RETURN TO START

The past few weeks have been a blur. Moving mode set in, followed by panic mode.

Our quest for our next home started not long after we had to relocate to the 2-bedroom apartment in 2020. A place that was unable to accommodate our needs. After the mold incident in our 3-bedroom apartment in the same complex. At the time, all three of my children were living with me and it was a challenge but we made it work. Somehow. However, it never felt like a home and thus was never set up. We just kept waiting to move.

After last summer’s rent increase and the continued Covid pandemic, we decided to stay at the apartment a little longer. There was uncertainty around our being able to renew our lease due to the renovations that management was making as leases expired. New faux wood flooring and carpets.

As my daughters moved away to live with their father, my son inherited their bedroom with the bunk bed. The bedroom was small but functional for the time being. He had previously slept in my room as I slept in the living room on the sofa. His bed was stored in the garage along with the girls’ individual beds bought before there was a need for a bunk bed. When we all had to live in a 1-bedroom apartment. Also in the same complex.

We were simply existing. Not really living. The master bedroom was too small for both a bedroom and my home office, but I made it work. Somehow. Yet, it was unsustainable and we needed a change. Visiting Zillow to look for rentals became a daily task, but there was not much I could afford with the ever-increasing rents in Austin.

We almost moved back into our first townhome, but the owner was unsure of my being able to pay for it and my never-ending car repairs. Then one night I noticed a listing for a house being rented for much lower than any house in the area. A house outside of our school district, which meant having to drive back and forth to school. Despite that fact, I immediately contacted the rental management company and asked to view the place. I just wanted a proper home for us. That was right before school started almost two months ago. A nightmare to forget.

We viewed the place when the current resident was still living there. She had divorced and needed to end her lease as quickly as possible. The house had a few boxes lying around and her computer setup in a small bedroom. There were two cats in the house, somewhere under a bed. One bedroom was painted a mint green. The master bathroom toilet area was an even lighter green. Nothing like the photos on Zillow. There were deep scratches in the wood floor of the tiny study and large gaps in the wood flooring throughout. In addition, there was much water damage on the wood floor in the hallway with the boards slightly sticking up.

Some things are unable to be seen when furnished and in a sense of rush. Like the massive carpet loss in the mint green room where the cats scratched away at the carpets, exposing the padding and nails. Or the smell left behind from cat urine which penetrated through the carpet padding in the other bedroom. Or the large amounts of soot left in a fireplace which was ‘to be used for decorative purposes only’. And on and on.

Then sometimes, we tend to see only what we want to see because we think it’s a good idea or a good deal. Until it’s not.

We got the keys to that house on the 13th. As soon as my son walked into the small room he wanted for his bedroom, his face registered a look of shock.

‘This is so much smaller than it looked like before!’, he said. And we both were puzzled at the thought of how something can look smaller unfurnished than furnished.

As we walked around, a stench followed wherever we went. Nothing was painted. The tile floors looked dirty. The carpets had stains and felt gritty when I walked with my bare feet. We finally noticed the missing piece of carpet with exposed nails. The place was not move-in ready. That was the beginning of the end for that place.

There was much miscommunication as I texted several different people from the management company. ‘Good news! We’re replacing all the carpets.’ That was after my initial complaint of the house being unready. An hour later another lady showed up at the house to do the inspection herself. She admitted that the first person inspecting the place was new and didn’t do her job correctly. Her decision ended up being that the carpets did not need to be replaced.

I then hired my own carpet cleaner who stated the carpets were definitely not cleaned. And if they were, ‘it was a shitty job’. He also cleaned the yellowed tiles and grout. After I paid for that, I sent the bill to the management company who kept going around and around about it not having been approved yet.

The fireplace was next. The management company set up an appointment for the fireplace to be cleaned. However, the charge was double what I researched. I was then told I could hire my own choice of contractor. When the guy arrived, he immediately began sniffing the air. He looked at the fireplace and pointed out the soot. He stated it had been used and would require a deep cleaning. He then asked to look at the air ducts as he was questioning the smell. I saw him take a flash photograph, which he immediately showed to me.

‘You should not be living here until this is cleaned’, he warned. The air duct in the study was the worst. He quoted me an insane amount of $2,800 for cleaning all 13 or so air ducts. A quote I forwarded to the property management team. They were livid at my having hired someone not approved by them. But when I mentioned ‘health inspector’, I received an email from the owner of the property management company stating it would be best to terminate the lease, with all monies returned. Except for the tile floor cleaning.

That’s when the panic set in. And relief. I immediately went to our current leasing office to let them know of our situation. They let us know there are no more 2-bedroom units available immediately and that our apartment had already been rented. However, there was a 3-bedroom unit available near the pool. It just happened to be the unit below the one we looked at moving to earlier in the summer. And it had brand new carpets and faux wood flooring installed the week prior.

The process was not simple. The new manager had to inspect our current unit to see if she would approve us for the move. Then my income had to be verified as sufficient for the higher rent. And we would have to pay a $500 transfer fee. Even though it technically was not a transfer. At the same time, I had to have a Plan B in case we were not allowed to move. I panicked as we were on the verge of being homeless.

After having been approved, moving mode went into high gear. My son was incredibly helpful as we carried his desk and gaming chair as well as two large side chairs. In addition, he carried heavy boxes and plastic bags full of our things. I truly could not have done this without him. I decided to rent a steam cleaner at HEB to clean the new carpets, knowing that people walked on them with shoes. I spent all of Saturday cleaning the three rooms and closets, not expecting the brown water that resulted. New carpets did not mean they were clean. Now they were.

We survived on eating fast food. MOD pizza, Chipotle, and Taco Bell were our dinners. Sleep was rare as we worked in between work and school obligations, in addition to every weekend. The climb up and descent down the three flights of stairs almost killed us as we went two days over the move-out date. We were both beyond exhausted and I was cursing the move.

‘It will be alright Mama’, my son assured me. He saw how exhausted I was and how much of a financial burden this was. In the end, I realised it was the right decision for us. We were back to not having to drive back and forth to school. We had more space. And my son was able to hang out with his friends after school and on weekends, as they lived in the area.

The first day of Autumn started with our finally turning in our keys to the old place and embarking on a new adventure in our new place. It was a move that turned out quite differently than we had imagined but ended up with what we had wanted in the first place. Now the fun part begins with our setting up of our new home.

Sometimes, in the game of life, we have to return to start in order to get back on track. To realise what we have is in our best interest and to be truly grateful for what we have.