We are now in our new rental house...and we're not sure we're going to stay.

Right from the start, I had a bad feeling about the landlord.  He seemed to be two faced and not able to keep his story straight.  On the phone when I talked to him to look at the place, he said to phone to current tenants and then phone him back after we see the place if we want it....hmmmm, warning bells going off in my head right there, but I thought, "ok, he's just a laid back landlord..." then when we were we done looking at it, Jamie phoned him and said we were interested.  The landlord then said we must have missed him cause he went to the house to meet us...hmmm, did he change his mind at the last minute or what?  again, warning signs I ignored...sigh., I just really loved the house...

We looked at the place again, and on the way there, I prayed that Jamie and I would be on the same page if this was the house God wanted us to move into, Jamie thought it was too small and just didn't like it, this time we walked through WITH the landlord, and he said he'd have the lino fixed and the fireplace cleaned and the bathroom fixed.  Even after we wrote out 6 cheques for the landlord at Tim Horton's, Jamie felt panicked like we were royally screwing up...I told him I still loved the house, but would understand if he wanted to back out...he chose not to back out...I'm not sure why, but we went through with it...even though I knew I was ignoring the obvious answer to my previous prayer, which was, "no daughter, follow your husbands intuition this time." 

Now when you move into a house yes there are usually little fix it jobs and light cleaning, and so the landlord gave us $300 off the first months rent.  Usually, when you move into a place it is generally clean and ready to move into...uhhh, not this one.  We had to get the landlord to clean the carpets, so he paid some company to just steam them not deodorize or sanitize them, the previous tenents had a dog, a cat and they smoked (which we could not smell when we looked at the place).  So the carpets were cleaned the morning we were supposed to move in...oh and the landlord was very adamant that we move in Feb 1st instead of March 1st, which we would have preferred...sigh....anyhow, the carpets now smelled like wet dog in the basement and on the stairs...ugh, and the stains weren't even touched... anyhow, we borrowed a carpet cleaner from a friend and it is starting to smell better in the basement...not great, but better, perhaps once I get the walls cleaned it will be great!

The house was just plain filthy, it took me over an hour to clean the freezer alone in the fridge, I had to spray the oven 3 times to get it clean enough to use.  I didn't even want to use the washroom until it was cleaned...ugh.

The landlord has still not done a walkthrough with us and obviously didn't do a walkthrough with the previous tenents cause he was surprised when one of them was still living here on the 29th...legally that's fine, they had until the 31st but it just showed us that the landlord did not take great care in getting the keys etc from the previous tenents since he had to go to the house to get the keys to give them to us...anyhow, nothing has been fixed, he has made no attempts to contact us or return our calls...we are all sick and congested because I can't clean the walls etc fast enough...the kitchen is almost done...just have to wash above the cupboards, I'm just scared to see how gross it is up there...sigh...the kids are sleeping in one room together...the one room in the house that I've prayed over.  We need to pray over the whole house together, but so far I've just been praying as I've cleaned.  No one has slept well since we've been here either.

And you know, the funny thing is, it was really difficult to move here too!  The U-Haul truck we rented for 10am wouldn't be ready until noon due to the huge line-up of people, so we cancelled our reservation of that truck and reserved a 24 foot truck at budget for the following day, which was a friday.                     Friday came along and at 8am we went to get the truck at Budget, only the 24 foot truck wouldn't start!  so they offered us a 16 foot truck, well that's fine and dandy but it will take multiple trips so what kind of deal would they give us....well they offered us the truck for 24 hours at the 8 hour rate, so ok, that's something at least...the first truckload was ready to go and then THAT truck wouldn't start.  Back on the phone with Budget...meanwhile I've dropped the kids off at my brother in law's house along with my mom inlaw, and then I went over to the new place to start the overwhelming task of cleaning...this was the first glimpse I had of how much work it would take to clean...I cried, and prayed lots.

So Jamie got the runaround from Budget and had to phone around for a towing company that would tow the full truck over to the new place, because all Budget did was send over another 16 foot truck to transfer over our belongings!!! LOL  As if we'd do that!  So, they loaded up the 2nd truck and called it a night.  So the full nonworking Budget truck still stood on our lawn at the old place with a padlock on it, and the new Budget truck was driven to my brother in law's place where we all ended up spending the night, since the beds were in the nonworking truck.  In the morning, we were able to get through to Budget and give them the number for a towing company that would tow the full truck.  We were so blessed though because while Jamie, his dad and brother were unloading the trucks 2 guys came over to help, yes, their wives offered them to us without their permission, but they came over with a smile on their faces and it was such a blessing!!  One even brought over his 11 yr old daughter who helped me clean the kitchen!!!

So now, here we are, our phone and internet are hooked up as of the 7th.  We're still cleaning and trying to get the smoke smell gone, hopefully we won't have to resort to painting. 

I've learned a thing or two about prayer though.  If I'm going to pray and ask my Lord for help, I need to listen to Him and accept His advice when He offers it!!!  I feel very much out of His will right now, but am not sure what His will is. 

Should we stay?  We haven't signed the lease yet because of the landlords inefficiency in coming over here to get it signed and the walkthrough done.  Should we keep our word that we'll sign the 1 yr lease and stay, and just clean like crazy and get things fixed that are hazardous to our health?? Our air quality is my main concern, the furnace must be serviced/cleaned and the humidifier cleaned if we are to stay.  The bathroom must be inspected for mold since there is extensive water damage with a hole in the wall from water leaking...mold in the walls??

Or do we walk away?  It feels like it will be a big struggle to work with this landlord to get things healthy in this house, and yet Jamie and I both would love to buy this house and fix it up really nice!!!  We just don't have the money to fix it up if we're just renting, as it wouldn't be an investment then...just making the place liveable for the next tenents....can we afford to put that kind of money into a rental??  I'm thinking probably not, but is that just me being selfish and stingy with our money?  Isn't it the landlords job to keep the house from getting so run down?

I really don't know what to do.  Advise and prayers would be great!!!