A Bump in The Road (or Part of God's Plan)

We thought we would be heading west by now.  Our plans were to stay in Indiana a month or 6 weeks at the most.  Enough time to visit kids and do our Dr. visits.  After that we were heading west to Oregon and down the California coast line.  What do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?  Do I have that saying right (not sure)?

We stopped at the house to help the renters open the pool and check out the house and be on our merry way.  Ed had to come back to the house to replace the garage door because it was starting to rotten.  While he is at the house he notices the pool is turning green and the grass isn't being cut. The renters transport rv's, so sometimes they are gone for periods of time.  Then we start noticing other things like a broken window and the front storm door torn out of the frame. 

We decide renting is not working out to well and talk to a realtor and decide to put the house back on the market.  When we are showing the realtor the house we realize how dirty the house is and we have two bedrooms doors broken off the hinges.  But we decide to let the renters stay and just list the house.

In the next couple of weeks Ed finds himself mowing the grass and taking care of the pool plus buying the chemicals so we don't lose it completely.  Right then I'm thinking if they can't do something as easy as putting chemicals in the pool, how are they ever going to close it at the end of the season. 

About that time Ed also realizes the pool is losing water.  So after a few swims trying to find a tear in the liner, he discovers the leak is coming from one of the pipes.  So while he is taking care of the pool he feels like the Lord is telling him to have the renters leave. 

Then we discovered we had the "renters from hell".   Well it seemed that way to us at the time.

I knew we should have waited until the first of the month to give them the notice but by then we just wanted them out.  So we gave them a 30 day notice.  So of course they decide they don't have to pay the last month's rent.  They wanted us to take it out of the security deposit.  I told them that wasn't the purpose of the deposit.  Of course she tells us they are going to fix the broken window and the 2 bedroom doors.  I guess she told us that so we would give her the security deposit.  We  are so relieved they are gone.   I have heard some horror stories about renters so we need to count our blessings. 

We have been working fixing and cleaning the house for the last 3 weeks.  In 8 months, they must have never cleaned anything.  We removed 13 bags of garage from the porch plus trash from the rest of the house.  They had 2 dogs, 1 cat and 2 rabbits.  One of my mistakes was letting them have animals.  The porch was covered in rabbit turds, food and whatever.  It was breeding flies. 



Kitchen Floor

 

The bedroom that I said she could paint, but it was a pepto bismo pink so had to repaint





Ed's garage



The trash we had to haul off

This was just part of the mess but I don't want to bore you.  At the time it seemed overwhelming  but we now have it cleaned up and I am glad it's over.

On top of everything else I have decided to put new carpet in the 3 bedrooms.  I told Ed it would be my project and he wouldn't have to do anything.  But I found out I didn't have the strength to pull up the old carpet so guess who had to help.  But he did it graciously.

We had put the house back on the market when we realized the renters weren't working out.  But now it looks like our son, Aaron and daughter-in-law Angela are going to rent it for a year.  So now we have taken it back off the market.  We are sure this is of God, but sometimes I sure wish he would let us know what his plans are.

Right now we have the RV parked in the driveway.  We will be here another month and then we are heading for Texas or Arizona.  So that is our plans right now but they could change next week. 

Happy Trails   Love Ed and Lyn