Saturday, October 26, 2013

Housing Stress

So when we arrived at Wright-Patterson, they gave us a four bedroom house that had a lot of square feet.  They had warned me that it was "older, but updated".  Um... yeah.  We stayed there for the weekend before we could get into the housing office to tell them that we weren't going to live there. 

It was so stressful thinking about living there.  My stomach dropped when I walked around the house for the first time.

And, well, here are some pictures:

The rusted kitchen sink drain.

A coil coming loose from the socket.



One side of a shelf held up by a screw (that was painted over)

The other side of the shelf was held up by a nail.



This was the door in one of the boys' rooms. Seriously? 

More rust.

Wall paper pulling off of the border in one of the bathrooms.

Gross tub drain.

Another drain rusted.

This was the shelf in the coat closet downstairs that was falling apart.
 Maybe I'm just picky, but everything just screamed out to me that I didn't like this place.  There were a couple of other little things, like the horrid paint job over the entire house, a detached garage that we couldn't fit the minivan in, a crowded parking lot, the 2 pronged outlets and the very, very outdated appliances. 

We went to the housing office on Monday morning to do our lease paperwork, and we told them straight up that the house wasn't okay.  It was really thanks to my mother-in-law (who I am more and more grateful came out to help with us), that we shouldn't just accept the house.  I was saying that our Fort Meade house was a little nicer, but if we could survive that we would be fine.  Lanelle pointed out to me that we were junior enlisted at the time, and now we're junior officer--we shouldn't settle for less.  (Rick's dad was enlisted for a time in the late 80s, early 90s, so she's familiar with the different types of housing).  I kind of feel the same way.  Maybe I'm elitist, but I swear that Rick has worked really hard to move from enlisted to officer, and I feel like he deserves it. 

The housing office was really good about it.  They took us to two townhomes that were much smaller, with attached garages, driveways and just a newer construction.  We lost about 700 square feet with the townhomes though.  One of the townhomes was on a cul-de-sac and the backyard was actually fenced.  (unlike most of the other houses!)  So soon as I entered the house, it was like my heart completely lifted.  I felt so much better, and it felt like a home that we could live in for at least a couple of years.  It's a beautiful home, and I am so glad that we stood up for ourselves and got a new house that suited our needs better.  No pictures of the new place yet.  I promise that it's much better (3 pronged outlets!) 

The trip to Ohio

We made it to Ohio!  It was crazy last week and I am finally starting to come down from all that adrenaline. I thought that  I would just write down everything that happened from last week until a couple of days ago.  About a month ago we asked Rick's mom Lanelle if she could come out and help with driving.  I figured that I could make it, but I would feel a lot better if she was there to help drive.  And she ended up driving most of the way, which I was totally okay with.

On Tuesday the packers came and finished by around 3:30 or 4:00, and Rick and the boys picked up Lanelle from the airport an hour or so later.  I went to my last Relief Society meeting in the Biloxi ward which was a multi-cultural night that I took a raspberry tart to (store bought) because I didn't have anything to bake with!  I had a great time and after I visited my good friend Jill at her house for an hour or so.

On Wednesday, the boys, Lanelle and I went to get Tato-nut Donuts for the last time, and went to do some shopping.  By the time we got back from driving around for a little bit, we found that the movers were just finishing up.  They had finished by 11:00, which to me, was incredible.  They've never been that quick before.  We then started cleaning a bunch, and I was definitely getting stressed about losing a bunch of our BAH money for having a house that wasn't perfectly clean!

On Thursday we woke up somewhat early and we finished all of our cleaning and sat around waiting for the housing person to come by around 10:00.  Thankfully all we had to do was pay for the blinds, since there were a few windows we couldn't find the right measurements for.  We then spent some time in the BX and commissary before Rick had to go in to do the last of his out-processing.  Lanelle and I went with the boys to get some frozen custard, and then we got a call that Rick was already done with out processing and he was in TLF already (Temporary Lodging Facilities).  We joined him and went one last time to Sicily's, our favorite restaurant near Keesler.

Sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning a horde of ants found there way into my overnight bag.  Stupid bugs.  Our departure time was delayed a little that morning as I had to shake out all the ants I could from each and every article of clothing I had in there.  They even got into the laundry bag of clean clothes that we had washed that night.

Anyways, the trip up to Ohio was BORING.  Really, not a lot to see on the freeway, but lots of trees and such.  We stayed outside of Nashville that night at a Drury Inn and Suites.  It was my first time staying at a Drury Inn and I didn't realize how nice it was going to be.  It was a little pricey for what we usually get, since I also made it a suite so Rick's mom could have at least a little privacy.  The bathroom was huge, with a big tub, and the rooms were really nice.  We had dinner at their little happy hour thing and it was good enough for us!  We were tired and didn't want to get back in the car anyway.

We then put the boys to bed, who didn't do bad at all.  They're always surprising me like that. And then we fell asleep quite quickly after.  Drury Inns are so nice, I'm pretty sure that's where we're going to splurge and stay on occasion.  So nice.

We got to Ohio on Saturday and someone from the office gave us the keys to our house.  And....well, the house issue is for another blog post, with all the stress that it caused! 

So we made it to Dayton, Ohio, and it's freezing cold.  The end.