Ok. So maybe it's not really a new country... but sure does feel like it! WOW we're so far north!
We moved from Cali back in September and drove cross country with our 2 boys and 2 dogs and hauling my husband's car. We stopped in Texas to see my family. It was a wonderful visit and I just pray that my grandmother can hang on a bit longer so we can see her again. Then we continued our trek to the East Coast to stop in North Carolina to see Jason's family. Funny how we always stay a little longer to see his family than mine. OH WELL! After our 3 day visit with them we headed on up the east coast on I 95 and I don't remember much of it because I slept a long time so that I would be prepared to drive if I was needed. We eventually ended up in Maine! We actually stayed in Portsmouth , New Hampshire. just over the border from where Jason would be stationed. Once we had arrived it rained a ton! I thought to myself.. OH NO HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THE RAIN! I hate rain! I guess if I took the opportunity to just dance in the rain I might enjoy it, but I don't so I never have liked the rain... one reason we left Kentucky in a hurry!
It took us almost an entire month to find a house to live in! Okay... 2 weeks, so I exaggerated a bit, but 2 weeks in a hotel room with 2 kids and 2 dogs and a BIG KID! I was really truly believing that it was more like 1 entire month! We even stayed in 2 different hotels and made friends at the second hotel! We did stay in nice hotels tho. The 1st was Residence Marriott and the second was Hilton's Homewood Suites.
The house... yes.. although nice in appearance... it's slowly falling apart. The landlords are over the heads in this house, have tried to sell it, but I believe they are deluded to think they could sell it at what they are asking for... and as a real estate professional I would have personally let them know they needed to lower their asking price or accept the best offer they could get!
When we moved in, the sink was literally falling, the person who installed the cabinets and the granite counter top forgot to anchor the sink into the cabinets before installing the countertop. The sink is an under-mount stainless steel sink... Stainless Steele doesn't mean with weight it can't bend! The sink had to be propped up with 2x4's before Thanksgiving! Then the installers decided to actually send someone out to take a look at it. The guy came in, he looked at it, and started getting some stuff out of his truck. I asked him when he came in if maybe his company forgot about something important like anchors and he said, "yeah. Looks like it." Then he commenced to telling me that they wedged it thinking that it would hold, something they do quiet a bit... I frowned at him and then told him that if they are doing that quiet a bit, they are going to go back and lose money repairing their errors. I worked with new construction and wedging ( or putting a small wood piece that wedges between the sink and the frame ) was only supposed to be a temporary fix or something in addition to the anchors for extra support not as a permanent stabilizer. OH WELL!
The sink... that wasn't just it! The water heater is leaking but the property manager says it's no emergency... but the water heater is fueled by the oil heat, and when you lose heat and there's no insulation around the tank, your heating bill goes sky high because you're having to use more oil to heat the water. I think we have to look into what we can do temporarily to keep the tank insulated. That's a conversation with an expert! I have no idea about oil heat! I only know about propane and I don't know much there either!
We also had a leak in the laundry room with the landlord's washer. That was fixed and the repair guy said the washer wasn't worth repairing so we put it in the basement. Then the property manager says that we're responsible for the washer if anything happens with it, and we said NO, if it's broke and the landlord doesn't want to pay to remove it, then we're not responsible for it because it's not being used by us! OH THAT IS STILL AN ONGOING BATTLE! Then there's another issue and it's not sooo small either!
THE BASEMENT... so we go to a holiday block party and we meet the neighbors and they tell us stories about the neighborhood and the previous tenants and the landlord and what great people have always lived in the house... and then they tell us about the basement. We already knew that there was some leaking into the basement through some cracks in the walls, but then the truth came out. The winters... when it snows and it snows alot... the basement can hold up to 3 or more inches of water! It's an entirely WET basement. The landlord paid a company to come out and dig a trench around the exterior of the house to help with the leaking, but when the owner came in and took a look at the basement, he said that the large crack on the floor of the basement will allow water and that with the water line along the base of the walls it looks to have had at least 6 inches in the basement but that could have easily been when they had flooding here since the house was built in a 100 yr flood zone and it's right next to a wet marsh. The house will continue to sink and the basement will continue to hold water... so tell me something... if the basement holds water and it's every year and it's not really useable because of that fact... how can anyone claim the basement as usable space? I don't know, but this is probably why no one wants to buy this house! I wouldn't, and especially after I know a home inspector would tear this place apart and I could back out of a offer contract with his report! Knowing this house is in a flood zone... that's a deterrent to begin with!
So... all in all, we're paying an extreme amount of money to heat this house because OIL is $3.95 a gallon and the tank is 300 gallons and we fill it at half full... so 150 gals at $3.95... you figure it out! My last bill was over $500. The very first bill was $600+. We decided to go with portable electric heaters... but guess what... when the power goes out we'll be SOL! I hear it get's below zero around here in normal winter weather, we've been lucky...we're in mid January and the only real snow we had was back during halloween. Then the Friday before Christmas we had a small snow that melted by midday and then today we're having a mild snow as well. Temperatures are expected to rise to 45* by this afternoon. So... winter... well it will either be a bad one in the next few months or it will snow in July!
Well, my 3 yr old is asking me to get off the computer now so that he can use it!
TATA FOR NOW!
