(no subject)
Hey, so you know what's awesome about menopause?
1. Suffocating hot flashes that come on without any warning and make you feel like you're walking around in a sauna suit.
2. The gradual change from "normally abnormal periods" to "light to moderate bleeding for months upon months upon months", occasionally punctuated by a small, sudden hemorrhages. Usually taking place while you're out of the house and have nothing on you to use for protection. Double points if you're wearing shorts.
3. Sex drive on drugs.
Absolutely fucking nothing.
In typical fashion, once one stress comes the rest jump on for the ride down. The house stuff isn't actually that stressful anymore, as we may have gotten the townhouse we were looking at and the landlord initially didn't appear to be fighting the court thing. She even refused to speak to us right up until about four days ago. I think the general stressed out feeling is it's more of a resistance issue; once you're weakened, it's much easier for the little shit to get to you.
Curtis in particular is having a rough go. A week or so back he had a biking accident where he was cruising along to work and his bike chain snapped or something and ended up stuck in the gears. He went ass over teakettle and flew over the handlebars, colliding with the edge of the curb. Shit like that makes me extremely thankful that, 1. he's not one of those assholes who doesn't "believe" in safety gear, and 2. that his blood clotting disorder is in remission.
After sitting there for a few minutes, totally dazed, he was helped to his feet by an elderly gentleman and walked his bike back to the house. When he came in he was absolutely covered in blood and road rash. I helped him clean up, then he grabbed some ibuprofen and got in the car and continued on to work, showing up a mere few minutes late, going on to work a 10 hour shift without incident.
Because, Curtis.
It looks alright now, but it was seriously horrific for a while there. He looked a bit like he'd fallen into some sort of thresher. He managed to fix his bike chain, only to have it break again a few days ago. Fortunately this time it did not cause an accident. He can't get the other chain off our spare parts bike so he's going to end up taking one of his days off to get to this awesome little place just outside of town where they have all the bike repair tools/supplies you can ask for, and have you pay a small amount of money to use their workshop to fix your bike (and a slightly higher amount of money to have one of the staff help you out if you're stuck). He's gone to this place quite a few times in the past when needing repairs, and it's seriously amazing that it exists (I found out about it through my therapist, of all people) but it sucks because he'll be using his rather precious day-off time to do it. And this next week his other free day will be devoted to an eight hour first aid course that he's required to take due to his new position in the managerial staff. Hooray. :(
There's also been an absolutely insane amount of work drama that he has come home with the last few nights. Sometimes I forget how ridiculously immature a small group of men can be.
I told him, "Even though that's ridiculous, I think we can all be thankful you're not still working at [a restaurant a few jobs ago] where the day-to-day drama included the executive chef doing blow off a 17 year old waitress while she sucked him off, dumping her the next day, and having her safety inspector daddy try to close down the place out of revenge."
"… This is true."
Kitchens, man… they're fucking insane.
With the complaints I feel like I need to put a footnote about how awesome his job actually is. Kitchens always have drama and weirdness with employees from time to time, but his job really is a good thing and his co-workers are generally pretty awesome - in particular his bosses. Curtis has definitely paid his dues in this industry with some shitty fucking jobs before finally getting into one where they respect him, don't take advantage of him, and appreciate him. In fact, on Mother's Day I was sitting in the kitchen doing dishes when I got a phone call from Curtis' boss.
I swear, when he said, "This is [his name], Curtis' boss" my blood ran cold. No one from his work has ever talked to me before for any reason so naturally I thought this was going to be about some sort of work accident. I mean seriously what other reason would they have to talk to you when your spouse is already at work and has been for several hours?
He goes on to say, "I just wanted to call and let you know how much we appreciate Curtis. He's a great asset to us, he works hard and we really do appreciate all the hard work he puts in. And happy mother's day". I stood there in stunned silence for a very long, awkward moment before being able to stutter out a thank you.
So, I do really love the fact that they're good people. Still, that love doesn't really fill the bucket back up when Curtis is on the third 12-13 hour shift in a row and we're both feeling completely exhausted, overwhelmed and irritable. Weeks like that make you wake up counting the minutes until bedtime.
I wrote the first part of this a few days ago, and since that time the landlady broke her silence and gave me a rather interesting phone call late one night. The first part was a sickly sweet, "Oh hey, I love your family, love your kids, just wanted you to know you have all the time you need to move… not gonna kick you out on the street". This is a dramatic shift from the last time she talked to us, certainly. The difference is she got her court summons and realized we were fighting this. The second part was her letting us know that she was going to bring in "a handyman" for an inspection (the second one in a month, which is technically not allowed, but we told her it was okay as long as she did it when it was convenient for us) and an estimate of damages.
Curtis called the RTA the following morning to get info on this, to ensure that we didn't get screwed in the process and knew our rights. I'm pretty certain she wants to do some renos and have us pay for them, so my major concern was where we stand if/when she gets a quote for some random kitchen overhaul and then submits the invoice as damages we're liable for. Fortunately, this can't happen: her ridiculous list of "damages" that she gave with the eviction notice works in our favour, and she can only submit evidence pertinent to this list. So, she can try to pin whatever the fuck she wants to upgrade on us, but it won't be valid. That was a relief.
She arrived in the morning at around 9:30 with a handyman who isn't a licensed contractor (he apparently works in heating installation and is a friend of hers, iirc). I was ready with a video camera to record the entire thing.
Some of the more hilarious bits include her standing in the hallway, desperately jiggling and then banging on all the doorknobs, muttering, "Well this was much worse when I came before. Much worse." Finally she finds one doorknob that's a touch loose. "There, this one!"
And the handyman goes, "You just need to tighten the screw."
lol. Seriously. lol.
She goes into the bathroom and points at a burned out light. "The light fixture here is clearly broken. I'll need a whole new fixture."
"It flickered when you closed the door, it's just loose."
"Put that down."
"You want me to put down 'change bulbs'?"
"Yes."
He pauses. "Okay." He takes his pen and writes it down on his list, quietly saying it out loud as he does, "Change the light bulb." I mean, holy crap, this guy is just as incredulous as we are about her attempt to pad his estimate with this bullshit.
Another great part was the downstairs bathroom. She points out that the toilet needs a jiggle before it flushes (as it always has) and starts going on and on about how she'll need to replace "all the guts" of the toilet, and gee this was a brand new toilet that she personally installed 6 years ago (cough cough, bullshit, cough cough). And woe is her, this will cost so much money. The handyman peeks inside and says, "The chain is a bit long, it just needs to be shortened. That's… really easy."
"Oh."
Curtis pulled me aside later, "How are you keeping a straight face through all of this? It's fucking magical."
And the vanity. Oh, the bathroom vanity. "This was a BRAND NEW unit. Hardwood. Look at all the damage."
Handyman looks at it. "The scratches?"
"Yes, it's ruined. Brand new."
"This is not hardwood."
"It was BRAND NEW!"
"It's particleboard. This is like a cheap vinyl cover on it"
Long pause. "Brand new. Look at all that damage. I suppose I'd need to replace the entire thing."
"It's particleboard. They're cheap, and get scratched up easily. You could just run a felt tip pen of the same colour over the scratches and they'll disappear. Or you could paint it. Stain it. Whatever you want. It's an easy fix. Besides, it looks antique. I like it."
"Well, I… uh, suppose so."
So much lol. So much.
I also have on video her admitting her intentions of renovating the upstairs suite, which includes tearing up the entire carpet (15 year old, grotty carpet that we've paid to have professionally cleaned twice a year since we moved in, in effort to keep the piece of shit in good shape) and getting an estimate for hardwood. So all her bitching about the hole and the loose threads in the carpet was complete bullshit from the get go.
It also turns out that she didn't properly install the insulation in the crawlspace. There's no vapour barrier, and the fiberglass is just laying around on the floor, being totally fucking useless. The handyman took one look at it and says, "Well there's all your moisture problems right there. No wonder you have such issues with it in the upstairs!" (there's always condensation issues all winter long, all over the upstairs. It's a pain in the ass because mould is a serious problem in homes in this climate, and I'm extremely allergic to mould, so we have to work very very hard to keep it under control).
We got her evidence package the following night, where she claims things like $20 to replace a switch plate that we already replaced last week. It cost us $2.49 and took like 3 minutes.
$150 to replace a towel rack "ripped out of wall and never repaired".
(Here is a picture of that alleged damage, as she did not provide one. However, I do have video of her going into the upstairs bathroom, realizing there's a towel rack installed up there, touching it and announcing, "oh, that went up here").
$50 to change a burnt out lightbulb in the bathroom and wipe the dust off.
And $750 to replace all the carpet in the entire unit. The entire unit.
And a lawnmower, for some reason.
We did notice that she dropped the "large holes in the wall leading from dining room to kitchen" thing. Probably because this is a picture of the wall leading from dining room to kitchen.
So many holes in the wall.
Though it appears she's changed tactics since doing the walkthrough and isn't hinging her case as much on "damages" as she is on the "bad neighbour" defence. Her totally insane story goes like this:
She had us move in six years ago and initially shared the lot with us (it's a detached duplex, she owns both units, they share one small upstairs wall). We were such bad neighbours that she, the landlord and owner of the buildings, was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying a new home in a rich area and move away from us rather than communicate any problem.
Read that again: the landlord and owner of both units, was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying a brand new home to get away from the tenants that SHE COULD JUST EVICT.
This is literally what it says. I could not make this up if I tried.
Then, she says, she put more tenants in who also moved away because of us. The lack of any documentation of complaints or issues from these tenants is explained away as, "They were too afraid to approach". She provides one unsigned word document, dated for two months after those tenants left, saying that one time our kids went into the back yard to retrieve something and we were "Sensitive" when talked to. And that once they smelled pot somewhere in the direction of our house. Literally.
(They were removed due to their dog problems, shortly after their small dog attacked Xan and was deemed dangerous. Multiple neighbours came up with complaints, though we personally didn't hear their dog barking and had no issues with noise).
Then, Landlady claims, instead of evicting the 'problem tenants' who have apparently now scared away two sets of people, she evicts the neighbours and puts MORE new tenants in! These new tenants also plan to move away because they can't bear to spend another year next to us. Their lack of written complaints or documentation is also explained away under the "too afraid to talk to them" excuse. I wonder, was it the pregnant belly or the cane that was so intimidating?...
The funny part is we actually have talked to them about this - three times - and they said they never gave her any written statements, or complaints, and wanted to stay out of it (fear of retaliation, et al). Initially they were willing to write something in support of us, but after a few days they became… nervous about it (for obvious reasons). Of course, when they old us this we said we respected that completely and apologized for even having to come by to ask them about it. They said they were the ones sorry that we were going through this and wished us luck with court. They were shocked and upset that they were directly implicated in the documents, considering they never involved themselves and wanted no part of it. They reiterated that the worst possible thing they could think of is that our kids and their kids threw toys back and forth over the fence about a year and a half ago, and were asked to stop (they all did). And around the same time Tempest opened up the gate between the yards to retrieve a toy twice. They reaffirmed that they never filed complaints since it wasn't an "issue". It was just kids being kids, all of whom were just asked to remember to ask before going into someone's yard first, all of whom then listened. The kids get along pretty well and play in the front yard all the time. They were even playing together yesterday.
Landlady also claims the duplex next to us said we were bad neighbours, were doing drugs in our backyard, etc. Once again there is no actual documentation of these allegations or complaints, just her claiming "they told me" and no names or dates mentioned. Unfortunately for her, our evidence package includes a signed, dated letter from the residents of that duplex saying we've been nothing short of fantastic neighbours and they've never had any complaints. Oops.
But that first part I cannot get over. I can't. I seriously cannot believe she's claiming that, as landlord and owner of the units, she was "Forced to move away" from us. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. On what planet is that something people do? I mean, if you're the fucking owner why not just kick the problem tenants out? Or like… try talking to them?
There's no documentation of any complaints, conversations, mediation, nothing (of course, probably because it never happened, she moved to be closer to work/school or at least that's what she'd said to us at the time). The bad neighbour reasons are mostly hinged on Tempest and her son playing together and climbing in and out of windows (our house and hers). That did happen, up until we asked them to stop and they did. After a while they stopped playing together because her son, being older, was becoming a bit of a bully. Though we were polite about it and didn't say anything to her, or to him, other than, "Sorry she's busy today!".
Oh, and that our kids played in the backyard, "dangerously" but once again there's no documentation or even the slightest explanation of what these dangers could possibly be.
That was six years ago. As Curtis said, "Even if this shit were real, you can't just save up complaints to stash away and use later. You're supposed to approach your tenants about any problems and try to work them out".
She also includes a dark, blurry picture of the bathroom light (turned off) and a close-up of a cracked fence post with no visual (or written) reference to where this fence post is located or why it's included. Seriously, it could be any goddamn fence post. It's not even mentioned anywhere else in the entire package. We looked.
I mean, there's more, but it's all kind of random (like she includes her tax form from 2007 claiming $18k worth of "renovations" done that year. But there is no documentation, explanation, receipts or pictures of what renovations she did, where she did them, or which parts she's claiming problems with).
Speechless. Totally speechless.
Curtis read through the package first and while he was initially furious with the bad neighbour crap, he calmed down after he spent some time thinking and realized how ridiculous the, "as owner I was forced to buy a new home rather than move the problem tenants out six years ago" claim was and felt better about the whole thing. I MEAN REALLY.
I worked incredibly hard on our evidence package and organized it by section of house, allegations of damage, and added photos, video, as well as full video/documentation of a "counter inspection" we did the day after hers with our friend who has been a floor manager or something at Home Depot for like five years and has ridiculous amounts of experience with pricing and reno/repair information. She priced out the "repairs" at about $50.
I also submitted the video of the landlady's walkthrough, (raw files, as well as clipped files with relevant bits for easier viewing) including open discussion of her plans to renovate the upstairs to hardwood, and her handyman repeatedly telling her that many of her issues are "easy fixes" and "not a big deal".
Unfortunately, both of us (landlady and us) submitted our packages late because we both misunderstood the instructions the same way. 5 business days before actually means 8 business days before. I called her to let her know I'd been made aware of this, and would push for a continuance if the arbitrator had not been able to properly review all the evidence. Once again she was super sweet on the phone, very agreeable, and had lots of sighs and dramatic pauses about how sorry she was. She reassured us that we don't actually have to leave when she said we did, we can take as long as we'd like and she understands how hard it is for families to find affordable places. Again she says she loves our kids, loves our family, but is just so sorry she has to do this. I was equally polite in return and thanked her (genuinely, as while I'm totally surprised by it I am grateful for her change of tone) for her sympathy and leniency during this.
She reiterated this when Curtis dropped off our copy of the evidence to her that evening.
I seriously do not get her at all.
Pictures of the Day:
Links of the Day:
Straight people answer a question gay people have been asked for years - This is the first time I have ever seen a series of interviews with homophobes where it legitimately looks like some of them had their minds opened, or changed.
16 reasons you should never re-enact Pinterest photos - Lol.
Riker sits down like a crazy person - Cannot. Unsee.
Reasons to love Patrick Stewart - After a fan asks an unusual question, Patrick Stewart makes a beautiful and impassioned speech about domestic violence, and his involvement in Refuge (providing emergency shelters for women and children) as well as Combat Stress (supporting soldiers dealing with post traumatic stress) in the name of his parents, due to the violence he experienced and witnessed as a child.
London Comic Con 2013 cosplay music video - OMFG. These costumes are amazing. I have special love for the David Tennant/Matt Smith/John Barrowman cosplay. Attending a ComicCon is now on my bucket list.
1. Suffocating hot flashes that come on without any warning and make you feel like you're walking around in a sauna suit.
2. The gradual change from "normally abnormal periods" to "light to moderate bleeding for months upon months upon months", occasionally punctuated by a small, sudden hemorrhages. Usually taking place while you're out of the house and have nothing on you to use for protection. Double points if you're wearing shorts.
3. Sex drive on drugs.
Absolutely fucking nothing.
In typical fashion, once one stress comes the rest jump on for the ride down. The house stuff isn't actually that stressful anymore, as we may have gotten the townhouse we were looking at and the landlord initially didn't appear to be fighting the court thing. She even refused to speak to us right up until about four days ago. I think the general stressed out feeling is it's more of a resistance issue; once you're weakened, it's much easier for the little shit to get to you.
Curtis in particular is having a rough go. A week or so back he had a biking accident where he was cruising along to work and his bike chain snapped or something and ended up stuck in the gears. He went ass over teakettle and flew over the handlebars, colliding with the edge of the curb. Shit like that makes me extremely thankful that, 1. he's not one of those assholes who doesn't "believe" in safety gear, and 2. that his blood clotting disorder is in remission.
After sitting there for a few minutes, totally dazed, he was helped to his feet by an elderly gentleman and walked his bike back to the house. When he came in he was absolutely covered in blood and road rash. I helped him clean up, then he grabbed some ibuprofen and got in the car and continued on to work, showing up a mere few minutes late, going on to work a 10 hour shift without incident.
Because, Curtis.
It looks alright now, but it was seriously horrific for a while there. He looked a bit like he'd fallen into some sort of thresher. He managed to fix his bike chain, only to have it break again a few days ago. Fortunately this time it did not cause an accident. He can't get the other chain off our spare parts bike so he's going to end up taking one of his days off to get to this awesome little place just outside of town where they have all the bike repair tools/supplies you can ask for, and have you pay a small amount of money to use their workshop to fix your bike (and a slightly higher amount of money to have one of the staff help you out if you're stuck). He's gone to this place quite a few times in the past when needing repairs, and it's seriously amazing that it exists (I found out about it through my therapist, of all people) but it sucks because he'll be using his rather precious day-off time to do it. And this next week his other free day will be devoted to an eight hour first aid course that he's required to take due to his new position in the managerial staff. Hooray. :(
There's also been an absolutely insane amount of work drama that he has come home with the last few nights. Sometimes I forget how ridiculously immature a small group of men can be.
I told him, "Even though that's ridiculous, I think we can all be thankful you're not still working at [a restaurant a few jobs ago] where the day-to-day drama included the executive chef doing blow off a 17 year old waitress while she sucked him off, dumping her the next day, and having her safety inspector daddy try to close down the place out of revenge."
"… This is true."
Kitchens, man… they're fucking insane.
With the complaints I feel like I need to put a footnote about how awesome his job actually is. Kitchens always have drama and weirdness with employees from time to time, but his job really is a good thing and his co-workers are generally pretty awesome - in particular his bosses. Curtis has definitely paid his dues in this industry with some shitty fucking jobs before finally getting into one where they respect him, don't take advantage of him, and appreciate him. In fact, on Mother's Day I was sitting in the kitchen doing dishes when I got a phone call from Curtis' boss.
I swear, when he said, "This is [his name], Curtis' boss" my blood ran cold. No one from his work has ever talked to me before for any reason so naturally I thought this was going to be about some sort of work accident. I mean seriously what other reason would they have to talk to you when your spouse is already at work and has been for several hours?
He goes on to say, "I just wanted to call and let you know how much we appreciate Curtis. He's a great asset to us, he works hard and we really do appreciate all the hard work he puts in. And happy mother's day". I stood there in stunned silence for a very long, awkward moment before being able to stutter out a thank you.
So, I do really love the fact that they're good people. Still, that love doesn't really fill the bucket back up when Curtis is on the third 12-13 hour shift in a row and we're both feeling completely exhausted, overwhelmed and irritable. Weeks like that make you wake up counting the minutes until bedtime.
I wrote the first part of this a few days ago, and since that time the landlady broke her silence and gave me a rather interesting phone call late one night. The first part was a sickly sweet, "Oh hey, I love your family, love your kids, just wanted you to know you have all the time you need to move… not gonna kick you out on the street". This is a dramatic shift from the last time she talked to us, certainly. The difference is she got her court summons and realized we were fighting this. The second part was her letting us know that she was going to bring in "a handyman" for an inspection (the second one in a month, which is technically not allowed, but we told her it was okay as long as she did it when it was convenient for us) and an estimate of damages.
Curtis called the RTA the following morning to get info on this, to ensure that we didn't get screwed in the process and knew our rights. I'm pretty certain she wants to do some renos and have us pay for them, so my major concern was where we stand if/when she gets a quote for some random kitchen overhaul and then submits the invoice as damages we're liable for. Fortunately, this can't happen: her ridiculous list of "damages" that she gave with the eviction notice works in our favour, and she can only submit evidence pertinent to this list. So, she can try to pin whatever the fuck she wants to upgrade on us, but it won't be valid. That was a relief.
She arrived in the morning at around 9:30 with a handyman who isn't a licensed contractor (he apparently works in heating installation and is a friend of hers, iirc). I was ready with a video camera to record the entire thing.
Some of the more hilarious bits include her standing in the hallway, desperately jiggling and then banging on all the doorknobs, muttering, "Well this was much worse when I came before. Much worse." Finally she finds one doorknob that's a touch loose. "There, this one!"
And the handyman goes, "You just need to tighten the screw."
lol. Seriously. lol.
She goes into the bathroom and points at a burned out light. "The light fixture here is clearly broken. I'll need a whole new fixture."
"It flickered when you closed the door, it's just loose."
"Put that down."
"You want me to put down 'change bulbs'?"
"Yes."
He pauses. "Okay." He takes his pen and writes it down on his list, quietly saying it out loud as he does, "Change the light bulb." I mean, holy crap, this guy is just as incredulous as we are about her attempt to pad his estimate with this bullshit.
Another great part was the downstairs bathroom. She points out that the toilet needs a jiggle before it flushes (as it always has) and starts going on and on about how she'll need to replace "all the guts" of the toilet, and gee this was a brand new toilet that she personally installed 6 years ago (cough cough, bullshit, cough cough). And woe is her, this will cost so much money. The handyman peeks inside and says, "The chain is a bit long, it just needs to be shortened. That's… really easy."
"Oh."
Curtis pulled me aside later, "How are you keeping a straight face through all of this? It's fucking magical."
And the vanity. Oh, the bathroom vanity. "This was a BRAND NEW unit. Hardwood. Look at all the damage."
Handyman looks at it. "The scratches?"
"Yes, it's ruined. Brand new."
"This is not hardwood."
"It was BRAND NEW!"
"It's particleboard. This is like a cheap vinyl cover on it"
Long pause. "Brand new. Look at all that damage. I suppose I'd need to replace the entire thing."
"It's particleboard. They're cheap, and get scratched up easily. You could just run a felt tip pen of the same colour over the scratches and they'll disappear. Or you could paint it. Stain it. Whatever you want. It's an easy fix. Besides, it looks antique. I like it."
"Well, I… uh, suppose so."
So much lol. So much.
I also have on video her admitting her intentions of renovating the upstairs suite, which includes tearing up the entire carpet (15 year old, grotty carpet that we've paid to have professionally cleaned twice a year since we moved in, in effort to keep the piece of shit in good shape) and getting an estimate for hardwood. So all her bitching about the hole and the loose threads in the carpet was complete bullshit from the get go.
It also turns out that she didn't properly install the insulation in the crawlspace. There's no vapour barrier, and the fiberglass is just laying around on the floor, being totally fucking useless. The handyman took one look at it and says, "Well there's all your moisture problems right there. No wonder you have such issues with it in the upstairs!" (there's always condensation issues all winter long, all over the upstairs. It's a pain in the ass because mould is a serious problem in homes in this climate, and I'm extremely allergic to mould, so we have to work very very hard to keep it under control).
We got her evidence package the following night, where she claims things like $20 to replace a switch plate that we already replaced last week. It cost us $2.49 and took like 3 minutes.
$150 to replace a towel rack "ripped out of wall and never repaired".
(Here is a picture of that alleged damage, as she did not provide one. However, I do have video of her going into the upstairs bathroom, realizing there's a towel rack installed up there, touching it and announcing, "oh, that went up here").
$50 to change a burnt out lightbulb in the bathroom and wipe the dust off.
And $750 to replace all the carpet in the entire unit. The entire unit.
And a lawnmower, for some reason.
We did notice that she dropped the "large holes in the wall leading from dining room to kitchen" thing. Probably because this is a picture of the wall leading from dining room to kitchen.
So many holes in the wall.
Though it appears she's changed tactics since doing the walkthrough and isn't hinging her case as much on "damages" as she is on the "bad neighbour" defence. Her totally insane story goes like this:
She had us move in six years ago and initially shared the lot with us (it's a detached duplex, she owns both units, they share one small upstairs wall). We were such bad neighbours that she, the landlord and owner of the buildings, was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying a new home in a rich area and move away from us rather than communicate any problem.
Read that again: the landlord and owner of both units, was forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying a brand new home to get away from the tenants that SHE COULD JUST EVICT.
This is literally what it says. I could not make this up if I tried.
Then, she says, she put more tenants in who also moved away because of us. The lack of any documentation of complaints or issues from these tenants is explained away as, "They were too afraid to approach". She provides one unsigned word document, dated for two months after those tenants left, saying that one time our kids went into the back yard to retrieve something and we were "Sensitive" when talked to. And that once they smelled pot somewhere in the direction of our house. Literally.
(They were removed due to their dog problems, shortly after their small dog attacked Xan and was deemed dangerous. Multiple neighbours came up with complaints, though we personally didn't hear their dog barking and had no issues with noise).
Then, Landlady claims, instead of evicting the 'problem tenants' who have apparently now scared away two sets of people, she evicts the neighbours and puts MORE new tenants in! These new tenants also plan to move away because they can't bear to spend another year next to us. Their lack of written complaints or documentation is also explained away under the "too afraid to talk to them" excuse. I wonder, was it the pregnant belly or the cane that was so intimidating?...
The funny part is we actually have talked to them about this - three times - and they said they never gave her any written statements, or complaints, and wanted to stay out of it (fear of retaliation, et al). Initially they were willing to write something in support of us, but after a few days they became… nervous about it (for obvious reasons). Of course, when they old us this we said we respected that completely and apologized for even having to come by to ask them about it. They said they were the ones sorry that we were going through this and wished us luck with court. They were shocked and upset that they were directly implicated in the documents, considering they never involved themselves and wanted no part of it. They reiterated that the worst possible thing they could think of is that our kids and their kids threw toys back and forth over the fence about a year and a half ago, and were asked to stop (they all did). And around the same time Tempest opened up the gate between the yards to retrieve a toy twice. They reaffirmed that they never filed complaints since it wasn't an "issue". It was just kids being kids, all of whom were just asked to remember to ask before going into someone's yard first, all of whom then listened. The kids get along pretty well and play in the front yard all the time. They were even playing together yesterday.
Landlady also claims the duplex next to us said we were bad neighbours, were doing drugs in our backyard, etc. Once again there is no actual documentation of these allegations or complaints, just her claiming "they told me" and no names or dates mentioned. Unfortunately for her, our evidence package includes a signed, dated letter from the residents of that duplex saying we've been nothing short of fantastic neighbours and they've never had any complaints. Oops.
But that first part I cannot get over. I can't. I seriously cannot believe she's claiming that, as landlord and owner of the units, she was "Forced to move away" from us. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. On what planet is that something people do? I mean, if you're the fucking owner why not just kick the problem tenants out? Or like… try talking to them?
There's no documentation of any complaints, conversations, mediation, nothing (of course, probably because it never happened, she moved to be closer to work/school or at least that's what she'd said to us at the time). The bad neighbour reasons are mostly hinged on Tempest and her son playing together and climbing in and out of windows (our house and hers). That did happen, up until we asked them to stop and they did. After a while they stopped playing together because her son, being older, was becoming a bit of a bully. Though we were polite about it and didn't say anything to her, or to him, other than, "Sorry she's busy today!".
Oh, and that our kids played in the backyard, "dangerously" but once again there's no documentation or even the slightest explanation of what these dangers could possibly be.
That was six years ago. As Curtis said, "Even if this shit were real, you can't just save up complaints to stash away and use later. You're supposed to approach your tenants about any problems and try to work them out".
She also includes a dark, blurry picture of the bathroom light (turned off) and a close-up of a cracked fence post with no visual (or written) reference to where this fence post is located or why it's included. Seriously, it could be any goddamn fence post. It's not even mentioned anywhere else in the entire package. We looked.
I mean, there's more, but it's all kind of random (like she includes her tax form from 2007 claiming $18k worth of "renovations" done that year. But there is no documentation, explanation, receipts or pictures of what renovations she did, where she did them, or which parts she's claiming problems with).
Speechless. Totally speechless.
Curtis read through the package first and while he was initially furious with the bad neighbour crap, he calmed down after he spent some time thinking and realized how ridiculous the, "as owner I was forced to buy a new home rather than move the problem tenants out six years ago" claim was and felt better about the whole thing. I MEAN REALLY.
I worked incredibly hard on our evidence package and organized it by section of house, allegations of damage, and added photos, video, as well as full video/documentation of a "counter inspection" we did the day after hers with our friend who has been a floor manager or something at Home Depot for like five years and has ridiculous amounts of experience with pricing and reno/repair information. She priced out the "repairs" at about $50.
I also submitted the video of the landlady's walkthrough, (raw files, as well as clipped files with relevant bits for easier viewing) including open discussion of her plans to renovate the upstairs to hardwood, and her handyman repeatedly telling her that many of her issues are "easy fixes" and "not a big deal".
Unfortunately, both of us (landlady and us) submitted our packages late because we both misunderstood the instructions the same way. 5 business days before actually means 8 business days before. I called her to let her know I'd been made aware of this, and would push for a continuance if the arbitrator had not been able to properly review all the evidence. Once again she was super sweet on the phone, very agreeable, and had lots of sighs and dramatic pauses about how sorry she was. She reassured us that we don't actually have to leave when she said we did, we can take as long as we'd like and she understands how hard it is for families to find affordable places. Again she says she loves our kids, loves our family, but is just so sorry she has to do this. I was equally polite in return and thanked her (genuinely, as while I'm totally surprised by it I am grateful for her change of tone) for her sympathy and leniency during this.
She reiterated this when Curtis dropped off our copy of the evidence to her that evening.
I seriously do not get her at all.
Pictures of the Day:
Links of the Day:
Straight people answer a question gay people have been asked for years - This is the first time I have ever seen a series of interviews with homophobes where it legitimately looks like some of them had their minds opened, or changed.
16 reasons you should never re-enact Pinterest photos - Lol.
Riker sits down like a crazy person - Cannot. Unsee.
Reasons to love Patrick Stewart - After a fan asks an unusual question, Patrick Stewart makes a beautiful and impassioned speech about domestic violence, and his involvement in Refuge (providing emergency shelters for women and children) as well as Combat Stress (supporting soldiers dealing with post traumatic stress) in the name of his parents, due to the violence he experienced and witnessed as a child.
London Comic Con 2013 cosplay music video - OMFG. These costumes are amazing. I have special love for the David Tennant/Matt Smith/John Barrowman cosplay. Attending a ComicCon is now on my bucket list.