Well we are about to move again….and as we are making a list of things we look for in a home we reflect back on what we have seen and dealt with before (trying to avoid the big problems), we have to sit and laugh at everything we have encountered. Go ahead, enjoy a chuckle yourself…
So us Scott’s have lived in our fair share of uh, …..interesting places. Our first apartment wasn’t too shabby, but we did have the teenagers who cut through the back to smoke pot before school everyday, and we also had the “old” pool for the complex outside of our front door. They didn’t keep it up anymore and we had lots of cats that liked to live in it. Oh, and the power went out once….and was out for 9 days. It was the middle of summer so needless to say we were hot (and it was the top floor, and I was pregnant). Then one time our fridge went out, well didn’t just GO out, but blew hot air into it instead of cold! We were gone all day and we came home to nasty smelling chicken. Ahh…memories!
Our second apartment was (not) much better. We had interesting entertainment: the guy who got drunk and wandered around the parking lot at night singing and dancing. Oh yeah, and this is the place where the water heater blew up and it was in the same closet as the electric outlet. The guy who repaired it said to me (with my new baby laying there), “Wow lady, you are really lucky this place didn’t go up!” Niiiice.
So for our third place we thought we would opt for a brand new apartment complex….you know, we figured we would avoid appliances going out, blowing up, etc. (We’re funny people, huh?) Well after 9 beautiful months a waterline froze in an outside closet next to our apartment. It was January, and I was sitting in there 7 months pregs w/Abby. Jack was playing on the floor and then I hear splashing. I look over and think maybe we dumped his water out? Oh no….the water was coming in from outside, between the wall and the floor. Well it got worse fast, and after about 20 minutes of gushing water, the fire department shows up and fixes the problem. So after a brief hotel stay (uh, like a week), we go to our fourth place which is across the street into another apartment. Ours had to be torn apart and remodeled. Needless to say, when our lease was up we ran.
So the fifth apartment wasn’t too bad. I mean, by now, we just want to stay put somewhere for awhile! So we find an end unit of a townhouse. The place was older, and falling apart, but we learned how to deal with that and fix some things ourselves instead of relying on maintenance all the time. For the majority of that 3 year stay we even had pretty quiet neighbors, so that was fantastic. It was almost like having a house. But after having all 3 kids in one bedroom for over a year we couldn’t take it anymore.
Then…..we take the plunge and buy our first home. Sometimes I think we are the most naive people in the world. Everything was fine and dandy for about a year, and then just started seriously falling apart left and right. Water stuff, electrical stuff, animals living in the chimney, windows that don’t work, decks that collapse with small children on them….yeah, it started making us wish we’d stayed in that last apartment! Well we’ve had enough and here we are on the move again. We’ve been married 8 years and we are going on our 7th home. Oh, well if you count the 6 week stay with the Olivers it would be 8th….lol….
So what do we look for now? Most people want nice woodwork, or a garage, or new appliances, or a pool. Yeah, that stuff is SO far behind us! If we made an extensive list of what we wanted to avoid we wouldn’t ever find a place. So the list goes something like this: 3 bedrooms, a nice private landlord (w/a 24 pager in case something blows up), somewhere outdoors the kids can play, windows that open and doors that shut. Yep, that’ll work.
