Hi all. I need to rant, so don't proceed if you don't want to hear it.
So I started my morning out great, as Zachary slept well last night and didn't do any 3 am wake-and-screams and slept in till 8! My day took a turn for the worse at lunch, when I checked my email and found one from a friend in San Marcos who informed me that my former house in San Marcos had won Yard of the Month. What??!! Crazy. See, I drove by the old house a few months back and was shocked to tears by what I saw. The new owners of my 100+ year eclectic house on a half acre had chopped down all the 200 year old Ashe Junipers and cedar elm trees that were out front and planted god-awful palm trees. I was so sad because these trees were my friends- they were old and grand and beautiful and these people were turning my eclectic house into something austere and gaudy.. At that point I knew it wasn't my house anymore. Anyways, the article talks about how the new owners tried to get a landscaping company to remove the trees and how the company refused to remove them (yea, they were huge and old!)... It goes on to talk about discovering plants that had been shaded out ( Umm, no, I put in 4 in pot mountain laurels 2 years ago) and well, the whole thing made me cry, especially where the article said they were considering redoing the backyard, which has a few trees that are very old and I'm sure they plan on wiping those out too.
Then my day gets worse. Truly. We just moved into a new house and thought when we were house hunting that we'd taken care of our landlord. He agreed to let us out of our lease once we found a house. Then when we told him we had a house in May he said congrats. Then we told him our move out date in June he said we'd be liable for a renter. What!? Well, we didn't have the agreement on paper, so what could we do. Our landlord then increased the rent on the house and we've been looking for almost 2 months for a renter to no luck. So last time we talked, he said he'd find someone and came down on the rent and had 25 calls in 1 day- we figured he'd have someone in a matter of days. As of August 1 we were not paying rent. He keeps refusing to meet with us to let us return keys and do a walkthru and I was getting worried. We've been dumb and didn't get anything in writing. His lease agreement has nothing in it about reletting, etc. So as of this evening, we got an email saying we owe another months rent or else. Great..... What next, paying for our next 3 months of rent?? So now we have a lot of questions and I'm calling the Austin Tenant Council tomorrow in hopes of learning how screwed we actually are. I guess the worst case is we shell out a few grand for rent and loose our deposit. Not that I don't have better things to do with the money now that we are a 1 salary household...
Ok, so now I really need some tres leches and I ate the last of it last night. I'm thinking of making a drive to get something sweet and sugary...
Thanks for listening/ reading. On the bright side, Zachary went to sleep again before 9 pm and I am almost unboxed and the guys come to install a garage door opener tomorrow. That will be fun. I've never had a garage with an opener!
Just in case you want to read the dreaded article, here it is....
A Stucco Success Story
Even though it is only 50 feet wide, the landscaping at 1217 Chestnut, between Windmill Drive and Ridgeway is hard to miss.
To read the rest of the story, go to
http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/apstorysection/local_story_215114008.html
I have been once years back with the kids from daycamp and Greg has never been. Crazy. It was the perfect day - in the upper 90's with scattered clouds. Zachary napped on the way out and woke up at the park. We loaded him into his Kelty backpack on Greg's back and headed to the pool. We found a spot in the shade on the rock beach and headed into the water. Zachary loved it. The fish there are totally tame - it's like jumping into a fish tank because all the sunfish and baby bass come swimming up to you and nibble your fingers and that delighted my little boy!
