Updating - part 2

Well, we are moving. 

Moving to West Virginia we were hoping that we would be able to rent somewhere for the whole 3 years, but that's not happening any longer. 

So, lets get into it.

I think I had mentioned a few times the couple things that have been bothering me about where we are living. 

1.West Virginia's rental prices are not cheap! And you get crap for what you pay for. To be totally honest, the only thing I was excited about moving to West Virginia was that we would be able to save money. I was WRONG. Yes...we could live in a cheaper place, but let me tell you there are not a lot of neighborhoods that you want to live in. Slim Pickings!!! The house that we live in has all the space we need but we are maxing out our BAH plus some..pulse utilities with drafty windows.  We feel like we are house poor...and this is West Virginia...NOTHING SPECIAL! 

2. We live on a thru street. Not a main street but it mine as well should be. It is so busy and So loud! I have never hated motorcycles and sports cars as much as I do now.  We live across from a church...which is nice, but I hear car doors and alarms all day long. I feel like such a grandma complaining about all of the noise but when it starts effecting my children's naps, bed time and their moms break through the day, I'm not a happy camper. Yes, I have a dog that barks. She is our protector. But all of these noises sets her off sometimes. A motorcycle drives by, Charlie is up 2 seconds later. Tons of police, fire trucks and ambulances all throught the day and night. People and their loud music. No BODY wants to hear your loud base at 9 in the morning! The stop sign in front of our house is not a peel out spot....gosh! (I'm such an old lady) We live a street away from a train. Our house shakes when it comes by. I am not used to that!   

So we have been thinking bout moving for a little bit, but we first wanted to see if our landlord would drop a tiny bit on the price to try to get us to stay. Being landlords ourselves, we know how hard it is to find good people to live in your home. We have actually never had good person in ours back in Ohio so we REALLY know, but anyways. We pay our rent on time, never complain and fix stuff ourselves. Within the past two years living here I actually have only seen our landlord twice, and one of the times was to see the house and sign the lease. With all this said, we asked him to drop the rent $200. I personally didn't think that was that big of a number because of what we are actually paying. We also payed a extra $500 on top of the security deposit when we first moved in for a pet fee. He actually wanted a pet fee of the same price of the rent but we said no to that and settled on $500 if we signed a two year lease. 

Now, in West Virginia, using technology to find homes for rent is non-existent. You have to drive around neighborhoods, and there will be a sign in the front yard. No craigslist, no rent.com. no nothing. Either you know somebody that's renting, or you see a sign ..maybe once in awhile there will be a couple in the paper but that's about it. 

When the landlord said no to the $200 and came back to us with $100 off it was kind of a slap in the face so we started looking for a new place. We had plenty of time because we asked him a couple months ago so we could get on it and hopefully find a new place. Now once again, I would like to add that this landlord probably really didn't think the whole "saying no" to the $200 off thing in depth. We move every three years, and someone new has to take Mikes place at his work. We probably would have recommended staying in this home to the new person that would be coming in and there ya go...another 3 year lease for the landlord.  

A couple months ago, we were driving around looking for signs in front yards that were for rent...gosh that sounds so stupid. We came across one that was about 5 minutes down the road, but on the quiet street near the river. We called the nice gentleman and went to see the house. The yard is actually a double lot yard...and fenced, same amount of bedrooms, and baths, two car garage, big kitchen, basement...and I could go on..I'm sure Ill show the house soon in pictures. It is a older home. Not really renovated but as long as stuff works, I don't really care about that. Its only a year.  I do like that he just put in new carpets. That's huge when you have a crawler in the house! 

Now this was 3 months ago that we found this house. Our lease isn't up in till July. We told him about that and he said it would be OK and that he would hold the house for us. This was his childhood home and he "had good feeling about us". We gave him the security deposit and Mike said he would take care of the lawn even though we wouldn't be living there yet. The rent is $200 cheaper then where we are now so that is perfect.

He let us know that we could start moving in mid June. I really like to give a deep clean to every house we move into without any of our stuff in it, so I loved the sound of that. We are moving all of our stuff ourselves also and that will take time with kids. 

I'm excited to have quiet. I'm excited to get rid of a ton of crap we have been caring with us on each move. You better believe I am having a garage sale. With how much traffic we have in front of our house I think it will do pretty well. 

The sad thing is, this nice man has recently passed away. 

Mike had taken care of the lawn, called to let him know, his sister picked up and told Mike he was in the hospital, a couple days later we get a phone call that he passed. Very sad because he seemed like such a sweet man.

We are still going to be moving in to the home come July. 

As much as I am dreading the moving process, I am excited to save a couple bucks, have a couple days go by that my children sleep longer then 20 minutes because its quiet. 

Deep down, I hope our current landlord gets a real nut job in this house after us.  :)