Well, as per the post below... I'm moving.
I'm in a much better headspace now, but don't get me wrong, I'm still furious. But I went and looked at and put an application in at an apartment that I could see myself living in for a while and it's given me a little bit of clarity that I'm going to be okay.
This whole thing has been a bit difficult to process... It's only been about 36 hours since I found out, so it's not that surprising that I'm having a few brain gliches. In that case, a list or two...
Pros
No longer in a basement suite (I didn't mind it but I'd like to look out the window and not be eye level with the sidewalk)
The wind won't howl through the gap in the door making the house sound haunted (that used to REALLY creep me out)
No more carpet which means no more vacuuming. Swiffer all the way baby!
Dedicated craft room (if I get a two bedroom)
Laundry in the building (just steps from 'my' apartment... I can do laundry in the middle of the night if I want!)
There is common area carpet between outside and my door... no more tracking outside right in!
The cat stays inside so I don't have to worry about him getting in fights or getting run over
It's a 9 min walk to a pretty nice shopping area with lots of cafes and one of my fave sushi places
The furniture i have in storage will all fit
There is no bad memories or reminders... it's a completely fresh start
No one will know where I live unless I tell them
I can likely get a small deep freeze
Cons
there's no outdoor space so no more bbq or patio chairs
The cat has to stay inside (I'm worried about him becoming really miserable)
Litter box!
It's more expensive
There's not a lot of visitor parking
It's farther away from my peeps
It would be more than a seven minute drive to Hardeep's
Worries (or why I have a stomach ache)
Packing the fridge/freezer
Making a new neighborhood 'my' neighborhood
The cat being upset
That I probably can't take or reuse the vinyl decals on my walls
That I might not be able to take my crystal chandelier with me
That I have to put the kitty in the cat hotel and then power pack because he might run away when he sees packing boxes
Confronting my landlords for money ** more on this below
That my landlords will not give me a good reference because they're mad at me
So I've decided that since my landlords illegally told me I had to move and are being inconsiderate (asking someone to move for two months, continue paying rent and then move back, all with no monetary compensation), I'm going to make them a deal. Either pay me a significant amount of money (three months rent) and I'll move out for May 1... OR... I'll take the two months I"m legally entitled to, they'll still owe me one month rent and my damage deposit and I'll move on May 26th, which is their daughters wedding day and they're having the party in the back yard. I'll make full use of my outside area to stage moving ahead of time, when they're having all their pre-parties and I'm pretty sure it will be a disruptive and unpleasant looking mess. Plus, they won't be able to use the suite for the time prior to the wedding for their out of town guests.
Either way... fine by me ;) (but not really because I don't like confrontation... I want them to give me what I want.... and they need to decide asap because I need to make arrangements for the kitty hotel)
I'm super stressed... punctuated by times of feeling excited by this new living adventure...
Any advice on my cons or more pros you can think of would be much appreciated.
2 comments:
Document everything. Make note of every single conversation you've had with your landlords and keep copies of every piece of paper pertaining to the situation. When you give them your two moving options make sure you give them a letter with it all outlined. It might all be fine, but landlord disputes can get ugly.
I second the getting everything on paper and in writing. Give them copies of it too just to prove that you're being honest and fair, and make sure that you get their official decision in writing.
If you're worried about references, just explain the situation to your new landlord - with a minimum of detail and emotion! - and I'm sure they'll understand. They may still call your old landlords, but at least they'll understand the situation a little better.
As for the actual moving, I like the idea of the kitty hotel for Charlie. That way he won't need to know anything about the move till its all over - and he seemed to have such a good time there on his last visit.
My advice for packing - and this goes for the fridge/freezer too - is to take the time purge as much stuff as you can before you actually start packing anything - your other options are of course, the "pack only what you want to keep and deal with the rest later" approach, and the "move everything and sort it out as you unpack" approach. Trust me, these last two ways are a real pain the a**, and inevitably make you wish you'd done it a different way.
No matter how much planning you put into your move, you will very likely be moving out on the last possible day you can be in the flat, your movers WILL show up late (not very late, if you're lucky!), and you WILL take much longer than you thought getting everything into the truck on one end, and back out of the truck on the other end. Having to then rush back to your old place at close to midnight just to pack up the pile of stuff destined for goodwill is not fun. Neither is getting to the new place and opening up boxes, only to realize you don't want this stuff anyway, and you've just busted your butt loading it into your new place for nothing (or in even worse, you've just wasted money paying people to move it for you)! Sort through and purge your old stuff beforehand, and you can even get the charities to come take it away for you! ;)
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