Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Landlord From Hell **

Here is the post that I have been talking about for the past couple days.

Jason used to live in a house near Georgetown, in Fort Wayne. It is in an okay addition, nothing fancy, at all. But they were paying $1200.00 a month for a house that was MAYBE worth $70,000. This house was a split level home with a basement, a main floor and an upstairs. It had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, a little sun room off the back of the house, a hot tub (that didn't work), and a shed (full of the landlords shit). When they (Jason, Habart his best friend, Briggs and Isaac, other good friends) moved in 11 months ago they were so excited to finally be living in a house, instead of an apartment. They were just renting though and the landlords (a younger couple with 2 small children) made it all official and had a really nice lease made up that covered all the bases, or so they thought.

So they got the house last July, we go to move their stuff in and the house was DISGUSTING! They had dog food in the cabinets (they haven't had a dog in years), there were spider webs everywhere, the carpets upstairs smelled like urine, the bathrooms hadn't been cleaned in months, the refrigerator had hamburger blood under the drawers, the stove and oven had quite possibly NEVER been cleaned. And I seem to have LOST the pictures that I did take :( I swear to you .. you would die if saw what they were using to cook. Needless to say, we have to do some major cleaning before they could move in.

The hot tub was not working when they moved in, but the landlord said that he would have it fixed in a couple weeks. That turned into the end of September, which turned into the end of October, which then turned into the beginning of winter. Eventually, they just said they were going to take it out and reduced their rent $100 from then (January) on. The shed which was still full of their (the landlords) shit, was promised to be emptied in a reasonable amount of time, that way the guys could store their stuff their. Well you see, they just moved out on June 30th, and the shed that I speak of, is still full of the landlords shit.

Briggs likes to come up with some fairly odd concoctions, so he turned the stove top on and it sparked at him! They tried to fix it and were unsuccessful, so they called the landlord (whose ringback tone is .. Vibrate, by Petey Pablo) and let him know. He did nothing about it.

In November, it got reasonably cold here, the guys went to turn the heat on and guess what? There was no heat on the main floor, or in the basement, except for the one bedroom. Which later, all of the heat in the house went out. They called the landlord and he said he would install baseboard heaters, and did not, until the end of January. Then, he installed ONE heater on the main floor.

In December, we had horrible ice storms and a pipe broke and flooded what we like to call the Party Patio! Jason called the landlord, he came over, said "Well, I guess there is nothing we can do about it now, we'll just wait until the spring and fix it." Well, little did this genius know, an all glass Party Patio, 3 inches of standing water, and an ice storm, the water will freeze and break all the windows, then melt and mold the whole room. Which really wouldn't matter anymore if the room was gone, but you get the point.

Jason borrowed a 5 gallon shop vacuum, from a guy he works with, and sucked all of the water out of the Party Patio. I know, I know, he is WAY too nice!

In February, the dish washer went out, they called the landlord, he said "Run some vinegar thru it, that should work." So, they did that, among other things their mothers and the internet suggested and nothing worked. And nothing ever got done by the landlord.

In order to even get a hold of the landlords, they would have to call their cell phones multiple times, before they got a response and 9 times out of 10 Jason was the one who had to call and get shit straightened out. The husband was the only one who ever got back with them and the only one who ever came over and attempted (if you could call it that) to listen to their problems, I mean he really didn't do anything else.

Jason and I went over there at 12:30 to start cleaning, I was there until 5:30 and Jason stayed until 7:30. We cleaned everything from top to bottom. We cleaned the refrigerator, the cabinets, swept and mopped all the rooms, the garage, the Party Patio, etc.. I should have taken pictures of how his roommates left it. Jason hasn't lived there since June 10th and they weren't counting on getting their deposit back so they just left it a horrible mess, similar to what they moved in to.

This was the trash we had gathered, before I had to leave, except for 3 huge garbage bags that were still in the house. It was simply ridiculous. We could have fed a small family in Africa with the amount of food that got thrown away.

So, on June 30th they had the final walk thru and guess who shows up? The wife, all by herself. Jason and Briggs were the only ones who wanted to be there, the other guys had better things to do with their time. They had all just kind of accepted that they wouldn't be getting their deposit back, because the landlords were just douche bags. But Jason was going to fight for his.

She said, "I bet you are wondering why my husband isn't here? He didn't want to mess with you (Jason) he said you chew into him when you talk to him and I AM THE ONLY ONE THAT GETS TO CHEW INTO MY HUSBAND." Oh my.

They go thru, she was pleasantly surprised with how great everything looked, but said "If you think you are getting your deposit back, your not." Jason was prepared for this, so came up with a list of the aforementioned things and gave it to her. He said look at all the bull shit we had to deal with and she said and I quote, "I never knew about any of this." OHMYGOSH! Are you fucking kidding me? She is trying to claim that her husband never shared why he was going over there and receiving calls every other week with complaints about this piece of shit house! She continued with, "Did you write these problems down and submit them to us?" Well, no they didn't, but they have phone records of calling them all the time and I know that isn't much, but it has got to be worth something!

So, Jason said, "You will be hearing from me", because he didn't feel like dealing with her and wanted to talk to his sister, who is in law school. She is doing some research and will hopefully come up with something.

Ahhhh I feel somewhat better about letting my anger out on here! I will keep you all posted on what happens, please pray that Erin (Jason's sister) comes up with something, anything!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Jack Johnston **

I have not been blogging much lately, because I have been exceptionally busy && I don't always know what to say to keep people interested. So, I have finally decided to blog a little bit about my brother .. hopefully you will learn to enjoy him as much as I do :)

Jack is 11 years old and he was born when I was 9 & 1/2. Growing up I was a very responsible young lady and my parents trusted me to watch their two children, when they went out for dinner or to run short errands, etc .. At the time Alexandria (I will blog about her some other time) was 6 & 1/2 and Jack was a newborn.
Jack && me at Bandido's !

I think that since he and I are so far apart in age, that he was more of a son to me (not literally, but we never argued or anything like that && my parents were always around. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about this.) I was always there to help, whether it was to feed him, change diapers or put him to bed. I loved helping out!

My dad is in the Air National Guard and when he would go on trips I would help my mom out by getting Jack to and from practices and games, when she had to work. Since he started playing sports, I could probably count on two hands the games that I have missed .. and this includes the past year and a half when I have lived across town. I drive 20 minutes at least twice a week to cheer him on.

During the spring && summer he plays baseball. He currently bats 4th in line up .. which is awesome .. but he is also in a batting slump .. so I don't know how he is keeping his position! He is a great catcher, he isn't so into pitching, but they need him to .. so we try to get him more into it .. it is an insane amount of pressure on a young man though .. all those people saying, "Common Jack, just relax." or "Jack just throw strikes." Have you ever tried to 'just throw strikes'? Let me tell you .. not as easy as it looks. But he is getting better! And when he is not pitching or catching, he plays short stop.

This picture is from last year, but you get point !

Last summer Jack && I went to Cedar Point for the day. We got up on an overcast Tuesday morning at 7 and made the 3 hour drive. PERFECT day ! It only sprinkled once around lunch time, so we went out to the car to eat the lunches that we had packed. I was exhausted, so he sat there while I took a 20 minute power nap, because I had to drive us home that night, and it was sprinkling so we couldn't ride rides anyways. THen we went back and we rode EVERY roller coaster that we wanted to, with minimal waits! It was quite possibly one of the best days ever :)


Jack && me on a roller coaster .. they wound up stopping the
ride && walking over to tell me I couldn't have my camera out :/
Totally worth it though !
This was the line for the Millenium Force aka NO LINE ! It was so crazy !

In the fall Jack plays football, FINALLY ! I have been waiting since the day he was born for him to play football ! I love it so much ! Last year he was in 5th grade && played quarter back for the 6th grade team ! Very exciting ! He also played other positions && played both offense && defense, since it is such a young team, they are trying to figure out what everyone is good at. I think he enjoys football so much, because he never had anyone to rough house with && now he does.


Jack is number 7 with the white cleats .


Such a bad ass !

And finally, in the winter Jack plays basketball. He usually plays in the forward position, but has been known to play both center and guard as well. I think he really likes basketball the best, but I really hope he keeps up with the other two .. (I like them the most!)

Robert (11), Jack (12), Jonathon, cousin, (21), Seth, best friend (24)

I also took him snowboarding last year .. but somehow all of those pictures have disappeared except for one .. and it's not even of him boarding :( But he really liked that too ! We went down the black diamond at this particular park (which is in Ohio, so it is really just a big hill), but we went down that on our 4th trip down maybe, and he wiped out and took out a caution sign .. he was fine .. so it is now okay to laugh .. but I was afraid for my life!

Warming up by the fire :)

Finally, like a good sister, I like to show Jack, what not to do .. My boyfriend, Jason and his former roommates work with my dad .. so for one of their birthdays he stopped by the party with my brother .. like any good sister, I let him play beer pong .. relax he just drank mountain dew ! but now he will be somewhat prepared for what the future holds !

See, Mountain Dew !

All in all my brother Jack is an amazing young man && I would never even consider trading him for anything else in the entire world ! I love having him call me at 1 am during the summer, because he knows that I will be up too ! Just to talk, even though I saw him today. Or when he calls me to remind me that he has a game, "But, Kaiti you don't have to come to these." I love him so much and would so absolutely anything just for him.