Things to Ask Before You Rent, Part I

            Prior to moving into our current house, it had not dawned on me to ask certain questions aside from the regular ones that people routinely ask. Knowing if the utilities are included, what the policy is for having dogs at the property, and the length of the rental term all seem like common questions to ask when doing a walk-through of a prospective property. However, over the course of our rental history, we have encountered incidents that would have benefited from additional inquiry prior to signing a lease. So, I guess, our experience can help you to prevent similar situations from happening to you! This is the first part of a multi-part series, so stay tuned!

Do Bugs Bug You?

            One of our rental experiences still haunt me to this day. A few years ago, we decided to move to a bigger place and one that hopefully didn’t wake me up with water dripping on my face from a leaking roof. While we did get a larger place and the roof didn’t leak, we only stayed there for about a month. Fortunately, we were transferring from one property to another within the same property management company, so we didn’t have to complete an additional background check or pay an additional deposit, as it was just transferred from one account to the other.

            The yard was large, but it was not without fault. There were numerous stickers and other non-dog friendly aspects to the yard that made it less than enjoyable for both man and beast. Not only were there stickers and thorns in the sandy yard, but there were scores of bugs. We noticed some bugs walking through our kitchen and up on the walls while we were eating our first meal in the new place. There were SCORES of them, all marching in a line as if they were lining up to induce nightmares if or when I fell asleep. That night we tried to put it out of our heads, as we were exhausted from moving that day. However, sleep was not possible, at least not for me, as the bugs were also IN OUR BED! The would crawl on the walls, on us, on the dogs, on basically any surface. I couldn’t stay in the house due to the bugs. I ended up driving to our old place in the middle of the night, where I proceeded to make a bed of sorts on the floor. However, there were bugs on the blanket I brought over there, but fortunately, not as many. I sent the landlord an email in the middle of the night to share my experience. She sent out an exterminator the following day.

             According to recent research, ticks that carry Lyme disease have been found to be present in over half of all U.S. counties (Asher, 2016). Lyme disease can lead to serious health complications, with the population of this type of pest experiencing an astounding 320% increase over past two decades (Asher, 2016). However, much of the increase in tick population has been found to occur along the West Coast, as well as the East Coast and much of the right half of the country, which is nowhere near where we lived in New Mexico...

            The exterminator told us that it was the worst TICK infestation he had ever seen. Yes, we had ticks. Not just a few, but thousands. The handyman had noticed some of the bugs when he replaced the sliding glass door that was in the kitchen, but didn’t do anything about it. We were pulling ticks off of the dogs and ourselves. The exterminator had to come out once a week and it didn’t put a dent in the infestation. I spoke to my neighbor, as it was part of a duplex, and he said they have the bugs too. How did they not affect him or his family? Was he just used to living in filth? I suppose so. He was a strange cat.

Stay tuned, as Part II of What to Ask Before You Rent will be uploaded tomorrow.

Asher, C. (2016). Lyme-disease carrying ticks are now in half of all U.S. counties. Science Magazine.

            

Stranger Danger!

So, we are FINALLY moved. Still a lot of unpacking and a bit of frustration, but isn’t that to be expected when you have three weeks to find a place and move to a different state, all while finishing up your last course before you graduate with a MS in clinical psychology with a specialization in applied research, while also living with the lovely symptoms of fibromyalgia and most likely stress-induced fainting?

The new place is nice and is the first one in a while where there was carpet. Our neurotic dog Downey, as well as myself, appreciate it. One thing that I am not digging though, is the weird and creepy owner of the house. See, we went through a property management agency, which has not been too weird in the past when we used one when we moved to New Mexico. However, this guy, see, we have lived here all of a week and he has come by twice, yesterday and today, to water our yard. Normally that wouldn’t qualify as being creepy, but, dude, he has a strange vibe. Sort of like a person who you just KNOW has a body or two in his basement. Normal weird and strange, I can dig, but this is just... different. It has also rained since he came over last (yesterday), so I don’t know why he is back again to water.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time relaxing when there are strangers (or even non-strangers) in my house or on my property. As someone living with a chronic pain condition, the added stress of having a property owner lurking around is just something I do not need. We have been here a week. A. Week. Now, tell me how I am supposed to relax in the few hours a week I get that isn’t devoted to cleaning, school, work, other job work, taking care of our non-human friends, etc… when there is a weirdo creeping around outside. I hope that Strange Steve will make his presence scarce once he sees that we will take care of his place. However, isn’t that what a property manager is supposed to do? To manage your property as an intermediary so that you can rest assured that your home would be cared for by the tenants who rent from the property manager?

I will keep you updated.

What's Bugging You?

Imagine this. You move into a place, thinking that it is a step up for the same price you were paying, only to find out that it’s already occupied. Not by squatters, but rather blood sucking parasites. No, not Republicans, but close. Ticks. Yes, those horrid little buggers that are the things of nightmares and associated with Lyme disease. Well, that is our story.

We moved in on Sunday the 21st of February. The roof of our previous rental had been leaking and the management hadn’t patched the hole in the ceiling and sagging drywall in almost a year. So, we were looking for a new place, with a new roof, and possibly an extra room since I had my gym in the garage. That wouldn’t be too much of an issue, but we live in southern New Mexico, where the garage would only be inhabitable for six months out of the year, if that. We found that our current rental property manager had a different place available, for the same price. It was a three bedroom house that had a larger yard, which is important when you have dogs. Since it was the same company, we were able to transfer our security deposit to the new house, so that was an added bonus.

The actual moving part went well, no terse words were exchanged and no injuries occurred. We ordered takeout for dinner, since we were famished and everything was still in boxes. During dinner, we started to see a few bugs come in through a gap in the sliding glass door that the handyman had recently installed. We tried to identify the bugs through a Google search during dinner, but we were not really familiar with the bugs we were seeing. They kept coming in though. They were crawling on the floor, on the walls, everywhere. I sprayed them with the only thing I had available at the time, which was a bottle of 409. Note to readers, 409 does not kill ticks.

We decided to go to bed and try to get some sleep, since it was a long day of moving and whatnot. As we were in bed, with our dogs (since they are part of our family), I started feeling things crawling on me. I was flicking them off of me several times a minute. I ended up driving to our old place (which were were in the process of cleaning out and had until the 1st of the month) and tried to sleep on the floor. Bugs were still on me. I emailed our landlord to tell her about the issue and then eventually got to sleep, around 4 in the morning. I woke around 6 and saw that my landlord had emailed me back, stating that she had no idea that there was an issue and that she would try to get the exterminator out there that day.

I ended up going back to our new place, and with the help of my boyfriend, packed up our dogs and took them to our old place so that I could give them all flea and tick baths. Going on very little sleep and high emotions, this was not a fun feat. Dogs washed, I was exhausted, but there was nowhere to sit or lie down at the old place, since I felt like I still had bugs on me. I took a shower and cried hysterically (one of many such showers during the past two weeks) until the water ran cold, trying to scrub the bugs (real and imaginary) off of my skin.

The exterminator ended up coming out and sprayed inside and out. He said that we were infested with ticks. There were thousands of them. THOUSANDS! He said that we should be seeing the number decrease and that to call if they are still bad in a few days. Since that day, we have spent over $200 on pest control out of our own pocket, primarily for the dogs...flea and tick shampoo, tick spray, tick collars, perimeter spray, etc. I also vacuum several times a day, making sure that I have some Diatomaceous earth in the vacuum to torture the ticks before they die.

Our valiant efforts to slay the ticks were not sufficient nor effective, so the exterminator came out a second time. This time saturating the entire place with a substance that promised to be the end all for these creatures. We are seeing fewer of them, but I am still sweeping up 1,000+ per day outside on our patio. Yesterday our package from Amazon arrived, which contained a pest spray, pump sprayer, and tick collars for the dogs. These collars came highly recommended and were a decent price. Well, the dogs had been treated with a tick spot treatment, tick spray, and now tick collars. All of the chemicals are just killing me. In the 11 years that Peggy Sue has been in my life, she has never had a single tick or had to be treated with such chemicals. We even used to go hiking through the woods at least once a week, never getting as much as a hitchhiker from the trips. Now, she is the one that we pulled the largest tick.

Last night, the ticks were back in our bed, which led to horrible sleep and a hangover feeling that I experience when I don’t have sufficient sleep and am under stress. I work from home, so there is literally no escape. I smell like I am at a sleepaway camp, but without the fun and treats. I am covered with OFF (with DEET) and have found several ticks crawling on me today. One of our dogs which we place a collar on last night wasn’t acting herself this morning, so I took off her collar and gave her a bath.

Had we known about all of the issues, including a dishwasher that doesn’t really work, a garbage disposal that doesn’t work and smells like the bottom of a dumpster, a fridge that has a mysterious odor that comes and goes (no, it’s nothing IN the fridge, so I have no idea), and the tick infestation that has caused us to put countless chemicals on our dogs and ourselves, there is no way that we would have moved here.

This place is nearly uninhabitable. It is not good for my mental or physical health, nor is it healthy for our dogs. At least our landlord appears to be concerned and has reimbursed us for our costs associated with the tick infestation issue. It’s funny (not lol funny though) that the handyman noted that there were a lot of bugs (ticks) in the frame of the sliding glass door when he replaced it, but instead of doing anything about it, he just replaced the door and framing.

I don’t really feel like unpacking at all and have lost close to 10 pounds since we started moving (about a month). This is probably due to not wanting to be in the kitchen since there are...yup, ticks in there too, and just being too stressed. I am not against moving again, to a house that doesn’t have any ticks and all of the appliances work. It sucks that the place we moved out of had everything that I liked, including a fireplace and working appliances...oh, and NO TICKS! I just want to live in a place that is safe, clean, and habitable. Is that too much to ask?

Fecking Residency AGAIN!

I had to write a little "About Me" introduction to my course professor and my fellow classmates in my online MS course, which includes two residencies, which I dread. I think most of it is the "having to spend time with people" part that I dread, especially since for the past two plus years, I have been reading their online posts, rolling my eyes and making the jerking off motion with my hand. I think that is frowned upon when interacting with them in person, especially as my MS degree is in mental health counseling. I think I will keep my hair blue though, despite the fact that last time I attended residency, I was "talked to" about it not being professional. I will also be wearing my Chucks instead of the traditional high heels or whatever the current fashion trend is for women. I will also be wearing pants. Real peoples' pants. I think my distaste for traditional rules and regulations can be gleaned from the below introduction I wrote. I wonder what my classmates will think...

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I will be attending the residency experience next month in Dallas. My boyfriend and I recently (a few months ago) moved FROM Texas to New Mexico and I was hoping that I wouldn't have to return to that state, especially not this soon. I kid. Sort of. So, a little about myself, I guess. I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, and due to my 12 years of active duty military service, I have lived up and down both coasts. I admit, I do miss being by the ocean. One day we'll get there again. I earned my BS degree from Oregon State University (beautiful campus by the way) in 2011 and worked for a bit in a few group homes, working with a variety of clients. In one house, I worked with adolescent individuals who had developmental delays and were registered sex offenders, and in a different house (with a different company), I worked with clients who had developmental delays with comorbid mental illnesses. I worked my way up to the House Manager, when I had to leave due to a client making threats to kill me (to his counselor...can we say YAY for the Tarasoff law?) and then attempted to carry out his threat when my boss insisted on me working with this client on a 1:1 basis.

Due to that incident, I found my current job, which is a freelance writer. I have achieved the honor of being published, with most of my work being nursing or mental health research related. I enjoy my job, but I know that in order to fulfill the requirements for my MS degree, I will have to work outside of the house in order to obtain my necessary experience hours. Unlike many of the classmates who I have encountered in my numerous courses at Capella University, my goal is not to become a counselor, but rather use it as a stepping stone towards my PhD in psychology, as my heart belongs to research.

I guess one of my apprehensions as I begin this course is that I will be driving to Texas. That wouldn't usually be an issue, but about three weeks ago, I was involved in a serious accident that ended up totaling the vehicle I was driving. I've driven around a little since the accident, but not the 16 hours it will take to get to Dallas. I look at is as exposure therapy. The other challenge I foresee is having to wear "real people" clothes. Since I work from home and live in New Mexico, pants don't happen often. In regards to course-related challenges, I identify with the CBT model of counseling and may need to work on my person-centered skills to excel during the residency portion.

See you guys next month (I'll be wearing pants, I swear)!