Pros & Cons...

Pros & Cons to Up Grading to a Rental Home!

We are currently in a town home (that I have learned to hate, it's just toooo small!!!) and would love to move into a house but it is not just as easy as clicking my red shoes together and wishing to have one!  So we are thinking about the options....

~stay where are till we are ready to buy

or

~renting a house

I would love to buy so at the end of the day the place would be mine to change anything I want, paint the walls any color I or the kids want, change the yard to have the trees and flowers I want, kids could have their own rooms, by the appliances I want, a yard the kids and the dog can run and play in...

But unfortunately we never seem to be "ready"

So we started looking for homes to rent.  But as we look I can't help but think that if we do rent a house the cost of rent will go up which will put us further away from the BIG goal of owning! 

We did find a house that was only a little over $250 more a month in rent but it was not much bigger than the town house we are in so here are the Pros & Cons...

Pros:

*Everyone (well kids) would have there own room!!!! (This is what we want the most!)

*Right School District!!!

*Fenced in bigger back yard

*My Own Drive Way!!!  (I hate it when people park in the spot that I clam as mine!)

*Linen Closet! (yes we don't have one and it has been a pain!)

*A Pantry and a Coat Closet! (we have turned our downstairs coat closet into a pantry and it has been a pain to figure out what to do w/ the coat during the winter)

*Bigger Closet for Hubby & I!  (Do I need to say more, lol)

*In our price range!  (most homes are $500+ more a month than we pay here)

Cons:

*The back yard is all red clay!!!  (do not want to fight that on the carpet)

*Living room and Kitchen are a lot smaller! (worried about where the fish tanks would go)

*Rent is MORE! (so owning will take longer to do)

*The opening to the attic is smaller!  (the big boxes that we have in ours would not fit through it)

*Where to store the bigger item that won't fit attic

*It is through a rental company so they are stricter  (can't paint walls & add a trampoline, two things I wanted to do) 

*Ugly Beige(or Cream) colored walls!  (I have been living w/ them for 4 year and as luck would have it they are the same ugly color at the house we found)

*To get to the back door you would have to go through my room or go out the front door and through the gate

*Landry room is not finished so it is wood beams

So... What do you think?

We can fix a few of the Cons like mulching the back yard so kids and dog don't track in the red clay.  Hubby thinks that it would probably be ok to paint the walls white.  Put one fish tank in our room, one in living room, one in  dinning/kitchen area and get rid of most of the small ones.  Get smaller boxes for some things in attic and use the move to go through and get rid of all the junk we have collected and don't need.   

So I think that now makes the Pros more right!?!

We just can't decide since the place was not "Perfect", but what place would be!?!  I was hoping for a little more....

So do we wait???

Or do we get it???

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~

  

Diary of a Wimpy Complaining Mom!!!!

Complaining Session!!!

So I'm NOT complaining at my hubby again and since no one reads my blog I am going to use it tonight as my "Diary of a Wimpy Complaining Mommy!" So here it goes....

We rent our place b/c it is cheap and in the area we want to be, it is a cute town little town house, middle unit. But it is old and has problems, lots of them and once one get fix it seems like there is another one! The AC unit, dish washer, water leaking from the unit on the left then the one on the right, leaky sinks, leaky tubs..... and so on and so on!!! Now it is the shower in the kids bath room, you turn the nob so the water will go up to the shower and NOTHING!!! Now I am no expert but if the water is on and it is not coming out the bottom or the top were is it going AND THAT CAN'T BE GOOD!!!! So now we need to call the land lord to come and take a look at it but he sometimes take forever to fix some thing like the leaky faucet and he has not been able to fix the dish washer that will run all night if you don't baby sit it!!! In the mean time I am currently sick (head and body aches, throat is itchy, tired, but no fever) for the second time (felt fine last week but was like this the one before!). So every one is using the shower in my bath room =( Which is fine for a day or 2 but it is helpful to be able to bathe the 3 yr. old while one of the boys is shower in their bath room!

Another thing to complain about is that I am soooooooo TIRED!!!! I am not doing a very good job of keeping the house clean, I feel like I am living in the van dropping off and pick up all 3 kids, I am having nightmares, and I am very stressed out!!!! I thought (silly me) that once all 3 kids went to school I could get it together have the house clean every day, walk the dog (which would give me the exercise I need to lose those pesky 10 lb that are bothering me), volunteer at the schools, and still have free time to read a book or scrapbook or something for me!!! But no I was in a dream!!! I have 3 kids at 3 different school going at 3 different time to drop them off and then picking them up at 3 different times so I spend a lot of time going back and forth, to and from!!!!!!!!

And a lot of my energy is spent fighting w/ my 8 yr. old to do the simple thing he is suppose to do on his own like starting his homework, getting ready for school, getting in the shower, reading before bed time!!! Everything w/ him is a battle and it is waring me down!!! So while I have 3 very short hours (more like 2 and half b/c I have to drive home and and drive back) 3 days a week while Lila is at school, I usually spend them on the couch w/ the tv so I can relax and breath for a couple minutes and watch someone else problems on a show or 2! Yes I am very productive!!!! Very wise w/ my time!!!

Well it is time to battle the bed time w/ the said 8 yr. old, WISH ME LUCK, even though I know I will win (I always do b/c we all need sleep even him!!!)!!!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

(So am trying to get there!!!)

~The Wimpy Complaining Mom~

~RA~

To Be New Neighbors Or Not To Be, That is the QUESTION!!!!

We live in the middle of a 3 unit townhouse and unfortunately we don't get to pick our neighbors. We have lived here for 3 year now and have lost one of the neighbors that movied in at the same time as us several months ago. The new family that moved has been much better than the last one that was there. Now the neighbor on the other side has moved back home to NY and the landlord has been in there fixing it up (when he has time) for several weeks! And in the 3 weeks'ish that he has been working on it people have been in and out looking at it. Some look like great people others not so, not that I am judging by the the cover of the book or anything. I just want a family with great kids to move in so they can play with my kids!!! Is that too much to ask for?

What is totally funny about this unit that we did not have with the people looking at the other one is that some of the visitors have questions and they are knocking on our door to ask them, I guess the landlord doesn't have all the answers and is sending them to us!

First People to ask us a Questions was a cute Young Couple w/ a baby on the way....

"How much is water and power in a place like this?"

Justin and I: "Hahahahahahaha!!!!"

(Yah not the nicest answers but..... right now we can't really answer that, not b/c we don't have those bill or b/c we don't pay them but b/c ours is not "the norm"! We have like 3 to 5+ computers on 24/7, tvs on all the time, radio in the baby's room that is always playing the classical station, and 5 fish tanks that run their filters 24/7 plus their light all day long! So we are not the best with the whole save the world cut back on your use of power people. I hope one day we will do better!) (And the water... same thing we have had a bad leak in the boys bathroom in both the sink and the tub that started as a drip and over the years is more of a stream. The landlord has fixed the sink and tried to fix the tub but said he needs to get a plumber to come in to do it. Plus the dishwashers timing thing gets stuck and if I forget to move it past the stuck point it will run all night!)

So Justin was truthful and told them that our bills are not the normal ones that they would probably have!

Second Person w/ a Question and I was the only one home!

"Do you have any problems w/ roaches?"

This one was a hard one, did not want to be dishonest since if she took the place she would figure it out and I would look like a lier!!! So I sugar coated it the best I could...

"Yes, since this area is very wooded we get the big ones. I never see itty bitty ones so I don't think there is a roach problem. They just come in threw the cracks of the door and we kill them when we can catch them."

Truth is that all I see are big ones but I do think that there is a roach problem b/c after kill one there is always another one waltzing around!!! And it is driving me nuts!!!

Another Yet Very Stupid Question for both Justin and I....

They (it was a family) noticed all the traffic on our busy street (we live on well used road that is only 2 lanes so the speed limit is only 35 but it goes to 45 up the street so not everyone is going 35 as they speed by)...

"Does the traffic noises die down at any times?"

Our answer: "No not really, but we don't really notice it. We have been living near busy road for a long time."

Them: "Oh, even at night?"

Hubby: "It slows down at night but you can still hear cars go by here and there all night."

Me: "And the train goes by right behind us and you can hear that pretty well!"

(I guess I could have left that one out but we could hear them when they were looking at the place, they keep saying "it needs a lot of work" and yes it does but it is an old place and a rental so..... there is only so much you can do!)

I did add: "The schools around here are great!"

Them: "Oh we home school so that doesn't matter. What about the neighborhood? Driving down the road coming here some of the people look..... "

Me: "Neighborhood is great, have not heard of any brake ins, everyone seem to keep to themselves. Had some problems with some kids not getting along with ours but thats about it."

(I'm not sure why they question the neighborhood, yes we are not in a richy area, yes people are outside working on their cars or yard or just siting around, it was the weekend! And yes the houses were small and not great looking, this area is pretty old!!! and there are tons of new pretty expensive houses and neighborhood being built right down the street and they make the smaller older ones look like crap but does not mean the people are!!! Thank you very much!!!)

So as people go in and out next door I try to peek through my window to check them out but I think I might run and hide if anyone rings the bell to ask a "QUESTION"!!!!

Lol =)

I just have to remember that hopefully someday soon it will be our turn to be new neighbors in our one day house!!! And I to will be asking the "QUESTIONS"!!! But for now I have to be patient and hopefully we will GET Great Neighbors!!!

~Love~Smile~Enjoy~Happiness~

~Ra~