Happy News/Crappy News

I know, I know. I shouldn't use that word, but it ryhmes, and it works. Happy news first:



Cheepa! (which I have been informed is a naughty word in Polish...who knew?) Isn't he adorable and lovely and handsome and delicious and....oh! I can't wait to meet him.

Snow! Here I was whining to Jeff that we hadn't really gotten any good snow this year. While its still not a record or anything, we've got a good amount, and its still coming down. Its too hard to tell how much of it is out there since the wind is blowing like crazy. Nothing like dressing your kids up like mummies to go outside for 15 minutes, which, ironically, is the same amount of time it took to get them dressed in the first place. Unfortunately Jeff got to work only to find out that the 'don't come to work til 10am' email went to his junk folder. Lovely. Hopefully they let him out early. Also, the snow reminded me of why I love my neighborhood. This morning, there were no fewer than three of our neighbors out with their snowblowers, clearing their driveways and the neighbors too. Our next door neighbor did our sidewalk and driveway! Bless him! And a nice older guy down the street did probably 4 or 5 houses worth of sidewalk, and who knows what else. Another neighbor cleared and shoveled for the sweet lady across street. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And now for the crappy news.

Those Europeans are brutally honest: More Rental Saga
So yesterday was another depressing day on the rental front. I showed the house yesterday to a husband, wife and their daughter who looked about 20. The parents spoke little English, but the daughter spoke it well so she was the liaison. They were some sort of European, and since I am an uneducated yokel I couldn't tell where, except to guess somewhere not in, but around, Russia. Helpful, I know. Anyway, they were very nice. I explained, again, to them that the house was not in good shape. They nodded like they understood. Well, we walked in and were greeted by the lovely smell that cannot be mistaken: urine. They immediately looked around and back at me with a repulsed look. I know its hard to see past all the filth, and the smell. The man didn't even see the whole downstairs before he walked out. The women looked upstairs, I think out of courtesy, and then said 'We need to get outside now!' All the while, they kept looking at me and saying things like 'How can people live like this?' and 'This is disgusting.' Pretty much the same thing that the others have said, and totally understandable. When we went outside for some much needed fresh air, they asked a lot of questions about the house. I told them what we would be doing (which will greatly improve the house and return it to its former condition, and in some ways better). The guy told me that we would have to do a whole lot more than that to improve the house. He told me everything would have to be redone. (Two sidenotes: all the while, between questions, they were bantering back and forth in their native language, even arguing at times; also, at this point in the story, the guy whipped out an ad for his renovation business...clever, no?) He also asked if I was going to be putting in central air before the next tenant. Uh, no. I don't even have central air in my house. Lets repeat this again, folks, its a R-E-N-T-A-L! If you want the Taj-Mahal, buy your own house and fix it up, or be prepared to fork out upwards of $2000 or more to get what you want. Anyway, the guy shook his head and said, 'No, we can't live here.' The woman asked if we were going to be doing anything about the kitchen (through her daughter). I told her that aside from cleaning and painting, the kitchen would be the same. She shook her head in disgust, and she said in the first and only English I heard her speak, 'The kitchen is disgusting.' (I agree in its current state, it is disgusting, but she meant the kitchen in general: size, cabinets, etc.) The man told me that we would keep getting the 'same trash until you do something about that kitchen.' As rude as it sounds, I really think he was just being honest, with no intent to be mean. No surprise, they told us they were not interested. I cried on the way home. It was all just too much. I am angry that the tenants have managed to do so much damage in 10 months, and that we can't even show it like it is. I was angry that they insulted the kitchen the way they did. I never liked that kitchen, but it worked, and there were 17,000 kitchens like it built here in L-town, and people have been using them for 50+ years. I know plenty of people who are not 'trash' who live with similiar kitchens. Anyway, the whole thing was ridiculous and frustrating. We are now waiting till closer to the time that the tenants move out to advertise and show it again. It is just too disgusting to show, and we fear that when people see it like it is now, they will not give it a second chance if they are still looking at the end of the month. So there you have it, another depressing installment of 'don't you want to have your own rental property?'