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Browsing tag: housing

  • August 14, 2009

    Up in the air

    Let’s set the scene. It’s Friday night. I feel like a limp dishrag and quite frankly like a hamster on a wheel.

    Thankfully, LL is cool with switching over onto a periodic tenancy. He’s all “I may have to put the house on the market by December”.

    (Pray to god we are OUT of here by then. I’ve decided moving before semester ends is silly – for one, I am stressed enough with the workload, and helping BF through his coursework as well, without adding on househunting and moving. I barely have time to eat, shower, crap or clean the kitchen. Yet of course, I have ten minutes here and there to write rambling blog posts…And two, who knows where I’ll be in two months? And three – it’s gonna cost me $200 in early termination for my Telecom package. You’d think they’d reduce the fee over time, but it’s all the same – break in the first 12 months and they sting you 200).

    He also wants to raise the rent – how much? “You guys have a chat, decide what you think and come back to me.”

    How about nothing, seeing as this place is coming apart at the edges and we already pay at the high end of the scale? But he’s all “I paid $450k for the house almost two years ago.” Bloody dreaming property investors.

    Not a convo I’m looking forward to on the 27th.

  • June 22, 2009

    Just to add to my list of niggling worries…

    …BF’s family is having troubles.

    His mother is looking to move sometime soon, to somewhere smaller and cheaper.

    BF, understandably, wants to help her out, as he was telling me.

    Thankfully he had the sense to add “But I know we have our own troubles to worry about.”

    Yeah, you’re telling me! Not that I like to whine (well, I guess this blog bears the brunt of my gripes). But it’s tough enough getting by as a student on a student income, without having to essentially support a second person on said income. And sometimes I feel BF doesn’t appreciate that enough. I mean, we think of all our money as “our money”, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. But he’s the happy-go-lucky kind anyway. I’m a born stressor.

    Anyway. Our helping could come in the form of moving in with her (she’s apparently found a few nice places, with sleepout/separate downstairs flat, etc). She only has her and BF’s youngest brother now, and I guess BF’s oldest brother also will be living there. If we lived with them, it would ease the pressure of rent and bills, and she knows we would always pay on time.

    Qualms? Well, sooo many: the place itself, and housekeeping (previously they’ve lived in rather dumpy, messy places, although I don’t know how much of that to attribute to the fact that there would have been five kids in and out, not to mention their friends); BF’s oldest brother (not someone I’d actually want to reside with); the likely frequency of BF’s sister and kids coming to stay during her and her partner’s domestics; being close to the bus; being close to campus for BF next year; flexibility of moving, because presumably that would leave his mum in quite a fix. Sigh.

    See, my plan was for us to take our time looking for our next place. (Plus, not many people are keen to take in couples, especially if they’re both studying). I wanted to live in Mt Eden/Epsom, or maybe 3 Kings/Greenlane/Royal Oak. Reason: better, more frequent buses, and reduced travel time to the city. Have I mentioned how sick I am of spending 10 hours a week commuting? Doesn’t even count the time spent walking to/from the bus stop, and waiting for the bus. Those specific areas: because if he goes into teaching he will have classes at the Mt Eden Rd campus. It’s best if we live close to it, so if the car craps out he can still get there without too much fuss. BF seemed to understand and agree with that.

    But not today. He’s all gung ho about helping out his mum (which is totally fair enough). I reiterated how important it is for both of us to be able to get to uni/work WITHOUT relying on a car. His answer? “Oh, but you can’t keep living life in fear of something that MIGHT happen”. Well, like I explained, it’s perfectly sensible to live somewhere where I can cut down on travel time, and ensure that our old car breaking down wouldn’t strand us. And frankly, I am sick of West Auckland. Plus, he just doesn’t want to move away from his friends and family. He’s that kind of person. Me, I don’t care. I want to live somewhere decent, closer to town, and in an environment where he can do the best he can to prepare for starting uni next year. I’m not sure living with his mum would achieve that. She has to stay in this area because of BF’s brother’s school. And she currently has no car herself…so, see where I’m going? But I don’t want to come off as the cold hard bitch here.

    It’s just hard to make plans at this stage when we don’t know exactly what will be happening next year. BF could be studying at the Epsom campus on the other side of Auckland, or at the city campus. I could be working in town, or maybe at a small community paper. Ya know? Not to mention our lease goes until August. Oh please, kill me now.

  • May 21, 2009

    All I want for Christmas

    is hot running water.

    And at this rate I’ll be lucky to get it by then!

    Plumber came today, spoke to BF and informed him there’s a leak under the house, and the mains needs to be moved up to the roof. But first someone needs to come with sonic equipment to detect the leak’s location, then fix it.

    Oddly enough, LL hasn’t been spotted much this week….

    Oh, and he then told him to not call him again as he wants nothing to do with this job, it’s just that “horrible”.

    WHOOPEE!

    Think LL is finally realising that buying a rental property was not the answer to his problem, but far from it.

    I doubt he has the cash to fix this, and I feel sorry for him, but that’s part of your undertaking when you become a LL. You need cash reserves for situations like this.

    Not to mention the lack of insulation, the damp and mould in our room, the windows that don’t quite close…

    Like I said, three more months.

  • April 18, 2009

    Finally got around to going to DTR to claim my $60 refund.

    Wonder how long before it gets processed? I plan to use it to get another three months’ of contact lenses.

    Now hopefully I’ll never have to set foot in there again!

    I feel like I haven’t had any control of our money the last few weeks. I’ve been staving off the flu and some sort of stomach issue, and taking various medications has simply left me doped up and still unwell, and with BF not bringing any money in, it’s all very disorganised.

    We got a letter form WINZ informing us that as he did not “respond to a request for information, your application has been declined”.

    The letter was dated April 9. Over a week ago. And just three days after he actually went in for his first appointment.

    And, I might add, we never received any “request for information”.

    So now it’s over to calling the 0800 line and trying to get through to a human operator to find out what the HELL is going on.

    BF hates waiting on phone lines, especially when he’s 15th in line or whatever. Social services are just so overloaded at the moment and they seriously are not coping at all.

    I’m just trying to make his EF last as long as possible, because it’s not looking healthy.

    And now we have to deal with having no hot water. Turns out it was the cylinder, and not anything to do with the LL’s family staying. Now they’re gone, nothing’s changed – it’s just a coincidence our water went around the time they arrived. Hopefully that also explains why our electricity bills are so high! It’s summer for chrissake, and we’re using double what we did a year ago.

    Hope his insurance get it sorted super fast. He’s been made redundant too. And the weather’s getting colder, and my cold isn’t going away…cold showers don’t help any. Up until last week I was managing to squeeze in roughly room temperature showers – ie, the water was MARGINALLY warmer than my body – but those golden times are OVER!

    I just finished washing my hair for the first time in three days. I was forced to wash it in the basin (something I find damn near impossible, hidesouly uncomfortable, and messy), and this required me to boil two jugs of water.

    Primitive, no?

  • March 19, 2009

    Overload

    LL assured me when he brought his mother/sister over that this was temporary and they would be finding a place of their own ASAP.

    Doesn’t look like that’s happening. They’ve settled in, taken over the grounds, show no signs of moving. He reckons he’s going to do all this stuff to the house, get a second washing line, etc. (Except that he, you know, lost his job).

    Rubbish is piling up. Cans and bottles and boxes are piling up. The grounds look like a rubbish tip. Our rubbish and recycling bin are just big enough to serve the four of us – it sure as hell can’t handle the output from an extra THREE people. You can’t put all the extra out cause the collectors won’t take it. They only take what fits in the bin. I am sure as hell not paying for a skip or to go to the recycling plant.

    This place is NOT big enough for seven people.

    Six months to go….

  • March 7, 2009

    Landlord dramas

    Got my driver’s licence in the mail today. I look….incredibly dorky. But it’s still a better photo than the one on my learner’s, and after four years it’s about time!

    Anyway, what I wanted to write about today is our landlord. He’s driving us insane! Where to start? His excessive drinking. Which I wouldn’t care about, except he and his friends drink SO MUCH that our bins fill up within a day and because recycling is only collected every fortnight, we just can’t keep up. Bottles and cans fester for weeks. By the time the bins are emptied, and we go to fill it up with all the backlog, it’s full again. It’s DISGUSTING. There are boxes, papers, bottles, all sortsof recycling materials piled up in front of our house because our bin is full. There’s no end in sight. He would literally have to quit drinking for a month or two.

    He’s becoming insanely nosy, whiney and bossy. That, and he never does anything he says he will (mow the lawn – he now has a lawnmower; fix our windows that don’t shut properly, change blown lights).

    He still hasn’t got our water meter checked out. I gave him printouts from the council site showing what to do and the form for refunds of leaks. I’m sure we have a leak – I’ve done overnight checks two or three times and everytime there has been movement while we sleep. He maintains that our bills are in line with our household. I don’t think he gets how little we use – one of our flatmates is never here, we don’t have a washing machine, and (slightly gross) not everyone has a shower every single day.

    The other day, apparently he came around in a grump, told one of our friends to shut up (he was telling a story about someone who cut him off on the road), and then last week came around complaining about guests “talking in high pitched voices”. WTF? Seriously. We don’t have parties. We’re fairly quiet I’d say for a bunch of 20yearolds. Whatever happened to privacy? I get that it’s his house. But we don’t pay to have a parental figure yell at us for stupid things like that. We’re paying his mortgage.

    It wasn’t so bad, because all of last year he was rarely here. (Thankfully. Our dodgy agent didn’t even inform us that he lived in the back flat.) Now he’s here fulltime, WITH his mother and sister who are moving here and haven’t found a place yet. He promised they wouldn’t be here long; it’s a temporary thing. Yeah. We’ll see. Ever since, it’s been unbearable, his – and their – constant presence. There’s NEVER any hot water – at its hottest, it’s comfortably, mildly warm – not scalding as it should be. They’ve taken over the backyard – we have a full section which is really why our rent is so high. But now we can’t enjoy it because they’ve taken it over, dumping their junk everywhere, plus their flat opens out onto it and we would feel strange about hanging out there. And this week, a cage of DUCKS appeared out back. Poor things scurry around in a pack, huddled in the safety of the herd. He reckons he’s going to sell the creatures.

    Our house needs a ton of work. He’s been laid off as far as I know. Hence always being around, not having had the windows fixed, etc. BF says he told him “I thought once I had a house, I had it made, and I’d be set for life.” Nuh uh. He wants to landscape around the place, tidy it up, and ‘get a loan’ for it. I assume he means borrowing against his equity (which surely can’t be much? He bought start of last year before the huge crash).

    Sigh. Okay, end rant.

  • February 12, 2009

    Live alone, or with others?

    In order to be prepared, I figured it’s time to start thinking about our future living situation.

    I’m not going to head up a flat again. So that leaves moving into an established house, or setting up on our own again.

    I am leaning towards the former, but of course there are pitfalls. I think I’m a decent flatty. I’m clean and fairly quiet although I do have my antisocial spells. BF on the other hand can alienate some people – whereas I can’t help but be courteous to others in general, even if I dislike them, he won’t do that; he’s too honest. He gets dirty from work which might annoy flatmates, and is not as tidy as me – although it’s hard to tell to what extent, considering how we live at the moment (but I think I can guess how much of the mess around here is caused by him).

    Cons of living with others:
    Can be kicked out at their whim
    Cooking times can be awkward
    Cleaning can always be an issue even in the smoothest running households
    Risk of having psycho flatmates
    Issues with having friends over
    Issues with their friends
    Conflicting morning routines
    Paying for others’ power/internet guzzling
    Limited fridge space

    Cons of living by ourselves:
    Can be isolated (although I’m pretty introverted)
    More expensive ?
    Expensive bond, totally responsible for condition of house
    Less space (although less to clean)
    Nobody wants to rent to a couple of 20 year olds, esp. with one of them still studying, no matter how good of a job they may have.

  • January 11, 2009

    Lazy Sunday

    Well I’ve had a fairly productive day – managed to paint my nails (right thumb eluded me, I had to do it three times over), wash all my makeup brushes, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen cabinets and went to the Laundromat. Since our washer died a few weeks ago we’ve been making weekly trips to our friendly local Laundromat. For $2.50 our washing is beautifully done and never starchy…I don’t think we’ll bother replacing the machine! Not least because as time goes on the less I want to invest in this household. Over half of our bowls have disappeared. We have about three left from closer to 8 or 9. So it’s a struggle when I want cereal or noodles, to find something to house my meal in.

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    00542-1_mdWhen I have money to burn furnishing my dream house, I’m off to Howard’s Storage World to spend up a storm! Retro fifties spice tins and rubbish bins, steel shoe racks, spice racks, holders and organisers of all sorts, hangers and shelves. Yeah, I never thought I had such a hidden homebody…but being in the store the other day was like nirvana. I don’t want a HOUSE AND GARDEN home, but I would like it to be nice and clean and pretty and organised. Gah, I want a house of my own, and I want it now!

  • January 3, 2009

    sher11

    We live across the road from the projects.

    Okay, technically they’re not that bad. I mean, when I watched American Gangster, THOSE were the mean, rough projects. They were downright depressing. I felt dirty just watching them onscreen. They shouted poverty, misery and depression and filth. And drugs, of course, seeing as the movie was about a drug lord. It’s a bloody good movie, get it out if you haven’t seen it!

    They may only be about five storeys high, but they epitomise ghetto. There are duplex state houses around the corner, big double storey weatherboard monstrosities (that have recently been tidied up and don’t look as shabby as they did). Or if we wanna get British, council flats is the word.

    It makes me ashamed when people come around. I want them to drive down from the OTHER end of the street, the respectiable one, not through the ghetto where they’ll see the worst part of the area.

    But we were househunting at the tightest point of the market, when supply was low and demand high. Places were going within hours of being advertised. And I had honestly given up the day before seeing this one. It’s not ideal, obviously, mainly in terms of location. But the house had a done up bathroom and huge kitchen and was close to shops and buses.

    I would never buy in this part of our suburb, because I’d rather have a crapper house in a nicer street. See, I’m a lowly renter just out of my teens but even I know it’s all about location.

    Me and a friend were walking home the other day and I pointed a massive house on her corner, which got us talking about people who build new. To be specific, a certain kind of person who builds ostentatious brick and tile/concrete mansions with say 5 bedrooms 4 bathrooms and a 6 car garage, usually in hideous shades of yellow or pink or other pastel hues. Right smack bang in the middle of a state housing pocket (ie Roskill).

    They think it makes em look rich, but really it makes em look stupid! And frankly, it’s down right unsafe. Build the biggest house in an area like that and you’re asking to be burgled. I would not feel safe and no amount of ego boosting that might provide would make up for it.

  • December 30, 2008

    The un-joys of flatting

    angry-faceI’m sure I’ve bitched and moaned enough about our flat for a lifetime, but here’s one more rant. I really would love to live alone/with the boy, but it’s always more expensive than sharing a house with others. Why is that? It’s the same world over I’m pretty sure. From what I can tell, living on your own in an apartment is the done thing in the States. Like, once you graduate from the dorms, you rent a place of your own..I guess it’s a sign of independence, not having roommates, and maybe cause apartments are more dominant in cities? Of course, it’s much cheaper to share accommodation, as many an MSN Money poster has pointed out. Anyway. If you own a company and are thinking of epoxy flooring, it’ll interest you to know that these don’t take that much time to install according to an Ottawa, ON epoxy garage flooring center.

    Epoxy floorings are floorings applied with layers of tough, long lasting coating called epoxy.  Epoxies are used to produce sparkling, clean and durable flooring.  Also, it is applied to protect paint on the flooring from grease, oil and other substances.  However, not all floorings can hold epoxy coating.  So, before you apply epoxy on your flooring, you should assess first the condition of your concrete if it produces moisture or not.  Flooring that produces moisture usually destroy the ability of the epoxy to bond.  Hence, it is not suited for epoxy coating.   Also, you must not apply epoxy coating if your flooring was applied with concrete sealer.  On the other hand, if you have a new slab, wait for at least a month for the flooring to be thoroughly dry prior to epoxy application.  And, if you have painted floors, the best option for you is to remove the old paint before applying any kind of epoxy.  In addition, you should also consider the air temperature in your garage. You can go on bestfinishepoxy.com/mississauga/ site for the details about epoxy flooring solutions.

    Concrete polishing is a new trend that has been discovered and widely used among home and business owners all across the country. There are several reasons why concrete polishing is a fantastic choice for new construction, existing property, and renovation projects. So why is concrete polishing do desirable all of a sudden? The answer can be found below. Continue reading to learn the various benefits and some information surrounding concrete polishing and concrete maintenance for residential or commercial properties. You can navigate to this site for more detail about the Southside Concrete Polishing.

    For optimal epoxy drying, air temperature should be between 60 and 90 degrees with the minimum concrete temperature of 55 degrees F.  The outcome of your epoxy flooring also depends on your planning and pre work.  Pre work involves oil spot removal, floor cleaning and degreasing, floor etching with mild acid, and floor scrubbing, vacuuming and rinsing.  If your floor has no cracks, you can immediately apply the first layer of epoxy.  However, if your floor has cracks, it is recommended that you fill the cracks first before applying the first layer of epoxy.  The second layer of epoxy is applied the day after.

    I seriously have the flatmate from hell. Were he not a friend of the boy’s he would have long been kicked to the curb. Right now he’s over $100 behind in various bills. Some of it is from last month – I should have been more vigilant, but last month I had exams and the boy had no work, so I had other things on my mind. He doesn’t clean. Ever. Not after himself, not anything around the house. The boy says it’s not his fault, he was never taught to pick up after himself. So? We’re all grown ups, this is basic, BASIC stuff. The first month or two, we all tried to clean on Sundays. We’d divvy it up; bathroom, floors, kitchen, lounge. Our fourth flatty is rarely home though, so that made it hard. And the system soon disintegrated. I tried having a chore wheel on the fridge. That lasted all of one day.

    So now, I’ve just given up totally. I’ve stopped asking him to do anything. The last straw came months ago. I had to literally ask him about 8 times in an evening to please mop the floors. The LL was coming to inspect the next morning. Eventually I went to bed, but went to the bathroom before (around 10pm). The mop and bucket were standing by the door, full of soapy water, but the floors were still filthy. Oh, I was enraged. I had to clean the floors myself at 10 at night while he snored just behind his door. I made as much angry noise as I could, but he sleeps and snores like nothing human.

    It totally fucks me off. I’ll come home, scrub the floors, vacuum, out he comes and asks “what are you doing?” “Cleaning”

    “Oh Okay” and off to the kitchen to make a mess. Not even an offer to help with anything. Approximately once every three months he’ll say “Leave those dishes, I’ll do them”. Then he’ll go shut himself in his room to watch wrestling while I slave over the bathroom.

    wipe down benches? do dishes? empty the bins? take out cans and bottles for recycling? put the bins out for the collectors? NEVER. He’ll drink boxes of beer, and never take out the bottles or the box. He’ll go nuts at a party at home, then do NOTHING to help clean the next day. And it’s not like he doesn’t make any mess. He doesn’t wipe up stuff he spills, pick up stuff he leaves in the lounge, do dishes, wipe down the stove, clean the microwave after a drunken feed…

    Plus, his ex. the one good thing was she’d help him clean, or clean herself  – empty the bathroom bin, sweep, scrub the boys’ toilet, do the kitchen, take out rubbish. But they were a toxic couple. I…won’t go into details, but seriously, I know much worse goes on, but I like to think I lead a relatively normal life, and their dramas were just fucking out of it.

    So this is ridiculous, I’m at breaking point. At times, it’s not so bad. Everything aside, we otherwise gel as a flat. But the cons so far outweigh the pros. I mean come on, I’m not a bank. In fact, banks charge late fees, etc. I don’t, but I bloody well should. It’s just so disrespectful, and I don’t like being lied to. He’ll tell me he’ll get the the rest of it tomorrow, then the day after, then the day after….then never. I even get the boy to nag him, but he just fobs him off and tells him he’ll get it ‘the next day’. Then avoid us.

    Last time we moved I decided I didn’t want to live with strangers again, as it hadn’t worked out well for me before. I still don’t, really. Ideally I’d join a flat with some of our mates, but I wouldn’t be the head tenant. Unfortunately that’s not an option. Very few of our friends live away from home, in fact, a fair few of them have moved home recently. I don’t really want to take on a tenancy again, I’m sick of having all my money tied up in bonds and I hate worrying about little things like damages or having to call the LL myself when things go wrong.

    So I guess  if we could find a nice place, in a nice area, with flatmates we might get along well with, that takes couples, I wouldn’t mind taking a punt. I’m certainly not going to say I’ll never live with guys again; girls can be just as bad. Not just the bitchiness and cliques, but they can be just as grotty. Like when I lived with two chicks who were rarely home and never cleaned up after their cats. The kitchen floor was always a mess. The bathroom wasn’t too bad, except for the pawprints tracked all over the tub/basin/counters. Trust me, it wasn’t TERRIBLE, but got really old really fast.

    I don’t know what I’ll do if he doesn’t get caught up with his bills this month. I guess we’d ask him to leave, and speak to his mother about getting money out of him (as well for the wallpaper he ripped when he taped his TV aerial to the wall). Yes, it would hurt our budget. But it would be worth it. God knows he uses so much electricity, never cleans up after himself, let alone do household chores, it would save me a ton of time in cleaning and stress.

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