Some of you have been asking about our new place. Well, here's the story of our new place, which became our old place really fast. Then there's the story of how our old place became our new place again.
Ok, let's start from the beginning (I hear that's a good place to start.). We decided to look for apartments more centrally located, since right now, we're kind of in the outskirts of town, still accessible by bus, but not super convenient, especially when our car would break down. We finally found something at the end of July, and made plans to move in at the beginning of September. We told our current landlord that we were leaving, and he was sad, but what could he do.
We went to Poland on vacation, and had a wonderful Polish time, bought a few things at Ikea for the new place. Then we came back, got Nikita ready for the first day of school (Sept 1st) and started to pack. We got a phone call on Monday (August 29th from our old landlord asking if we were for sure moving out, because he had someone else that wanted to live in the apartment). We got our keys on August 31st, and went in to check things out. We realized that we wanted to paint a few places and needed to make a few "minor" repairs. Since we have a few friends that can do those kinds of things, we were ok, a little disappointed by how much work we didn't see the first time we came in to check out the apartment. Oh, and the landlady told us that she had just been fired from her job. Stink.
Well, the next day, Thursday, we came back to the apartment to figure out what colors and what else needed to be done. We went to the store and bought the paint.
So, Friday, the day it all hit the fan. We had gathered a small army together to help us paint the apartment, move our stuff and generally just help us with the process. We started at 10am and by 1pm, we realized we had some major problems. All the little stars that had been put on the ceiling were all covering wine spots. We had thought they were just there for decoration. All the other decorations on the wall, were all there covering holes. Then the tub in the bathroom would fill up with water when someone upstairs used their bathroom. (Not comfortable bathing my children in a bathtub like that. Just saying.) Then we found it...mold. Yup, a piece of random wallpaper had been put over a huge infestation of mold! We were shocked!
Andre called her up, and he told her about all of these problem. She said that she didn't want to fix anything. She wanted to sell the apartment anyway, and if we wanted them fixed we'd have to do it ourselves. Then she said that we could only stay a year maximum, which was not what we had agreed, so we told her we were out! We're not renting an apartment with mold, so our 3 kids can have issues. No thanks.
Well, that's when we decided to call the agency that we used to find this gem of an apartment (did you catch the subtle sarcasm?). We looked at one apartment immediately, but it was small and super expensive! So, we called our current landlord. His cell was out of service. So, we kept calling.. and calling..and calling. Friday turned into Saturday and then Sunday... it was getting weird. We thought that maybe he was in the village working in the garden. It's the time of year for that. However, when waiting turned into Tuesday and Wednesday, we figured that there's no way he has that big of a garden.
So, he must be on vacation, or something else. We found his home number and his wife's cell. His wife's cell was out of range also, and nobody answered the home phone. So, we just waited. Finally, Friday (a full week after we found out that we couldn't move) he called. He said that we could talk that weekend about the possibility of us staying. He had found a guy that was willing to pay almost twice as much as we were paying.
Sunday morning, Andre met with him. Praise God!!! We were able to stay here. We have to pay a bit more, but not nearly what that other dude was going to pay!!! We are so thankful!!!
Honestly, through this time, I've really come to appreciate where we live. Although it's not perfect, it really is home. Since, I have not lived anywhere since I was in high school for more than 1 year and 4 months, I am thankful for the chance to put down some roots. We are planning on staying here for a while. We have rearranged the house, and I'll show you pictures when we are done. We can't wait to just enjoy this great neighborhood, which the kids really love. They have tons of friends and can play outside all the time. There's also a new missionary family that has moved in not far from here, so it will be fun to hang out with them. Plus, now we have 2 cars, so we can get around easier. I feel good about being with boys out here. We have our handyman neighbor upstairs that can and has fixed pretty much everything you can imagine. We are truly where God wants us to be. I am confident of that! Praise God!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment