Not So Picture Prefect

When Matthew left Washington to look for job...I never thought that it would be so quick. Matthew drove down on Wednesday made it to Houston, Texas by Friday late afternoon. Met with a person on Monday and had a job by Tuesday. They said they had work but I don't think we realize how fast it would be. I was able to find Matthew a cheap hotel but we couldn't afford more than a couple of weeks. I know it not the best place to look for homes to rent is on Craigslist but our credit not so great anymore. So we need to find someone to work with us...this is the house I found. It doesn't look bad from the pictures and the price for rent was right. Well these pictures were taken awhile ago when he had the house up for sale...

I figure that Matthew was just going to come down and then come back to help move us but not knowing that he would have job so quickly it messed up all our plans. Matthew moved into the house in beginning of September. The house was on the market for over a year and owner could not seem to sell it. Well, now I know why...it not worth what he is asking and it hasn't been maintained for the last couple of years. The place is falling apart and the landlord is not very easy to work with.

We moved here the first week in October.After driving 42 hours...I was exhausted. We were not here one day, when the Landlord demand his rent check (it wasn't late yet). I had no idea where my checkbook was and my Dad was not here with the moving truck.  When we started to unload the moving truck the power shut off. I was thinking the power went out in neighborhood so, I went and asked the one of our neighbor if she had power and she did. Called the power company to find out that the landlord had it shut off...I only been here 2 days! He thought that was enough time to have all the utilities change in our name. Next the water was turned off...for non payment that owner said he paid online. The Water Company is very old school ie..no online payments, everything has to be paid by check at their office. They would not let me change into our names because my name was not on the rental agreement. They need Matthew's driver license and his original social security card for me to have it changed into our names. Lucking the gas wasn't shut off; I was able to change it before they cut it off.

A week before I got to the house the fridge went out, lucky I could bring ours with me. The landlord try to sell it on Craigslist, he told the person it was working just fine...Matthew told the lady not to buy it, that it was broken and the owner knew it was broken and was trying to sell it to her anyways. He is very dishonest man.

The landlord said the house was furnished but to find out all the things he left were broken or were going to break very soon. We had to move all of his stuff out of house to able to bring our stuff in the house. He even had a piano (that I was willing to keep here, but he wanted that back); we ended up moving it to his house...thanks to my dad willing to move it for him in the moving truck.

Well to get back to the house...There were so many problems in the house because it was not maintain the last couple of years. The toilet in the master bedroom was broken, they were using the bathroom for closet because they didn't want to fix it. The counter stove pilot keep going out, which they knew but "you only need one burner, right?" When Karl removed the old mattress from room he was going to be in; there were a stack of condoms between the mattress and there were a ton of dead cockroaches underneath the bed. I was so happy that the boys mattresses made it on the truck. The owner steam clean the carpets but they didn't move any of the furniture...after we got all of his stuff out of the house, that it doesn't seem to look like it was ever done.  The water heater emergency shut off valve was broken and the water heater was making popping sounds..I was afraid it was going to blow up. The shower fixtures need to be replaced in both bathrooms they were broken, water was only trickling out. All the drains ran real slow...no Draino did not help. The doors handles on at least 4 bedroom doors didn't work.  The tiles are lifting in the front room because one of the tree outside root is pushing it up. The cabinets in the kitchen are broken or cabinet doors were over painted and would not close. The AC is older then the hill; we will be lucky if it will last a year. 
Matthew has been so busy since he got here and with the landlord being so awful..he told the landlord, he would need to repair everything.The landlord hire a couple of handymans that didn't know what they were doing to come and try fix a couple of the items on the list...they were at the house for 10 hours and left this mess:

They were able to fix a couple of things but they put the toilet in wrong they couldn't figure out mount it correctly and the water heater vent they try to put it was so badly done that a plumber had to be call out to fix both. The plumber mounted the toilet and fix the water heater(he told the owner that he need to replace it; that it was so old and was surprise it didn't explode) He also couldn't believe what the other guys did on the vent . He snaked the drains. There were plastic bags in the pipes; the owner forgot he used them to plug some of the water pipes he was not using (maybe that why the pipes don't drain...duh!!!)
The house was so filthy that it took a couple of days just to clean it before I could unloading the boxes. I can't believe people could leave it that way...he was trying to sell it??? Even his daughter said that she was couldn't believe they didn't hire some to clean the house before they rented it.


I never in my life seen so many bugs in my life til now. There were fire ant mounds throughout the front yard. Erik was playing outside hide and go seek, he knelt down to hide and didn't realize that he was on a fire ant mount...10 bites up and down his legs, I felt so sad for him. Fire ants bites are very painful. We also had ants everywhere. Not even a week later I came out to load things in my car; when I open my trunk and inside my car were hundreds of small ants. I really freaking out at this point. I had to spray & bomb, vacuum and setup traps in car to get rid of them. Ugggh! We even a couple of big hives of Red Wasps around the house. I didn't realize is the worst of all the wasps. They have larger stinger and they are more painful if you get stung by them. We had carpenter ants coming down from the ceiling. The first couple of days we were going through bug spray and fire ant killer powder like crazy. I have seen all the bugs I ever wanted to see....I had so many bugs that I finally hire a exterminator to come out. Which the exterminator got stung by red wasp...lucky it wasn't one of my kids this time.  The insects seem to be better now but the temperature is getting cooler (65 degree outside). They are not as active as before and I think that the exterminator had a lot to do with it too!

Here is the backyard before I cleaned up:

I forgot mention that the landlord thought that someone would want the old broken toilet so he left it on the front lawn(come on; who would come get used broken toilet???). We let the toilet stay on the front lawn for a couple days until the HOA management company started to complain that it need to be removed so we made him come get it...he was not too happy with us. He also stop his lawn service a month before we arrive so Karl had to mow the lawn the first day we go here because he was going to give us the voilation fee from HOA that the grass was too high.

I forgot to take pictures of the front before I cleaned up...26 large garbage bags and weeks of extra garbage we finally have a clean yard:

Getting your kids into school is a nightmare here...Washington is so easy fill out a couple forums and it all done. Not here...20 pages later, everyone IDs (not copies it has to be all originals...how many of you know where your original social security cards are?), Medical History, Rental Agreement, Electric Bill, Transcripts, Reports Cards and tons more that I just can't think of right now. It took over a week to get them into school.
But a couple of positive things: Karl loves going to Jersey Village High. Karl is in the band here which is so different from back in Washington. Their is two thing in Texans that take very seriously; Football and Band. They practice everyday and have competitions on the weekend. The bad thing is the school is 25 minutes away from our house so I have been busy driving back and forth. It has slow down now...I do get to see him once in awhile. He decide he was done playing the flute and now is playing a baritone. He is excited to go Corpus Christi this Spring with the band. He still wishes that they had German but there is very little choices for foreign languages here. Erik and Kjell are doing good at Reed Elementary. They just had an assembly for Veteran's Day that each grade level got to sing a different patriotic song. It was amazing. I also had the chance to help Erik's grade at their Colonial Day; where I help 125 kids make wax candles. We really like our neighbors here but we wish closer to schools and groceries stores. The food here taste different from home even if it the same brand.I thought Hostess Twinkies tasted the same everywhere, they don't it. So it not a big thing not being able to get them. I never knew they were from Texas. Everything  food in Texas is spicy or deep fried...which can be a good or bad. There is lots of work for welder here so Matthew will have a job for awhile but I do miss our house in Monroe...alot!