway. Much to our surprise, however, two separate families became interested in purchasing our disheveled home. Before we knew what hit us, a bidding war ensued. After two weeks of battling it out, a young couple won the war by bidding $131,000. We immediately accepted their offer and set the closing date for June 4th.
             In the meantime, we had already decided that we would relocate to Upstate New York, where my husband and mother-in-law had family living in Remsen. We had hoped we could find a house in that area but the closest we got was a moderately sized 3-bedroom, 2 bath ranch on almost 2 acres (a sizeable a...