How this hit home to me is it really opened my eyes about our housing situation. Many know, some may not, that our property manager asked that if we wanted to get out of our lease early, they would allow it without any reletting/termination fees because they need our apartment for the neighbors (who happens to also be the only maintenance guy on property) and his growing family. Apparently they are going to put a doorway between our apts so that way he has a whole extra apartment. Apparently. Well, we had already decided that we were going to move at the end of our lease any way, we really had wanted to move in June when our lease was up but I had not been able to save up enough money due to selling the house and saving up for our cruise to move. So we signed a 7 mo lease and started saving our butts off. It really did pay off. So when they asked us if we wanted to move early, we were gung-ho about it!
For those who don't live in Beeville and read my blog, this town is absolutely ridiculous in housing prices. And I really mean ridiculous! The oil field has come in with such a vengeance that you can't even book a hotel room in this town or any surrounding towns. It is darn near impossible to find an apartment. And I would have to say that all these apartments in this town, save maybe two or three, are what I would have considered the ghetto in Longview. The two or three are the newer ones. Hence the unafforable ones. I am sure that if I went and found a job, possibly even a oil field job because they really do need people in the offices etc, that we would def be able to afford more. But we have chosen to sacrifice many a things for me to stay home. Because when it is all said and done, and child care is paid for, and gas money is spent, and extra extras for workings is out there, really, all we would be bringing home extra is about $800-1000. And the time I would miss with Ethan. The things I have learned about him. The things I have been able to teach him. Seeing him grow. Seeing him mature. Seeing his nasty attitude. Having him wake up first thing in the morning and coming out to say "morning mama", and the laughs and hugs and kisses, and snuggles, and kissing booboos, and breaking up fights with friends, and scrambling for food and rewards, and cleaning up crazy messes, and wiping boogers and poopy butts, and watching the same stupid cartoon over and over, and being a personal chef, maid, chofer, nurse, disciplinarian, role model, toy fixer, clothing mender, sort of stuff, all this extra stuff is not worth missing for a lousing $800 when we can make it work otherwise. Let me set one thing straight here tho, if that $800 meant that we were eating that month, or that rent was getting paid in the first place, than you can bet your butt I would be doing that. However, since we are able to make it without the additional income, why would I miss this? I have all my older adult life to work when all my kids grow up and move out. Why would I miss it?? So, we have been really sticking to our guns about what we can and cannot afford. And everything housing wise in Beeville is in the "cannot afford" list. I mean seriously! I called a Realtor yesterday and he told me he had a 2/1 a little out of town, really nice, for $1300. Errrtttt. Stop the car! Did he just say $1300??? That is MORE than double our current rent for NOTHING more in space??????? Yea, I do not think so. And all these single guys, with no family, who are away for like 3 weeks out of the month drilling these wells, and their company pays for those stupidly high rents, are the reason that something so rinky dinky small (and prob built in 1920, no insulation, etc) is so out outrageously expensive! And that doesn't even consider that you have to pay for electricity. And have I mentioned recently how hot it is in South Texas? While all my lovely friends in other states talk about building fires, and snuggling, and wearing hoodies, and enjoying fall, did you know that today it was 90 degrees. Ugh. And last year Christmas day was 65 degrees. It got cold for a whole five minutes last year in February. Okay, maybe a bit more than five minutes. More like two weeks of I needed a good jacket, a hat, gloves, and a scarf. So that being said, do you know how much electricity costs out here? This summer, in our 823 sq ft apt, I paid an electricity bill of $187. Our 1800 sq ft house, before the brand new, energy efficient A/C, had the highest bill of $150. After that A/C, without extra insulation it dropped to $65 over the summer. No lie. Something crazy price gouging in this area is seriously happening. Wow, I think I just went off on a tangent. This is something that has had me heated up for quite some time.
There is a silver lining, there is this housing area in Beeville that used to be old military housing and when the military pulled out of beeville, several years later, some man in California bought it and turned it into rentals. It has 4/2, 3/2, 3/1.5 houses, 3/2.5, 3/1.5 town homes, 2/1 apartments, 2/1 duplexes, etc. And all the electricity is paid. The houses require the tenant to pay for water, but that isn't too bad. When you consider the houses are around 1300-1400 sq ft. Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't like, the country club, these houses are old, and they sat vacant for many years before the man bought it, and they are poorly insulated, and they are drafty, and they have single pane windows, but does any of that matter if you aren't paying for electricity? And the pricing of them is really reasonable considering that they pay for electricity. the reason we did not go with them in the beginning was because we could not swing $900 in rent and $1100 in mortgage while we were trying to sell our house. Our house has been sold and gone since December. And that was barely in the nick of time (God's time, it was perfect). But now that is possible. So, I get home from visiting my mom in NC in August on a late Friday night, and Saturday morning we fill out an app online for this rental community and go to the office to see if they have anything. The just had a skip out and they let us look at it (honestly I was fine seeing it, I knew what it was going to look like afterwards, Kris, on the other hand, had a bit of a harder time seeing it for what it would be). They told us they needed our income and we emailed it to them that night. I called the following Monday to confirm they got it. After being put on hold for like 5 minutes, she found it and said it looked good. Thursday, a different lady calls me saying they still haven't gotten my hubbys income faxed in. I am like, rewind, are you guys that disorganized? I even called on Monday to confirm... She said she would look for it. I didn't hear anything back, so I called on Friday, they said they were still waiting on our rental to come in. I almost started laughing like Joker, because seriously, we're waiting on rental? We have own and sold two houses. Our credit is outstanding. We have absolutely nothing that has been even 30 days late. Not even when we sold our house. And they couldn't approve us because of rental. W.O.W. I called back the following Monday, and guess what happened? That house we were hoping to get into immediately well someone came and left money on it that weekend. Grrrr, can you talk about me being quite a bit upset. So we called back like every two to three days to check up, because apparently they don't know how to call people and tell them that something is available.
Yesterday, I had a bit of a rough, pregnancy hormone related, up and down day. I was just feeling a bit blue. Looking back, I attribute the blues feeling to hunger, because once I ate, I felt much better. Oh and surrender. I called that Realtor yesterday and I also called this homeowner to find out prices. I was feeling really ready to call it quits. Kris and I had a really big discussion that night about it. He even mentioned that maybe it was time to be looking to move out of this area if it is going to be like this. Or to buy. And both of us do not want to buy. Do not want to buy. Burned so bad these two buys, do not want to buy. Won't buy for probably another 5 years. Want a minimum of 10% to put down before we buy. But driving to pick up Ethan, I remembered what pastor was talking about on Sunday about begging. And I realized that I had been begging God to make this rental place work. Make something come available. And obviously that wasn't working begging God. So I said to him "God, I have no idea where you are taking us or where you are moving us, or when it will be, but I know you already have it established, and I am thanking you now for it. You know our situation, we cannot stay in our apt, they need it for the other family, so I thank you for taking care of our family". And I talked about it to my friend, and then it was done, until Kris and I had a pretty good conversation about it, and it wasn't a bickering conversation, it was a "I give up, I don't know what else to do" sort of deal.
This morning, my Jesus calling said to stop complaining to others. It said to take my frustrations to Jesus, because he knows my circumstances, and only he could give me the inner peace my heart was desiring, and by complaining to others, my walk in Christ was damaged. Whew. That kind of hurt. Then my women's devotional (which my bible has M-F and weekends, and I just pick some where in the bible and find the day I am on and read that related scriptures) was about putting on God's armor of protection and facing the enemy. And what piece of armor did I need now more than anything, and it immediately popped into my head, the shield of faith, because I needed to give it over to God, and even when that shield is to heavy to carry, it is big enough to crouch behind. I closed my bible and I again thanked God for my the house he was going to give us. Then I went about my day. Kris called the rental property at lunch time, and get this, they had a unit they just picked up this morning. I literally shoved food down Ethan's throat, loaded him in the car, went and got a money order (and we were running in and out of the store), and rushed over there. And God, you are amazing! The people who skipped out left this house really clean. They had to have just lived clean. Not a single blind was broken, the window sills were clean, granted the floor needed to be vacuumed and mopped and the tub was dirty, I mean, I have seen stuff absolutely revolting (in pics of move outs that I was literally amazed of how bad it was), and these people left it like they were just moving out. Even my friend was amazed how clean and not damaged it was. It was an absolute blessing. I went back to that office and you better believe I left that money on it. I thanked God yesterday and this morning, I was not going to brush off his blessings. And right now I am thanking God for getting the carpet replaced for tile flooring and getting the house ready for move in well before the 1st so we don't have to pay rent in this apartment again. I know he is a great and awesome God, and just like we desire to give our children good things, and things they want, he desires to give us the things of our heart and good things.
Matthew 7:7-11
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
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