A Throwback to Rental Woes

This blog was written a year ago, but I never published it. I think I was too embarrassed and frustrated to put it out into the world wide web at the time. But now that we own our first home, I can share...
If you are currently renting, and you don't have any issues, count yourself blessed!!  If you're dreaming of your own home and being an owner someday, keep praying, keep saving, keep believing--it will happen for you!

Captain's Log: 2016.

As you may or may not know we are currently renters. When we moved from Key West 3 years ago, we were sharing living space with 4-5 other adults. For those not counting, that was up to 10 of us under 1 roof for a few years.  You can read about those fun times in previous blog posts such as The Nut House.
When a job opened up for Ryan in Vero Beach we were all too ready to move. We found this little spot on Craigslist and put the 1st and security deposit over the phone without having seen the inside. We were just feeling so blessed to go!
But isn't it funny how over time, what once was a fantastic dream-come-true, starts to tarnish in our minds and we want more? and better? and bigger?

We lived in our Craigslist rental for a couple years without issue. But our rental house landlord has changed property managers and for the last six months we've had no less than 20 in-home visitors to fix and update various parts of this old house. They also figured out we had a magnificent trampoline in the backyard and made us take it down. THAT IN ITSELF is enough to make us want to move, because we found that trampoline to be completely therapeutic for the twins, a remarkable place where we got more eye contact out of them in 10 minutes on the trampoline than in the rest of the week combined.
In addition, after 2 years of being in the house, they demanded we remove the safety gate my dad built for us (it was necessary because it prevented the twins from easily escaping the yard and running away (they've done that before))... They said since it was made of wood it would attract termites...
It was a beautiful wooden gate. Thank you dad for the time and effort you took to build it for us, we appreciated it so much. :*(

About 4 months ago Luke told me he was shocked after touching our stove top. I made fun of him, because the stove was cool, and no one had been using it. I watched him touch the top again, and jerk his hand back, smiling but saying "it did it again!"
I tried it, and felt nothing, and made fun of him again.
3 months later, I started getting shocked. I couldn't explain it easily, it was like a buzzing feeling when I touched the metal of the stove. I told Ryan, but he felt nothing.
A week later little barebum Levi was standing on a chair leaning over the stove to get a banana as I stood behind him, and I lovingly squeezed his bum while he leaned over the stove because he is so gosh darn cute!! But right away, I FELT the electricity through his BUTT as he leaned onto the stove, it passed through him!
I researched immediately, and I found that women and children DO in fact feel smaller currents of electricity than men do.
SOOOO we had to have someone come out and replace the oven. In this tiny house, that's a big deal. Keeping kids and toys clear from view for a few hours is tough.

Then they wanted to come and fix a vanity because it was chipped. I DONT CARE if it's chipped! Just go away! But they wanted to replace it. It forced me to keep my children out of our own rental space for hours and hours so they could work. The handy-men team was a bit inept.

What else happened this year in our rental?
I started smelling plastic burning every time I used the washing machine...
We've never peaked at our water heater because it's not something that needs regular maintenance, and it was hidden behind a strange piece of drywall propped up and around it--out of sight, out of mind.  But in attempting to investigate where the plastic smell was coming from, we found that our water heater looked like it had barely survived a nuclear attack. It was leaking and rusted through, chunks of metal and rust water dripped down its side into a small puddle below. I was horrified.


Even though we explained the situation clearly, the property management insisted we first have an electrician come out to VERIFY that we needed a new one. Then a water heater guy came a few days later to replace it, which also took time for me to keep the children out and away from this zone.  Thankfully we had no more plastic burning smell after that.

What else??
The AC has gone out more than 6 times in the last 3 months. They had 3-4 AC men from different companies come by to assess and give quotes.
The unit finally breathed its last (it was from the 60s or 70s) and we were without ac for about 1 week. No big deal...I grew up without it...

What else?
The light in the kitchen hasn't worked in 4 months. But we never like to bother the owners or property managers because it's such a headache and we are pretty easy going...so we just did dishes in the dark for awhile.

What else?!
A month ago Levi is napping in his room, and I'm enjoying my quiet time of the day, when I hear LOUD, house-shaking hammering from the front of the house. I peek my head out not knowing what I'll see, only to find one of their go-to handy men banging on the garage area, with what looks like a hammer. I have no idea what he's doing but I don't like confrontation so I just pray Levi sleeps through this...
He doesn't.
About 20 minutes later there's a knock on the door, and he wants to know if I know where the electric outlet is so he can get electricity to his tools...
I don't even know why he's here or what he's doing. He didn't offer that and I didn't ask.  But I smile-- while fuming on the inside, and show him where the outlet is located outdoors...

What else?
Ryan spent about 3 hours scrubbing the driveway with horribly toxic chemicals because he spilled some oil while working on our car, and they demanded the stains be removed immediately.  I get wanting them removed but the micromanaging is killing us.   This old house was RUNDOWN from the day we first moved in.  They also upon biannual walkthrough inspection insisted that he fix the towel rack that was broken, and that the doorknob missing on the door in the twins room be replaced immediately. (We removed the doorknob purposefully because the boys kept locking us out and didn't understand out to let themselves back out.)

I KNOW we are renting and when we return this house to the owners it needs to be in the same condition it was when we moved in...But I CANNOT keep up with it daily. It WILL be back in order when we move out, but we have 5 children. 2 of them have special needs. They lock themselves in their room accidentally, they hang on towel racks and break them. They take chalk and write on the walls. They bust through the screens in the back patio. They break the blinds in EVERY WINDOW of the house, and every time they do the walkthrough they insist we replace the blinds again.
DANG IT WE WILLLLLLLL but replacing them just for them to be broken again is so STUPID! LET us replace them when we move so they'll be perfect and stay that way! We've gone through a dozen blinds this year alone.
Anyway...

I get so internally shamed when someone says "you're doing a great job," or "you handle everything with such grace.." because I don't.
I yell and throw things. I get completely exasperated and I start to understand how easily I could slip into a state of depression or lunacy. I imagine what it would be like to go running out the front door and peel out of the drive way. I laugh and then cry at how miserable some of my daily moments can be.

The blessing of this blog is a I have a place to put my frustrations. The curse of this blog is the same...my frustrations and struggles are public and shareable. But it does my heart good to know that even though you see me smiling out in public or in my nicely-filtered Instagram photos, I most likely went through a tiny hell to get out of the door and put the smile on my face.

So thanks for reading, and thanks for reminding yourself that you just never know what someone else is going through behind their doors.  Be kind and quick to offer a hug, and if you rent your property out, show some empathy to the family who promises they're trying their best. They might be telling the truth.