A Mouse in the House

I just want to live in harmony

In case you didn’t know I moved recently.  It’s been four months ever since my husband and I moved into our new rental home that supposedly met all of our high expectations.

I’ll admit I do ask a lot.  I want my home to be pest free.  I’m a neat freak in the extreme, not to the point that I need meds or anything, but I need a clean home.

I want a home where there isn’t burning.  At the last place we lived the neighbor burned all of the time and it made me very ill.  I have terrible allergies and have to take Zyrtec just to be able to breathe normal clean air.  

When people burn leaves or trash I get very sick, have asthma attacks and have serious allergy attacks.

If there is a basement it should be water tight.  This one should be obvious.  I can’t store important things in a basement that floods.  And actually if it does flood, just tell me up front and have pylons already in place for me to put my items on. 

Fix stuff.  I’m pretty sure this one isn’t actually asking too much but I could really be wrong.

So, when my husband and I moved into this house we asked all the right questions.  Is there burning in the neighborhood?  Does the house have pests?  Is the basement water tight?  Are you going to finish fixing stuff?

No burning, no pests, this basement has never flooded (except the time the water heater broke) and you can even finish it if you’d like, yes we’re going to fix stuff. 

Maybe on the fix stuff part I should have been specific.  It was silly of me to assume they would take the two by fours out of the yard that are filled with nails, remove the nails from the shed in the back yard or fix the screen door that doesn’t close or have a screen (can you actually call it a screen door then?).

Of course if all of this were true I would not be writing this post. 

Water Tight Basement

Then started the infestations.  There isn’t really much to do about the stink bugs, they were really bad this year.  Granted if the windows were properly sealed or if the screens weren’t riddled with holes then our house wouldn’t be full to brimming with them.  Oh and don’t dare step on them.  They are called stink bugs for a reason.The first thing to happen was the flooding of the basement.  They blamed it on us and said that we moved one of the drainage hoses while we were mowing and that caused the basement to flood.  About $700 worth of stuff got screwed and our renters insurance won’t cover it because it’s a flood.  Oh and you can’t get flood insurance for a basement that has been known to flood (and if I did somehow manage it’s about $700/year).  Oh wait, did I forget to mention that?  The neighbor told me that this basement has flooded on every person who ever lived here, including our landlords when they lived here.  In fact the last tenants lost a whole living room set to the flood.

Dude, where's your house?

Fall came and everyone started burning.  No joke.  One day I counted 5 people on my street alone burning leaves.  One guy burns so much that his house is surrounded by such a thick cloud of smoke you can’t see his house.  How is this legal???  I just don’t get it!  In Pennsylvania you could never burn in a neighborhood where it would pose a health hazard.  And seriously, how could this not pose a health hazard?  There is no way that I am the only person who gets sick from this!

Put here to remove little fingers

Yay, pests again!  About 3 weeks ago my husband and I noticed roach traps under the sink in the kitchen.  Hmmm.  I hope these are a precautionary measure.  Then we accidentally, and not in a fun way, discovered a snap mouse trap under dishwasher within reaching distance of our daughter.  Luckily I found it and not her little fingers.  Once again, hopefully, somehow this is a precautionary measure.  Then the roaches and mice showed up.  My cabinets are full of poop and dead roaches are popping up in really gross places, oh and a live one in the laundry room. 

Btw, that is also our fault.  They tried to tell me that they remember what it is like to have toddlers.  There is always food around and sticky juice spots.  Oh no you don’t!  I am one of the cleanest people around, there is no way that you could possibly entice a mouse to live in my kitchen.  

What makes me the angriest is that we asked!  We asked these questions and they told us what they wanted to hear.  Are they lying or is this somehow a horrible misunderstanding?  And how could they not be lying?  I almost feel like if they would just tell me the truth I would be okay with it (maybe).  I just hate being lied to.  Even more than hating being lied to, I hate being blamed for things that are certainly not my fault.

The other thing that heats up my temper?  When we moved in the landlord said, “Hey don’t disappoint us”.  They felt like they were taking a risk because we have unsavory credit (In fact we paid last, first, deposit and pet deposit due to that credit).  But who is disappointing who?  We pay rent on time we give you thousands of dollars and you make me feel like crap for calling you.  I wish I knew a lawyer so I could get out of my lease and move somewhere else.  Anyone know I nice free lawyer?

Seriously. Over. It.