Not everyone knows our renting horror stories.. Since Bradley and I have been together we have moved 6 times.. We have been together for 7 years this month (2/25)
So first let me start off with how we met.. At the time I had just moved here from NJ (about 3 months before we met) I had taken a job at the Giant about 15 minutes from my parents house & I befriended Michelle ... one day Michelle and I went shopping at the mall then decided to go to a bar near her house that night.. Bradley was friends with Michelle's friends.. and Bradley and I hit it off immediately.. and after a 3 hour phone convo that night after the bar.. we have been together ever since ...If you ask Bradley he is going to mention dry humping in the parking lot.. smh. Anyway.. we weren't together long before I started staying at his mom and stepdad's house with him.. in his bedroom with the dinosaur border and dinosaur switchplate.. oh and the aquarium with no fish but with aquarium rocks and model cars... and I would like to also mention he drove a teal Geo Metro at the time I met him .
So some time went on.. we ended up moving out together and this started our adventures in renter's hell..
Apartment #1 , Catasauqua PA - "And then there were floods..."
Shelf life at this address: approximately 2.5 months
We found this super cheap apartment in the newspaper I believe.. it was $400 a month I believe.. the price was perfect.. the apartment..ehh not so much. However at the time Bradley was being "evicted" from his parents' house , so we had to take what we could get.. this apartment was about the size of our living room now.. I mean the whole apartment was about the size of a living room... a small living room... and speaking of which (a living room) this apartment didn't have one. it was basically a kitchen with a small carpeted area which our table just fit in, a very small bedroom and an even smaller bathroom. Besides the size of the apartment it was also about 3 feet or so under ground level. it was something else.. I don't remember all of the details and the time line of what exactly happened in what order.. because honestly I try and block it out.. and you are about to see why..
So first.. came the bugs.. drain flies to be exact. We started to be infested with these little nasty looking black flies.. that up close resembled very small moths.. so we started to do our research and found out what these little monsters were.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodidae
(if that isn't enough to give you the heeby geebies.. I don't know what will ) So we stocked up on fly strips and draino and of course called our "landlord" (I use this word loosely) and he wasn't concerned at all.. these flies were everywhere.. it was a nightmare.. we thought.. it can't get much worse.. we were wrong.
Not long after our infestation of these little disease carrying monsters.. the skies unleashed.. it was pouring rain (just a basic thunderstorm with rain).. and Bradley was in the bathroom (shocker) and all of a sudden I look over at our door.. and water is POURING in.. I yell for Bradley and by this time.. the kitchen is filling up with water .. I am freaking out because the water is almost up to the outlet.. we try and call the slum lord and he was at a bar and wasn't at all concerned with our situation.. well I ended up calling the cops.. whom called the "slum lord" and made him come. Well long story short I gave him so much shit he offered the whole building just so he never had to deal with me again. Needless to say.. we were in the apartment looking business again..
Apartment #2 , Allentown PA (Center City, 10th and Chew) "We should have gotten renter's insurance"
Shelf life at this address : 1 year
In our apartment hunting we came across a beautiful historic apartment.. cathedral ceilings hard wood floors.. 2 floors. it was gorgeous & cheap and from what we heard the neighborhood wasn't "bad" and all of our neighbors were nice ...teachers at the local school ...
At the time we only had 1 car and I just started a new job so our new morning routine was a bit crazy ...crazy early.. we left the apartment every morning about 3 am - 4 am Bradley would drop me off at his mom's house and I would sleep for about an hour and then ride into work with Bradley's step dad (he got me the new job I was starting) So apparently so low life thieves in the area was watching us and saw our "routine" and apparently decided that they wanted to rob us blind.. it was about a week into living at this new apartment..Bradley calls me at work, he just got home from work and the door is kicked in and EVERYTHING of value is gone.. our dvd player..dvds... stereo ... (our tv was apparently too old for them to take) cash.. anything else they thought was valuable. They even were nice enough to eat our ice cream and drink our soda and leave the dishes in the sink for us to wash.. OH and they shit in our toilet and put a whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet to stop it up.. Since we had just moved.. and we figured they robbed us once .. we should be okay.. we stayed with family until our door was fixed.. The landlord at this apartment was so nice and we decided to stay at the apartment and hope and pray this didn't happen again. It didn't however our neighbor downstairs was robbed blind the following week. So even though we weren't robbed again.. we were there for 2 standoff hostage situations right around the corner . Once our lease was up.. we started looking yet again.. for another apartment..
Apartment #3 , New Tripoli PA "The bird lady from hell"
Shelf life at this address: 2 years
This next place was perfect.. the apartment was gorgeous....in the country.. no worries about being robbed.. horses out front.. just beautiful..We went to look at the place ...the only set back was that there were "some" peacocks roaming the property and well the apartment was originally built on to the landlords house for her late ex father in law ...Well at the time.. we figured.. how bad can this be? We are out of Allentown.. its gorgeous ,the landlord seems normal... Yea... well we then discovered there was approximately 40 peacocks.. shitting everywhere.. and that our landlord was friggin insane.. long story short she would say things and then the next day totally act like she never said it.. our circuit breaker box was in HER house so if we blew a circuit we had to go and get her.. fast forward she "evicted" us for being late on our rent after telling us it was fine and that she understood our issues and we could be late...so then panic set in.. we needed to find another place asap.. we find a place start moving out clean the place TOP to BOTTOM expecting our deposit back.. well the bitch says.. she never evicted us and we are "skipping out" she refused to give us our $$ back... so to this day we never got anything back from this bitch.. but learned some valuable lessons
Apartment #4 , Tamaqua PA "Living with the inbreds"
Shelf life at this address : approximately 6 months
We found a cheap place ... it was pretty big.. that's basically the only good things about the place. Soon we discovered our landlords didn't feel the need to knock or call ahead they would just let themselves in to our apartment when they felt like it.. and our neighbors....ahhhh our neighbors.. were different.. the boys I am pretty sure were on their way to being on America's Most Wanted.. the youngest boy brought us his "pet bird" whom was pretty dead.. he also killed off a lizard and I believe another bird.. the older brother used to look at me with a rapist stare.. and we had a neighborhood crackhead that would ask us for lighters constantly after repeatedly telling him we didn't smoke. The kids upstairs would jump around all day and all night .. it was kinda like here at this apt except the loud people were above us. There was an incident too where b-b guns were being shot right near the apartment (mind you this was in the center of Tamaqua..so this isn't rural) called the cops.. they did nothing .. it was a whole lot of "issues" at this apt... also.. it was freezing in there the whole winter.. there was NO insulation at all.. Looking back on all of this.. all I can do is laugh.. but at the time.. this was such a white trash hell hole. So since we were on a month to month lease...we decided to start searching..yet again..
Apartment #5 Allentown, PA "Finally a normal place ..."
shelf life at this address: 2 years
We find the perfect apartment it's in complex.. normal neighbors.. reasonable rent.. the apartment is kinda small...but it was just Bradley and I and Miya.. so this was perfect..there was a pool...a little patio.. a washer and dryer right outside our door.. peace and quiet.. At this time we were getting ready to get married.. we moved in in February and were getting married in April.. so we were going through of a lot of exciting changes at this time and everything was moving along perfectly.. we got married April 3, 2010 everything was perfect for the 1st time.. we were in a "normal" home.. with NO issues.. fast forward about a month or so after we got married.. I started feeling sick.. primarily in the morning.. then I missed my period.. yep.. I was pregnant.. Even with my ever growing belly the apartment was still perfect.. we had some small issues nothing major.. then.. we had the baby shower.. and started to see how much stuff our little bundle of joy was gonna require.. now our perfect little apartment was becoming way too small.. we held out as long as we could.. the more Emma grew the less space we had.. the more stuff she needed ..the poor kid didn't even have a room.. we had no room for a crib she slept with me in the living room.. until right after she was 1...after being accused of having our dog wear "children's" underwear..and finding out that a 2 bedroom apartment in this complex was way too much for us to afford ... we started looking once again. Although this apartment was so nice and just what we always wanted.. we needed more space and couldn't afford to pay more money..
Apartment #6 Allentown, PA "Emma will have her own room..perfect!!...or so we thought "
Shelf life at this address: 1 year and counting
I found this apartment in the paper I believe.. it was hard to find a place with 2 bedrooms that we could afford.. a reasonable distance for Bradley to travel to work...(I worked from home at the time) ..that allowed dogs....a older lady lived downstairs that was in the transition of moving into a nursing home ...so we knew for awhile we wouldn't have anyone below us.. so we didn't have to worry about anything really.. everything seemed perfect.. lots of closet space.. a washer dryer hookup .. again Emma had her own room.. My mom had sold the rest of her property and moved right around the corner from us.. so it was all working out.. I had my mom right here to help with Emma.. and since the property that was sold was ultimately going to be left to my sister and I we got a portion of the money from the property being sold.. so with that money we were able to buy a washer and dryer and some new furniture..things were looking up :)
So the little old lady downstairs finally started to move.. and her apartment wasn't vacant for long.. a young couple started to move in.. at first everything was fine.. we were all friendly.. no issues.. AND then the issues started.. they moved in their chain smoking mother/mother in law ... then the noise.. ahh the noise started.. all hours of the night.. (and for anyone that knows me.. they know all about this ) there were cops called the landlord called.. and it's been a war since.. and also they decided to move in the sister...her bf and their 4 yr old little boy so in a 2 br apt.. which trust me isn't big at all they have 5 adults and 1 child living down there.. so imagine.. just imagine the noise.. and I swear none of them work.. and these people NEVER sleep.. OH and not to mention before we went on our vacation this past summer.. a car.. that's right a vehicle ran into our door. we were trapped inside our apt til the cops were able to get the car moved.. this happened the NIGHT before we were leaving for OCNJ.. then a little off topic.. but when we got back from our vacation I went back to work just to find out that the "vacation" time I took for our vacation wasn't "earned" and my manager decided it was best that I got docked all 40 hours in once check.. so after using all of our money on our vacation thinking I was getting paid for it.. we ended up being dead broke as soon as we got back.. awesome right?
While living here we got pregnant again.. and now our just right 2 bedroom apt is becoming way too small once again.. Bradley Jr will be here in about 2.5 months and I am dreading moving again.. but I honestly don't see this working.. there is hardly enough space for us.. as it is..
and right after finding out I was pregnant I got fired from my job.. so that also puts a damper on things.. lol
So stay tuned for our next adventure.. in renting hell.
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