Zenzy carried my house shoe outside. She was all excited and like always she’s got to have something in her mouth when she’s all excited. She left the shoe below the porch and Indra stole it from her.

So we went to the place yesterday to check it out. It is small, very small and I am not sure if all the furniture, dinner table and couch will fit in there but we will make it work somehow.
However, the ceiling is pretty low but other than that it has the cozy cabin style. If I got that right the place used to be a trailer home but they took it apart and insulated it thouroughly and gave it a ranch style home. When you walk in it feels like being in a cabin somewhere in the mountains.

The landlords own over a 100 acres of land. Unbelievable. They live right next door and respond immediately if something needs to be fixed. They have three dogs of their own as well as three cats.

It has three rooms, bathroom as well as the living area, it’s just half the size of what we have right now but that is okay with me. We’ll work it somehow and even if we have to sell some of our stuff on craigslist and buy a new couch to make it work.

Who would have thought that in just two or three days things could turn around and work out in our favor. It is such a big relief that we can get out of here by January and move into a place that is not only closer to post but also much much cheaper, cozy and with sooo much land where you can walk in any direction with the dogs and just let them RUN! 🙂

Ever since we reached out there has been some great help and awesome offers.

The Agent Lisa Eddy showed us a place that is simply a dream house. Oh my god, I would love to have that house so bad but it is a little outside our price range. If I had a job it wouldn’t be a problem but I don’t want to have to call her, saying “Look, we can’t afford the place anymore” because I could not find a job.

Another military family is PCS’ing. They have a doggie too, that is actually how we got to know each other. She was looking for somebody to look after her dog. We met up and checked how our dogs would get along together. Turns out that they are looking for somebody to take over their place. The dogs wouldn’t be an issue at all and it’s 1000 Dollars all utilities included, a month.
We are going there today and check it out. It’s suppoed to be small but I don’t care. It has 10 Acres of land which is perfect for the dogs and I am so thankful for the offer.

A different option would be to buy a place. We had a NY State Inspector out here and he has a place for sale but is also willed to look out for us.

Our landlord contacted us saying that he could go down in the rent.

But I don’t know if I want to live here anymore. There has been so much going on, we still can’t close the living room door completely and there is so much cold air coming in that we’ll go bankrupt from just heating this place. The handy man did not come out the day after he plugged the airtapes in and he did promise that he’d come out the next day. So we have a superlong cable in our bathroom which I feel not comfortable with.

Even though I love this place and even we put a lot of work and cleaning into it. Just because you love something, doesn’t mean you can live with it. So we agreed to look at the 1000 Dollar place and let the dream house go. My husband doesn’t even want to look at it because he knows that once he’s seen it, he probably wants it too.

There would be a lot that would speak for the dream house. It’s central in Watertown, so I wouldn’t need a car, I could just walk from spot to spot and find a job. I wouldn’t be stuck out in the country and we wouldn’t need to purchase a second car.
But we just don’t know if I can find a job that fast and we don’t want to move into a great place and then find out that we can’t afford it afterall.

The 1000 dollar place will give us a lot of room. We’d have BAH money left over that we can put on the side for the next move. We wouldn’t need an AER loan at all. We just got our refund yesterday which was a big relief.

I guess some people would have rather had us get rid of two dogs and move on post but that is not going to happen. Those dogs are my life and I’d rather go back to Germany and live with my parents instead of letting go of any of them. We managed to ship them over here, despite everybody saying that we couldn’t do it. And to say that the only reason we want to live off post is because of the dog isn’t true either. I want to live off post because I want a life outside the Army.

Even if we had no dogs at all I would want to live off post, at least we get to chose the apartment and neighborhood ourselves and I can have a life outside the Army. The Army consumes our everyday life already and decides where we have to go next and what they do with our husbands, at least I want to decide where we live, how we live and how much we are going to pay for it. I am the one that has to live with that place once my husband goes into field or gets deployed.

When we first started corresponding with our (now) landlord we had quite a few prospects and places we could have moved into. However, my friend Chris went out there and looked at the place for us. The landlord was working on the house and he showed her around the house, she took pictures of everything, asked about the damages and he agreed that he would fix it all up and most importantly have it cleaned professionaly.

We knew that the place was not perfect and well instructed about the damages that she could see (he did not tell us anything about the previous conditions and how the tenants before us left it behind) but we had his verbal and written agreement that he would fix it up. That is why we agreed to rent the place in the first place.

We started corresponding with him back in October. That is how long we’ve been talking to him before we got to the US.
One of the reasons why I wanted this place was because of the dogs. It’s perfect out there and I love the land and countryside. I can open the doors and let them run.

However, when my husband arrived there, the place has not been professionally cleaned, the carpet has not been cleaned. There were still holes in the ceiling, walls, when he stripped down the wallpapers mold came to the surface, our doors can’t be locked, we get Ice inside the house. Whenever I touch something I have to worry that it’s falling apart, we have cracks in the wall, the mudroom door can’t be closed because if we do, we can’t get it open because it’s shape warped. The entire siding was missing, according to the plumber the insulation is falling apart underneath the house and we should move out ASAP.

We put everything into this move and if we hadn’t had that written agreement, we would have never moved in. Plus our landlord used to be an Officer with the Army so we took his word because he knows better than that.

There was hair sticking on the bathroom wall from the previous tenants, mold in the fridge, fruitstaints, it looked like something exploded in the microwave, the wodden panels in the bathroom are rotting.

When I got here from a two day trip… I cried and wanted to leave. I could not believe that our landlord did not stick to what he agreed to. The previous tenants abandoned this place. They were military too. I saw the pictures how they left it behind and I was in shock. I could not believe that the same carpet is still in here. we have cleaned most of the house, made the best of the situation but I couldn’t believe that our landlord, let us move into this place, knowing what is wrong with it, not fullfilling his part of the agreement.

We are stuck. We don’t have money to pay another security deposit. We were just two days without water because the pipes froze due to the siding being gone. The landlord said he replaced it all, why would you use siding that has already holes in it and is damaged?
How can the wind blow the siding IN if it’s going outwards? If the wind blew it in, shouldn’t it be going inwards? It did get fixed yesterday, but it’s only a temporary fix, at least that is what B. our landlords “handy-man” said who was certain that it wasn’t the pipes, that it was the pumps.

We made the best of our situation, cleaned most of the house ourselves because I couldn’t live like that. He wanted us to commit to a two years agreement but I did not sign it and I knew why I didn’t sign it before I had seen the place with my own eyes. From day one our landlord kept promising and promising and promising and nothing happened. At least I got him to agree to a six months agreement and when I read the agreement I bursted out in laughter. I did not sign it, either. I wanted to give him a chance to fix it up. Six months would give him the time to keep his promises and us the time to look for a new place but I ended up not signing it either because each and every day something else broke and when we went out of water that was it.. I wanted to have a way out of this mess.

When the water went out… it was the final straw. We were two days without water. Our next door neighbors, God bless them for their kindness, helped us tremendously. They supplied us with water, they made the calls, said that they would share everything they have and we could come over and do laundry and shower as long as we were out. They also instructed us about the previous condition of the house and told us that the previous tenants were out of water for a week. The landlord on the other hand said that it never happened before. When I confronted him he was said the previous tenants never told him so he did not know what was going on.

When I made my final decision that we would move out he told us to repair the damage i.e stripping down the wallpapers and everybody was like “Really?” we would have not found out about the mold and even though the painting is not completely done, it’s a ten times improvement. It actually looks habital at first sight but there is so much going on with that house and I don’t want to walk bare-foot on this carpet anymore, the mold, everything that is falling apart, that we have to use our electricity to keep the pipes from freezing, the insulation falling apart, the doors we can’t lock and the ice INSIDE the window, rotting wood panels in the house, all the dirt, that we have to clean it ourselves… even though he agreed in writing, via e-mail and gave us his word that he would fix it all up.

We have no choice but to print it all out, go through legal and find a different place ASAP. Even if we have to go through the local news to find a place.
We made an international move, used all our funds, we held our part of the agreement. We paid the security deposit, November and December. He is in the wrong. He did not honor the agreement and to tell me to put a stick in the door to lock it…
I don’t know if I should cry or laugh hysterically. If it wasn’t for his agreement to fix and clean it, we would have never went with it and the worst part is that it’s pretty much military screwing military. He used to be an Officer, got screwed by his previous tenants who are military as well and now he is screwing us…

Is that how we treat each other?
What about the great Army Values. To be honest, it seems like it’s all hot air. It ain’t worth nothing…

It’s not even two weeks till Christmas and we are dead broke.

I don’t know what to do anymore but I had to get it off my chest.
I just can’t believe that we got screwed over like that even though we have everything in writing.

Mind you, we pay a 1000 Dollar for this place and my friend blames herself. It’s not her fault at all. We would have agreed to the house if it was ourselves being out there since he agreed in writing to fix it all up and have it profesionally cleaned. It is a beautiful place. It could be such a cute house… nobody could have known…

You can see the broken sliding door as well as the mold. It’s going from bottom to top. I adressed everything and he has promised to fix it. Nothing has been done yet. In fact, he wanted us to do it ourselves and give him the receipt of the mold blocker.
Mold next to the sliding door. We tried to clean it up but it’s already coming back through the primer and we can’t do it. It needs to be professionally adressed. Also, you can see the staints on the carpet.

Rotting wooden panels in the bathroom, mold and dirty everywhere. More pictures to come.

Ice inside the window because it doesn’t close right, is badly insulated and can’t be locked either.

Holes in the walls and waterdamage.
Disgusting. The toiled actually overflowed right after we moved in.
One of the bathtubs.
Everything is falling apart.
Rotting bathroom, walls and panels.

Do I have to post more pictures? He agreed, to fix all of that up. He said he cleaned the carpet twice and when I confronted him about it not being clean he said he didn’t have it professionally done because we have dogs and he thought there was no need to. The carpet was covered in feces and we wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for our neighbors.
He actually advertised the place as a nice countryhome with brandnew carpets.

I feel bad that he got screwed over and that the previous tenants did that to him. I feel ashamed that it was a military family that ran that place down. But he has not the right to charge us a thousand dollars a month and have us live under these conditions even though he AGREED prior to our move to fix it all up and get it professionally cleaned (IN WRITING!!!).

And on top of that he says I’d expect a castle, I am overreacting and unreasonable and I couldn’t expect anything since this is a rental and that it is normal that you have to clean a place yourself if you move in.

I do NOT expect a castle. The least we can expect for a thousand dollars is a safe, habital, clean place and to be able to lock our doors and not have to pay to heat the waterpipes so they don’t freeze!

It’s sad, because I really love this place. It’s big enough for two people, it could be a nice countryhome, all the land it comes with, a big kitchen… but I can’t live there. I don’t know what to do but we can’t stay. Even if he was going to fix it all up, we can’t live here while he’s fixing it. I don’t want to stay any longer with the mold than I have to. They would have to take the wall out, the window needs to be replaced and I don’t know if they can do that with the weather up here. I don’t know where else the mold is growing. Obviously in the bathroom and probably underneath the carpet. I don’t even know if the carpet is safe with all the feces and pee that was on there.

Everything would have to be ripped out and replaced and I doubt we could live there while they are doing it. So what are we supposed to do?

This are just some pictures of the kitchen, but how can you live it like that knowingly that your new tenants just travelled two days to get to a new place. After all those hazzles we went through… the least thing we didn’t have to do is to clean a rotten place that was supposed to be fixed and clean. I wonder what housing would have told us when they sent an inspector out and our place would have looked like that…