FA+
Shop
*tired sigh* ...
9 years ago
Well, it's been a long, depressing afternoon... Spent the better part of the last week scouring Richmond for houses/apartments/town houses for rent. Been talking back and forth with reps about rent costs and pet fees to get a good handle on our potential options for moving out. Had three locations lined up to visit this afternoon...but, it only took visiting two to completely crush my hopes of getting out of this piece of shit house...
The first location we visited, we made the mistake of being honest about having three cats. Apparently, when renting, 2 cats is relatively acceptable, while 3 is waaaaaaaay too many cats. My husband got angry with the rep and we up and left without even discussing rent or setting foot in a unit. Which is fine, as I doubt the rate would have been in our price range anyways. It still was incredibly awkward though and feeling the sting of shame and embarrassment was not exactly how I had envisioned this tour-de-future home unfolding...
Tried to shove that feeling down though as we drove the 10 minutes to the other apartment complex I had been speaking with. Had a much more friendly conversation with a guy roughly our age and even made it as far as talking about rental rates and fees. We've been renting this house for so long, I'm a bit out of the loop on how the cost of rent is determined and what all is added to it. I truly didn't realize that they legitimately change their damn rates every single day. To the point where he could only hold a particular rent cost for us for 48 hours! Obviously there's all the usual administrative fees, deposits, and pet deposits that go into setting up a lease. However, it was a brand new concept to me that your pets ALSO pay rent...separately...for EACH PET...EVERY MONTH. And this place wanted $25 per cat each month...meaning OUR rent at $892 [as he quoted us and again could only hold for 48 hours] plus the pet's personal rent would mean paying $942. And that doesn't include utilities or electric...
The whole point of moving was to try and downsize our living situation and hopefully go back to having a rent that would be $850 or lower [which was the rate we already struggle to reach each month]. But no. Shit has changed in this state and at the present moment, there really doesn't appear to be anything better. So, we have no choice but to tell our landlord that we're going to accept our 1K a month rent and pray that the roof doesn't cave in on us for another year...
So, I'm officially dubbing this The Year of Waiting. We're going to wait another year and hope that both my husband and myself can find better jobs so we can actually afford shit. I'm going to spend another goddamn summer mowing this shitty yard... And I guess if I'm incredibly unlucky I'll be spending another summer breaking my back at the same dead end retail job through Back to School season...
Just kill me now...
I wanna be like "I hate those renter people, and you're really nice and your situation is bs you guys should come live with me and my SO" but irl details make that so much harder, especially the whole, opposite sides of the country part. Kind of a buzzkill lol
Anyways, I hope your situation improves. I hate that "just one more year" feeling but sometimes you just have to pull through it
Anyways, we're going to keep looking as we have until the end of this month before our lease needs to be dissolved or renewed with our landlord. Ideally I had hoped to find a new place now and give ourselves a month to try and go through all our accumulated junk so that we can squeeze back into a smaller space without living in clutter. It's just been frustrating to find that rent has skyrocketed so high and they've added on so many different fees.
Money-wise we're definitely much better staying where we are. It certainly is the best deal for the amount of space we have and the area we live in. I worry constantly though about the state of some things (like the roof above the kitchen sink) that seem like they're steadily getting worse. And the yard we have is pretty big, which would be great if we ever used it for entertaining...but, it is an absolute bear to mow. I'd be thrilled to not have yard work to do in the summer heat along with all the bullshit my current job throws at me during that time...
Anyways, we'll see what today brings and where tomorrow takes us. That's just kind of what life is right now...