Blind couple in Cary starts over after fire - WNCN: News, Weather for Raleigh. Durham, Fayetteville

A blind couple in Cary is starting over after fire damaged their town home back in December.  From electronics to furniture and clothes, Brian and Linda Lewis lost just about everything in the fire, but it's Linda's handmade shelves from her deceased father that she will miss the most.

"I could put my hands on these shelves and feel the love and the time my daddy put into making those shelves...and now they're gone," Linda Lewis said as she began to tear up.   "I'm having a hard time accepting that I'll never get those things back, but I'm trying to get over the grief and it's a little hard."

Their two-story town home has since been remodeled and is about to go back on the market, but the Lewis' want to sell it and move into a one-story unit, without stairs, for safety reasons.  They also need someplace close to sidewalks and public transportation.  Freddie Woodard with Keller Williams' Bliss Real Estate Group says those specific needs, along with a slow economy, make the search challenging.

"Not only are we facing very specific requirements, and that narrows their search, but the fact that there are less homes for sale in general also narrows their options as far as what they have to choose from," Woodard said.

That means agents are looking just about everywhere for listings, including trying to find properties that are not currently listed at all.  Despite that challenge, the Lewis' are confident their perfect next home will open up soon as they try to move on from the pain.

"You've got to move forward and say, 'There's nothing we can do about that," Brian Lewis said.  "All we can do is move forward and do the best we can with what we have now and try and take it from this point and make it better."