Sunday, March 6, 2011

Theme Park #2, Chronicles of Trailer Park Living

It'll be interesting to see how long we end up being in this house.

Everyday is still a love/hate relationship here. I love what how much we pay for rent, and Mustache Man and I have finished decorating our bedroom. We went with a zen type of idea, and its completely relaxing. We tell the kids that its a "whine free zone", and miraculously they lose the attitude while in our room. I pretty much hate everything else about this house. It's always cold, the floor is always freezing. It has old, metal frame windows that actually cause a draft in the house. We had to buy curtains just keep the house a little warmer. We've been testing the temperature with a couple thermometers, and its 15-20 degrees colder by the windows than it is in the middle of the living room. I can't imagine how much money we will be throwing away on heating this place. Mustache Man has valiantly been trying to do everything he can to make me happy here, bless him. When he gets home from work, he starts on the "honey do" list and has been working his butt off trying to make this place as homey as possible for me. Last night he hung up my blueberry dishes in the dining room.

Together we've been tackling the yard. The whole yard needs work - there is a retaining wall in the backyard, so it does give us something to start with, but its one big mud pit. We're working at seeding and trying to get more grass in, I'd really like to actually have a lawn (no matter how tiny) and have a place for the kids to play. We're focusing right now on the side of the house - there was a ton of wasted space! It had been really neglected. The bushes and plants had been forgotten and had overgrown so much that everything was rotting. There was a make-shift retaining wall that we ripped out and are now cutting the dirt back to create a parking pad. It will be nice to have a decent place for Mustache Man to park his truck, as it is, parking our two vehicles in the driveway and tying to open the doors wide enough to stuff the kids in doesn't work very well.

My week's big frustration? Our landlord situation. Lord knows I love my in-laws, they are fantastic people. My frustration most likely stems from my own personal issues but I'm stressed all the same. I just plain hate feeling obligated to people. Even more than that, I hate it when someone tries to micromanage me. My sister in law is on the house with her parents, all 3 are co-owners but everyone refers to it as "her" house because she lived here previous to our family moving in. Well, she skipped out early (was supposed to live here for a certain amount of years due to a credit that she got when she bought the house) to go play house with her fiance in a different state. For one, I feel like we're helping to clean up her "mess" by renting the place (we are getting a killer deal on rent,so we do benefit a little). I mean, owning a house is a big deal. It's a very adult thing and with that comes increased responsibility. I don't think its very cool to just ditch said responsibility just because its not what you want anymore. That's not grown up, its down right immature and ridiculous. Consequences are a part of life, and growing up means making difficult decisions that aren't always what we want (like maybe staying in the house you chose to buy and seeing your obligation through). It's not like I enjoy living in this shack! But it is the best possible option for my family at this moment, so I'm gritting my teeth and dealing with it.

So, sister in law... she is a few states away and is virtually nothing but a name on this house as far as we are concerned. She doesn't come to do any work on the place and as far as I know, she isn't paying anything to the mortgage. I could be wrong, but its not my business to know. I just view my husband's parents as our active landlords, we pay them the rent and pretty much don't have any reason to contact Mustache Man's sister about the house. Yet, it appears we need to "clear" things with her. My mother in law as said that she would like to sell the house as soon as we move out, so chances are my sister in law might never see this place again (she won't be visiting until early Fall, and we plan on ditching this heap as soon as we are able to). The term investment house gets thrown around every now and then, but facts are facts. Manufactured houses don't retain value, period. This thing has drastically lost value since it was made in the 1980's. They pretty much just paid for the land its sitting on. In my humble, non-home-owner opinion, an investment is something you put money/work into to have gain later. Of course, I live here so things annoy me more than someone who owns it but does not deal with the issues as a tenant... BUT MY GOSH. PUT DECENT WINDOWS IN THIS THING. INSULATE IT. Not only will it be more energy efficient, and make your currently disgruntled tenant (me) happier (warmer), but you will be adding to the value of the house, and making it a better buy than the other old and outdated houses for sale here in the trailer park.

This concludes Theme Park #2. Thanks for ranting along with me. Tune in next week.

1 comment:

  1. just fyi but with that credit she got she is supposed to live there for 3years after the closing date inorder to keep the money and not have to pay it back not just own the place. so if she files a tax return with a different address or if she files a state return (wa doesnt have one) im pretty sure the irs is going to send her a letter and make her pay it back.

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