Stupid Bitch Update

If you read this post and this post, you're up to speed. If you haven't, well whatever.

So "Jeannie" got ahold of us yesterday and offered us the house after all. Of course she had to mention that the owner ripped her a new one because I called him directly. Awww really? Too freaking bad.

The woman obviously harbors some hostility against us. I can't blame her but honestly, mayhaps you shouldn't have pissed us off. Just sayin'

So the house was offered to us yesterday on the following conditions:

• Full rental price (which we were okay with to begin with)
• 1/2 month's rent for a pet deposit (yes, we could have Astrid)
• Any changes, work, fixing, anything has to be requested in writing and approved by the owner before starting.
• We are not allowed to ever contact the owner directly again.
• Six month lease needs to be signed.
• We are responsible for all the yardwork.
• Decision had to be made last night.

You know I did love this house. I just feel like "Jeannie" would make our lives a living hell for the six month lease. Also as much as I do really enjoy yardwork and we offered it (even though they provided it), that was the bargaining tool to have my dog, but now they want a pet deposit on top of getting free mowing, weeding, planting? And they're not lowering the rental price?

Something in my gut just screamed "You don't want this now." And I went with that. Hawks is of course disappointed because he really does love this house but even he agrees we both have to love it and want to live there.

So that's that. We sent her an email last night explaining that we were going to pass. That we got off on the wrong foot and we hate that because we really do try to be model tenants, etc etc. In my opinion, it boils down to: You're a bitch and I don't want to deal with you for the next 6 months, also the house needs some TLC and I don't want to always have to wait for permission to get anything done.

Stupid Bitch is Stupid

Haha Kimberlee - YOU WISH

I can't promise anything but I hope this is the last bloggity blog I write that has me bitching, venting & complaining about house hunting. I hope. I hope. I hope.

We're not looking to buy just yet. We need to rent for at least another year. Bunky has one more year left of high school and then she'll be enlisting in the Army. Even still we'd like to have a 4 bedroom so we still have a little bit more for an office, guest room or whatever.

In my last post about house hunting I mentioned a house that Hawks had found by accident. Well, we just can't seem to catch a break honestly and I'm not sure why.

The house was perfect. It had three bedrooms PLUS a finished attic which brings it up to the 4 bedroom minimum we need. You know math, I didn't need to tell ya. :p It had 1.5 bathrooms which is .5 short of what we'd like but it was in the country. The country and that there makes up for missing a half of bathroom really. Everything was great about this house, the size, the price, the location. *queue the scary music*

Then we find out that the perfect house was where this happened... Autopsy confirms savagery of slaying. Yuh, that happened. I've never really thought about it but I also never thought I'd be asking myself if I could ever live in a house where someone was brutally murdered. Not just brutally murdered but it was one of the most brutal murders in Douglas County history.

Think on that a second. Could you live there?

I really thought about it and came to the conclusion, only after reading every archive on the murder from discovery to conviction, that yes I could. On one condition, if we got the house, we'd have a memorial plaque made to put up in the livingroom that would say "Another Mom for Peace - In loving memory of Carmen Ross". I thought it was a weird idea but everyone I spoke to said it seemed like the right thing to do.

Our minds were made up, we wanted to rent this house. Too bad the land lady was a bitch. Yea, the actual owners live in California now and have "Jeannie" managing this house in their absence. Everything was great, love love love the house, no weird vibes, school district works for us, it put me just a smidge farther from work - I'd live, she said we could have a garden, chicken coop, and as many cats as we want to combat the "farm house mouse problem". However, NO DOGS!

Wait... what?

Cats galore - indoor - outdoor but NO DOGS!?!

Do I look destructive & unruly?

I have a small dog named Astrid. She is a black lab/basset hound mix. Probably weighs 32 lbs. She's adorable, crate trained, never unsupervised (if she can't be supervised, she's in her crate), potty trained and non destructive. My gosh, she's like 2.5 years old & past puppy problems.We explained this to "Jeannie". We even tried bargaining... "We'll mow the yard ourselves, we'll repaint the deck & under the awnings, we'll even remove all the debris by the outbuilding" where a huge brick chicken coop once stood (apparently). Just let us have our dog.

Bargaining turned out to be the wrong thing to do with "Jeannie". Everything we suggested did nothing to benefit her at all. Why should she let us mow the yard? "That would take money out of *my* pocket," she says. Her husband has a deal with the owner to come out and mow every other Saturday. Heaven forbid, they lose that change, right?

And of course we're not professionals so she'd prefer that we not try to add value to the house by painting, fixing or basically tending to anything. As for the debris, well that outbuilding it's next to is actually rented by the owner's brother who he doesn't exactly get along with. So us cleaning up the mess would benefit the brother, not the owner. Which would probably piss the owner off in the long run.

*SCREAM*

We still filled out the rental application and sent it on to "Jeannie" who assured us that she'd try to get the owner to approve the dog, which I highly doubted. She seemed more like a money hungry, fake & baked, fangy bitch to me than the nice landlady pulling for the family of five & their cute dog.

Almost a full day later she sends us an email: "Can't get him to budge on the dog. Sorry."

I think Hawks had more faith in her than I did but we were both pissed. He sent an email back to her: "Is it possible for us to have the owner's number so that we may plead our case?"

Her response: "Uh no... Sorry."

Fine "Jeannie", I'm not sure if you noticed on my application that I spend 40+ hours a week on the internet working for an internet company? Well, I know how to make Google my bitch. It took me all of 10 minutes to figure out where to go and boom! I had the owner's name, address & phone number in my grubby lil hands. If you can't go through, go over. That's what 14 years of being an Army wife taught me.

I called the owner tonight and felt I had some closure. He does not want a dog at the house and has no interest in selling since he plans on retiring in a few years and moving back into it. So even though it wasn't good news, I feel better knowing that I had a fair shot at pleading our case, expressing my love for his home and throwing "Jeannie" under the bus just a little bit.

Back to looking for a 4 bedroom again tomorrow because today, we're taking a break.

But it's just so hard!

Searching for a house is a pressure filled task filled with quick decisions that could affect your financial future, suck your energy and your sanity dry. Seriously. I'm exhaustimacated.

Things in my house have been tense. Very tense, to say the least. The boys, Brody (14) & Goop (11) have been sharing a room for the past year and they're miserable. When they're miserable, everyone is miserable. I can totally sympathize. Everyone needs their own space and I'm doing the best that I can to make it happen as quickly as I can.

I've been spending time everyday looking at Craig's List rentals and to tell you the truth, nothing really changes. Also our rental season starts in May for leases to start in August. If you're not the first one to look at an opening rental, you're seriously out of luck. I've fallen in love with so many places just to realize we weren't the first to look or circumstances have changed. It's heart breaking. We need a 4 bedroom, 2+ bath and we need it like yesterday.

Another problem is that we live in a college town. It's awesome until you have to rent a place. Most rental houses we've looked at have been destroyed by the college students that have previously occupied the space. Or it's in a college neighborhood filled with college students, not kid friendly.

Last week Goop & I looked at 104 year old house for rent in the country. It had plus sides and negative sides but the biggest negatives of all was the 20 miles away from Bunky's school, the extra mileage away from my work, and the one single bathroom. There are five of us and two of us are girls. A single bathroom is not an option.

Yesterday I looked at a 4 bedroom, 1.5 bath house in town & it was nice enough, needed some work, needed more windows but probably would have worked for the 6 month lease we would have to sign. That was until I looked at the garage, or smelled it rather. Obviously the kids living there couldn't handle their beer pong very well & used the garage as a vomitory. Ewwww.

Also yesterday by pure coincidence, Hawks found the house pictured above with a FOR RENT sign out front that is literally two blocks out of town. He walked around it, peeking in windows, and talking my ear off on the phone telling me how much he loved it and that this could be *it*. I think by now we've learned not to get our hopes up, right? He came home & drove me back out there to resume the crazy house stalkish routine he started by himself of peeking into the windows, accessing the acreage, yard, and visioning potential uses of area. He called the number & we're still waiting to hear back.

I'm scared to say how perfect this house would suit us due the the fear of jinxing it... but yea. There are no neighbors even remotely close, there are 2 mini grain silos, a small stable area, the remnants of an old chicken coop, 2-3 outbuildings, what appeared to be a garden area that hasn't been used for awhile, huge corn fields in back & on the right side, the left side is open front yard filled with mature (hammock) trees and a creek that is about 4-5 feet wide running along the edge of the yard.

The house itself has a porch swing, what appears to be a balcony/deck coming off the master? bedroom, has a basement/storm shelter,  finished attic, nice kitchen, good size livingroom, awesome country views, etc etc. Of course we need to get in to actually check out the rooms upstairs, etc.

Anyways, that is where we stand right now.
Cross your fingers and wish us luck.
I'm so tired of looking.