Not a good week.

Monday. DC mom finds herself in a tight spot regarding MIL who insists on moving in ahead of schedule. MIL refuses to go home after a visit, and must have someone with her at all times. So, notice was given at work that she would be taking a leave of absence in order to acclimate MIL to her house and get her used to things. She gave work two weeks notice, and me too. I was in no way ready to lose this income. Bill has been working full time for the last five weeks and we are slowly coming out of this financial mess we have been in for the last year. I have three days next week, and then I am done for a while. That is if she is able to go back to work.

Last night, late, we had a knock at the door. It was obviously the landlady's sister. There was no denying the resemblance. She very nicely gave me a sealed envelope, after making sure I was Pamela. I knew what it was before I even opened it. We have 60 days to vacate the property.

We moved into this house seven years ago when our last landlady died, and her daughter wanted to sell the house asap, and get the heck out of dodge. She gave us notice on Thanksgiving, and then called Christmas eve ( Iwould swear on my firstborn she was drunk) railing because we were stillin her house. I was toward the end of a very high risk pregnancy, and now looking for somewhere to live in a market that all rentals had virtually dried up.

We found this house because the people moving out were in our ward, and they talked to the mgmt company on our behalf. This house was in sad shape. The carpet had wear holes, and so did the linoleum in the kitchen. The air never worked. There was a black trash bag stapled to the front of the house that on further investigation revealed a hole in the wall under the kitchen sink. At that time, anyone could have broken into our house just by pulling the trash bag off, and crawling in under the sink. The patio was rotted thru and falling, to the point I wouldn't let my kids play out there. Things were haphazardly fixed over the years, but a lot of it was just made worse by a jill of all trades who messed up a lot. She put in a new disposal, but neglected to remove the plug in the line going to the dishwasher. This made the dishwasher back up and blow it's motor. He came out to replace the dishwasher and they had built the cabinet around the door and blocked it in. He then said a dishwasher is a luxury item, and not required by CA law. So, I haven't had one for five years, even though there is one sitting there.

Owner fired mgmt company about two years ago. She then asked why he had refunded our deposit. I freaked out because it had never been refunded. Come to find out, he was trying to save his own butt after not being able to produce our 1000 dollars. Owner came and did an inspection in February of '08. 15 months ago. Promises were made. New carpet (she admitted she laid this carpet about 20 years ago) New shower (no more using vice grips as a handle to turn the water on and off)New floor in the kitchen. New dishwasher.

We didn't hear another word from her til last week. She wanted to do another inspection, and make a new list of priority repairs. This week we got a new sink in the main bathroom, and a new shower nozzle and handle. Summer is close, heat is already here, and there were promises of a new unit.

And instead we receive a vacate notice last night.

Her reason was she has out of state family that need the house. Yeah...right.

Our theory?? She told me she was trying to get new homeowners insurance on this place, and an inspector was going to come out and make sure the house was in good condition. We knew she would not get a new policy with a huge wet broken wall in the master bath. There is new drywall there now, but the repairman didn't mud or tape it, and of course no paint. He just left the edges uneven. It would never pass with leaky sinks, and a shower with no handle.

But the biggest issue is the flooring. She talked of putting tile throughout the house, and we were fine with that. Bill has laid tile before and offered to help, to expidite the process. This was last year. Last week, she said again it was a priority. I was looking forward to new floors.

I am not sure how it works with the inspector, but she is vacating the house so she can get it up to code quickly. Because she works for the housing authority and it wouldn't be good for her job if they found out she was really a slumlord. I am tempted to take pictures of some of these things, just for my own protection.