Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Why I don't like renting a house

At first glance it appeared that renting a home would have lots of advantages for us, for example if anything goes haywire like a leaking window or a flooding garage for example, well help is just a phone call away, and not on our dime.  What the hell was I thinking?

I knew the house we are renting wasn't in perfect condition, but assumed that it was somewhat well maintained and that there would be few, if any, repairs needed.  O.M.G.  Where do I start?

People kept telling me how much it rains in Portland and blah blah and I knew it did, so I am not complaining about the rain in this post.  What I AM complaining about are the plants, yes actual LIVE FREAKING PLANTS growing out of the gutters on the house.  The same gutter-plant combination that creates a stream of water that runs through our garage when there's a torrential downpour, which is of late an hourly occurrence.

We still have boxes in the garage, shame I know, but we do.  So I called the property mgt company to tell them about the river of water and they recommended we use towels to shore up the water until they could have someone clean the gutters in the next two days.  Yeah, that was SUNDAY, today is WEDNESDAY, and shockingly there's been no gutter cleaning.  Poor Marky cleaned out a downspout to help and I think he was dry heaving the whole time looking at 15 years worth of shit in there.

But, alas, I am ever so greatful for the rain so I don't have to worry about watering the plants in the gutters though, as I am quite sure they would die if they had to rely on my gardening talents. 

Speaking of the rain, there was a nifty little drip of water coming from the top of the window in the dining room, as noted on day 2 of our occupation of the "money pit" (if someone actually ever bought this house it would be better to just knock it down and start over, seriously).

It was nearly two weeks before the guy came out to check on it, thankfully he did take care of it, but if I were the owner of the home I would be PISSED.  Think about the mold/mildew/moss issues.

And, holy crap moss grows here like mad, I'm afraid I need to dry the kids off every hour or so lest moss start growing on them too!  You just don't want to stay in one place too long around here.

Oh, and the other WONDERFUl discovery I made today while walking around some nature trails: giant, slimy, mutant snails.  Blech.  I think I peed a little when trying to avoid a half dozen of them or so while I ran, kids trailing behind me thinking I was going to leave them (and if they couldn't keep up, well too bad) ALL THE WAY HOME to the comfort of my dry garage.  Oh, wait, the downpour started and yep, you guessed it, more water.

1 comment:

Rambling Housewife said...

Let your kids put salt on the slugs (sorry if there's any slug lovers) and watch them smoke. They'll love it! Oh, and if you can "spare" any beer in your house, a tiny dish outside near your flower beds will keep them out of the outdoor plants. You probably don't really care about the plants around "the money pitt" anyways:), but your kids will love it.