If you haven't already heard...

We are NOT moving anymore.

The last couple days have been a mess, but this is basically what happened. When we went to see the place for the first time it needed a LOT of work. The previous tenants pretty much trashed the place - there were holes and paint chipping from almost every wall in the house, the carpets were really dirty, and the kitchen appliances needed some SERIOUS scrubbing. The dishwasher door was completely bent and needed repair, and in one of the three bedrooms the carpet had been pulled off the carpet tacks. There was also no fridge in the kitchen but we saw one in the garage, so we just assumed she'd put it out there to replace the kitchen flooring (which she'd also promised us she'd do). She told us she would take care of all of this and the house would look great by the time we moved in.

On Friday it all went downhill. First, she called Sean Friday morning and said she was in town and needed us to hook up the utilities at the house. He was completely thrown off by this because we weren't planning on doing that until we moved in. I wasn't about to pay for two weeks worth of her using the utilities without us even living there.

THEN we met her in person to do a walk-through of the house. Most of what she said was only to me since Sean was in the backyard with a whiny toddler. She told me that she hoped the previous tenants would come back some time and clean the house, but if not then I would have to clean it. When we told her about the broken dishwasher she went over to it, pushed on the door a bit, and then insisted that it worked (it didn't). I asked her about getting the kitchen floor replaced and she got all flustered and said she'd have to talk to us about that later. She then looked at Sean and said, "So you can repair all the walls in the house, right?" I could understand if she would compensate us for doing all this work, but she had absolutely no intentions. The straw that broke the camels back was when she said, "Now I'm assuming you have your own fridge, right?" Um, no. We don't have our own fridge. Typically when you're renting a place your LANDLORD supplies the fridge, along with ensuring that you're moving into a place that is LIVABLE. Basically what we got from our meeting was that she won't be fixing anything in the house - now or ever - and we simply can't afford to do that. That's why we rent - so that if something breaks the landlord fixes it.

Am I being a snob about this? I don't know, but when Sean and I left the house on Friday we had some serious doubts. Those doubts were reinforced when she kept calling us over and over again yesterday after we'd told her we changed our minds. She's super pushy and to be honest every time I talk to her I'm happier that we won't be living in her house.

A lot of people have been really apologetic about this whole situation, but honestly we feel fine about it. Obviously it would have been better if we'd have just waited to see how our current manager handled the obnoxious people living below us (they got evicted last week) and didn't jump to the conclusion that the only answer was to move. That being said, the only feeling I have right now is thankfulness and relief.

So the plan (for now) is that we just stay put until our lease is up next summer. I think that things have worked out the way they should, and in the end my family is happy, healthy, and we have a roof over our heads. That's all that matters, right?