Bette: However, there will be a few budget restrictions on your house Angie. We will make your home comfortable, but it will not be a show place with heritage type furnishings. It will be average quality and will be anticipated to last as long as you live in New Haven. I anticipate that once you get your degree and move into your professional life, you are going to want to create a home of your own and you probably won’t be living in New Haven.

Angie:  Well, that is going to be several years away before I finish my degree. And it may be a few years after that before I establish roots and choose a place to make my life.

Bette: Well, let’s get through your Yale years first before we start making plans for then.

Angie: Do you think we might have time to see the house before you guys leave for the airport?

Jim: I think we do if we don’t take a long time with breakfast.

Tina: Well, let’s go get our food then.

They all got up and went through the line.  Bette ordered coffee for everyone at the table and then trailed behind the group.  The food looked wonderful and was full of variety. The girls were excited. This was new and different and had much more variety than the student center.

They returned to the table and Jim talked to Angie about what he expected to do to the house. Angie was excited. She particularly liked the idea of solar panels for the electricity. These could supply some electricity to power the refrigerator and the computers during a power outage. The heat and the water heater were on a radiator boiler system. She also liked the idea of a study instead of a formal dining room.  She knew that group projects were often a part of a law degree so, this would be convenient.

Suzanne listened intently as Jim talked to Angie. She had not thought about the next year and what her housing arrangements would be. But she like the idea of getting away from the dorm. She liked the idea of having access to laundry facilities and potentially having a vehicle available to her. But how could she get those things? Her parents were barely able to send her a couple of hundred dollars a month. It was something she would have to sit down and see if she could look at a budget.