Mormon Mentality - Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People » The Big Move

By Devyn S.

Oct. 12th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

In Part 1, we made the decision to move. Once we knew we were moving, we had a month to find a rental property that was furnished. We looked at some nasty spots and went into one house and said yes and signed a lease on the spot. It looked nice enough – everything had been redone (or so we thought). We have been in the place for a month and here is a short list of things that have broken – it is a bit of a money pit (at least for the landlords):

1. Kitchen Sink leaks
2. Kitchen Faucet fell off
3. Master Bath Shower handle fell off
4. Dishwasher leaks
5. Heat in downstairs does not work
6. Multiple handles have fallen off windows when we open them
7. The house makes the strangest rattling and banging noises when the hot water/heat turn on
8. I opened the sliding door and the screen fell out

I think you get the point. At first, it was obnoxious, then it was comical. We are stuck here for three months and as long as the place does not collapse on us we will be fine. The owner sent her “handyman” over to fix the shower handle and the sink leak. He could not figure out how to install the handle so my Father-in-law, who was visiting, installed it. After that, we had no doubt where the “quality” came from. Anyway, lesson learned, but quite comical. Any other fun rental stories out there?

1. Renee

Tue, Oct. 13 @ 2:19am

Do rental stories from the mission count? Ah….where to begin?

My favorite place was the one in Kwang Ju (Korea). It was a 2 bedroom apartment–sort of–with barely enough room for 4 people. We housed 8 sisters there. My first night there, the sleeping accomodations were on a smelly old yo (tri-fold matress kinda thingy) out in the main room as there was absolutley no space anywhere else. This was my last area, so I had pretty much gotten over my germophobia by this time, but no way was I prepared for what was to come. Imagine trying to fall asleep after the exhaustion born of a P-Day move, only to feel the soft tickle of feathers on your face. I’m not sure how long it took me to becoming cognisant of the fact that the sweet little feather kisses were actually tiny cockroaches crawling accross my exposed skin, but OH THE HORROR!!!!

The next morning I was taught that prior to opening any cabinets or drawers in the kitchen, you must first knock. I guess the idea was to let the our little roachy roomies scurry away without being seen. It’s a special kind of denial, that whole “out of sight, out of mind” mantra.

Well, I never wanted to be one of “those” sisters, so I had pretty much always gone with the flow and rarely rocked the boat (purposefully anyway) but the President had to know that this was entirely unacceptable and there was no way in hell I would be staying another night in the Stephen King roach motel. I really had no choice but to make my first and only complaint call in to the office. I think the Prez’s wife nearly passed out when she came to inspect the place later that day. I opened the silverware drawer sans the warning knock for her viewing enjoyment. What I learned about cockroach infestation is that when the critters move in unison, it’s almost like a liquid symphony for the eyes–truly something to behold, however brief and creepy. We were outta there in no time flat.

The next place was better. Well, ‘cept for those cat sized rats and all. But that’s another post entirely.

2. JES

Tue, Oct. 13 @ 11:05am

My husband and I married the first part of August. He’d found us a basement studio apt. for us to sublease until I could join him and help with the apt. search (he was afraid to make a long-term commitment b/c he worried I’d hate the dumps we could afford). The place was tiny, with 6 foot ceilings. Carpet everywhere, including the bathroom (where the toilet constantly leaked and left the carpet spongy and wet-feeling all the time. But, we figured we could deal with it.
We used the side door to the house. After entering, you could walk up a few stairs to another door to under the upper level, or walk down some stairs, turn left and go through an open doorway into our apt. We didn’t even process the lack of a door to our apt b/c of the upstairs people always used the front door. Until the landlady let some friends of hers stay in the house for Education week and neglected to tell them that we were living downstairs. We were in bed for the night when they arrived and started exploring the house. We both got a surprise and fright when they walked down the stairs and turned on the light in our apt. But even worse, was when we told the landlady that we were planning to move out at the end of the month. She asked if she could show the apt to prospective renters, we told her that would be fine. We didn’t realize she wouldn’t give us advance notice. We were newly-marrieds doing newly-married things when all of a sudden we hear voices come down the stairs. We yell “just a minute!” as I make a run for the bathroom and we both scramble to put on some clothes. Of the 5 people in the room, the landlady was the only one oblivious to the whole situation. She did it to us once more before we moved out of that place.

3. Devyn S.

Tue, Oct. 13 @ 9:44pm

Renee – sounds like a great mission story – I know the feeling, we used to put all of our food into the fridge except rice. When we cooked rice, we put water in the pan on the rice and the roaches floated to the top. It was a bit gross. Of course at night we would get out the hairspray and lighters and fry roaches – that was fun…

JES – that is a great story. I have several good stories about newly married things but they will have to wait for a more anonymous setting.

4. annegb

Thu, Oct. 15 @ 12:19pm

This is kind of off the subject, but I’m noticing a trend in young people to prefer to rent rather than buy their homes. They don’t want to go into debt and don’t see owning a home as a good investment. They’re in a lot of fear. That’s just some of the young people I know.

5. a random John

Thu, Oct. 15 @ 1:02pm

annegb,

Are you suggesting he should have bought this place?

6. Devyn S.

Thu, Oct. 15 @ 9:35pm

well we are DEFINITELY not going to buy this place!