This has been a difficult year so far. The Slumlord we rent from doesn't want to invest anything in his property. He thinks because he's renting to us at a pretty reduced cost that we should fix all the things wrong. Why didn't we finish the bathroom walls and re-floor the bathroom? Bridgit told him it's his house and he's supposed to be doing that. Keep reading, it get's better!
Here's a little background: I'm a 76 year old Veteran, living with COPD and some other Nasty stuff, all of which are centered in my lungs. My Grand daughter worked her self into the ground getting this house ready for us. She worked the whole month of July, mostly by herself, painting, ripping out carpet, staining the hardwood floors and sanitizing the floor in my bedroom where she ripped out the carpet. I have a Therapy cat' so the landlord (lives in Seattle a good 6 hr drive) said we needed to finish the floor in tiles because of the cat. Mrs Beasley has been spayed and de-clawed for 13 years now.
At this stage in her life, I think she's getting "Kitty Menapause". She is grouchy and very needy. Grand daughter got rid of the urine that went thru the carpet with a spray of Hydrogen Peroxide and a little water. Boy did that fizzle all over the room. Had to do the floor about 3 times before she laid down the tiles. Human Urine fizzes more than animal urine although they do fizz also.
I picked out the tiles that looked like wood so my room actually looks like it's a wood floor. Quite pretty! Then I hung some pretty Sage colored sheers with a long scarf thingy and they match the sea foam green walls nicely. I don't sleep in there very much since it has a hospital bed with some some pretty saggy springs so it's very uncomfortable. But it looks nice. And Mrs Beasley likes the bed for her many naps.I have returned the hospital bed to the organization I got on loan from. The Knights of Columbus are a great organization. They sort of favor Veterans but I'm sure they loan things to other people too. And they accept donations of sick room equipment from anyone. I've told my family to give them my wheel chair, walker and whatever else isn't of use to them. Like maybe the chair in the tub so I can sit down to shower.
When the weather started to get colder in October and November last year Grand daughter sent the land lord an email telling him the 'Baseboard' heaters in the master bedroom and the small bedroom next to it didn't work. And the baseboard in the bathroom doesn't work either. She went back and forth with him about not having heat and winter setting in. He suggested heaters but that has sent the electric bill through the roof. He sent an electrician (certified electrician) and he crawled around under the house and found out that none of the thermostats are connected to the heaters in those rooms but the kitchen, the living room and my bedroom are working fine. When we got an electric bill over $500. bucks and the the rent is only a little bit more than that, we had trouble meeting both. So we paid the electric and part of the rent with me catching most of it. Then all of a sudden he said he was evicting us. At that point I started to pack my things. And he thinks the electrician is ripping him off saying it'll be $4,000. to bring the wiring up to code. The wires fall apart if you touch them.
He came down for the weekend at the end of last month to see how much "
damage" we had done to his house. I don't know why he thought one old lady and one child with a mom was going to tear his house apart. After he inspected the house he could only say how nice the floors looked and the walls also. So he decided he wasn't going to evict us. We don't have a signed contract. We gave the only copy he signed to the electric company to change it over from his name to ours. He said he was working on some revisions so we weren't supposed to sign anything. Hence no mutual contract. He did give us the first and last months rent for Grand daughter's labor and my expenses in buying everything to do this fixer upper.
We had to buy a refrigerator because we found 'black mold' in the freezer of the one that was in here.
We told him the oven didn't work. His electrician that came out said he'd get the part to fix the oven and when it came in he'd be back to install it. It didn't get here until after the landlords visit so he said he'd fix it himself. He has a PHD in Micro Biology and he thinks women don't know much. Not what you should be saying to my Grand daughter. Well he pushed the stove out from the wall and started tinkering around. All of sudden we heard pop and smelled burning. The kids asked what was burning...his reply "Oh don't worry, that was just me" . Four days later the electrician came by with the new part and said it wasn't going to be any good any way. After he looked in the back, he found out the landlord had 'fried' the computer piece so the new part wasn't going to work but since he'd ordered it and paid for it, he put it in. Just can't use the oven until he buys a new circuit board for it which he isn't going to do. I have since discovered that after two days of his tinkering around here and there, that all he actually accomplished was to replace the light switch in my bedroom and sodered the little knob on one side of the the TP holder so it wouldn't fall onto the floor. I mean he should probably stick to his books on micro biology and leave the house fixing to someone else!
The A/C doesn't work either and last August we had some days where it was 104 degrees and me and my lungs had to go stay with friends or end up in the ER! In all of his tinkering, he cut the big 220 cord off the window A/C and covered it with plastic which he taped up with painters tape. Coming loose already. So there's no A/C for the up coming summer either.
I'm going to post this blog today and I'm just going to save it for when he tries to take us to court. With the electrical wiring in this house being at least 30+ years old and probably more, I'm arranging myself so that if a fire starts in this house, all I have to do is grab my cat and my Gr Grand Daughter and get out of the house with Bridgit. You see, I'm on Oxygen therapy and I have 4 large bottles of O2 and 12 small bottles of O2 which if engulfed in flames will more than likely become missiles going right through the roof and coming down who knows where. There's a sign on my front door...No Smoking, Oxygen in Use..
I should have the house condemned after I move out because we found out he had it listed for $133K when he rented it us. Maybe he thought we were going to do all sorts of repair stuff and then he just sell it out from under neath us. He never told us it was listed for sale. He was expecting a lot from 3 females. We're tough and we won't back down from a fight but none of us know about electrical wiring or pluming for that matter. He'll have to sell just the land because no one will pay for all the wiring and plumbing that needs to be done. And the Electrician who was going to do all the rewiring was under the house and in the attic and says there isn't any insulation worth mentioning left anywhere.
Luckily our neighbor on the right is moving to a new place that's 2 acres large so his son can have space to play or do whatever. He's agreed to rent us the house next door on McClellan. It's going to be a about $200 higher than we pay now but is't well insulated and the wiring in that house is newer since the owner is an electrician and has done all the work himself. We'll make up the difference in lower utility bills. A $375 Electric bill on top of the rent was just way too much. So we're moving right next door in 4 weeks and I'm going to get this house condemned so he can't rent it again until he actually fixes everything. I have a list of the things not working so I'll be happy to pass it along to whom ever comes by to look at it.
On a lighter note, here's a couple of scrapbook pages I've made since the first of the year.
Daughter Charlie at a New Year's Party.
My sister-in-law Joanne with her dog Bing Crosby.
She's such a lovely lady, I just love making scrapbook pages of her.
This is my very dear friend Moe who was an Airline Hostess back in the day and she shared this picture so I put it together with her newest one.
This is little Serenity at 1 yr old she did enjoy having Christmas. She is still trying to chew up the Santa and the Snowman I put in her stocking. Neither one came with any stuffing so all she can do is chew off his face. Poor Santa.
Now I'm going to make some more scrapbook pages and in my next post, I'll tell you about my newest hobby and I'll have a couple of pictures to go with it.
Hugs to all from Grandma Sarge
