IDK

nothing like starting the day off with a heart attack to really wake you up!!!!!!!!

i have mentioned that the landlords provide a lawn service, and that they're fucking awful it's been nothing but problems (but they do keep the grass down so we live with it). well they normally are supposed to come on saturdays, and we were told there'd be "one last" job in september and they'd be done for the year.

well guess what

maggie is outside in the yard, she's still a huge huge flight risk & if she ever slips out & runs that's it we'll never see her again, and i think to myself "gee that mower-sounding-noise seems kind of close. it can't possibly be for us, but i'll double check just in case"

and it was the lawn people in our yard unannounced, of fucking course, on a day-of-the-week & month they are not supposed to be here

so i tear outside, can't see maggie can't get her to react to me calling for her, both gates are still shut so she probably hasn't gotten out yet (unless the mower noise freaked her out so bad she dug out under the fence, there's a few spots that are way too likely for my comfort......) but they could open at literally any second

i put tucker on a leash and grab him to flush her out, which shockingly works well- she still does Not want to play or be overly friendly with him, but will run back & forth with him sometimes- and get her (& tuck) back inside before any harm can be done (other than the fact that she hasn't had enough time for her morning constitutional)

i am not at all kidding when i say that my heart was going a mile a minute and i was seconds away from a full panic attack, because this would have been bad enough at any day but for it to happen when my mom is out of town????????? if i'd lost her dog on my watch??????? oh i'd have to jump in a creek & bury myself in the mud i'd be done

they CAME BACK AGAIN ?????????

and this time i had no choice but to take the dogs out even knowing the lawn people were here i waited as long as i could but they have to go out- tucker can go on walks around the block but maggie can't handle that yet (maybe ever!). so to put her in the yard i put a leash on maggie as a safeguard which freaked her out and when i opened the door she ripped it out of my hands so she might as well have not been leashed at all

and the big gate doors were open this time because the lawn people were just on break not finished so i had to frantically run after her before she decided to dart out into the wide open street

got her tho!!! and then she was so frantic to get back inside that she broke one of the struts off the porch railing shoving herself through the door

i'm so tired i don't want to keep doing this

and it's not even worth it !!!!! these lawn people are so awful they've cut the grass so short all year it's literally died in massive clumps our front lawn is just mud at this point

also they left like a big pile of leaves & one of the "yard waste" bins out in the back corner, as if they are not finished yet, but we have zero idea if they will be back and if so when???? later today? tomorrow morning? next week?????

they could literally show back up at any point open the gates of the yard & let our dogs out because they never knock or anything they just get going so we have no head's up. it's so frustrating!!!!!!!

well! i can officially check "dropped an a/c out of a window" off my list of life experiences!!!!!!!! it wasn't even unplugged yet i was just wiggling the window a bit because the sash was stuck and boom. gone. power cord ripped the fuck off the unit, plastic snapped, metal crumpled.

i'm just really really glad it happened at this house where i'm on the first floor instead of at the last place, where it would have plummeted two stories down onto the roof of the landlord's family room

a/c is toast regardless but at least it wasn't particularly new :/

FUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKK

it was plugged in when it fell right?

well the outlet is dead. the whole circuit is dead. which weirdly is only 1/2 the outlets in my room but is my mom's entire room & bathroom

it's going to take at least a week for my room to be in a state where people can come in & do work, and that's a fucking stretch

i'm so fucked it's my fault i can't even fucking deal with myself right now

&

the problem originally was that multiple outlets stopped working, which indicated way bigger problems than just a single outlet

but!!!!!! i reset the gfi outlet in my mom's room which got tripped even though it should have been on a different circuit???? and then reset both our breakers in the fuse box (for the second time, we tried that first), and this time!!! it worked and all the outlets are back on!!!! (except the broken one i'm not even testing it)

so yeah i'll still have to replace this specific outlet but thankfully it doesn't look like the rest of the wiring was permanently affected requiring professional help!!!!! and no fires taking place within my walls!!!!!! (yet)

well! i can officially check "dropped an a/c out of a window" off my list of life experiences!!!!!!!! it wasn't even unplugged yet i was just wiggling the window a bit because the sash was stuck and boom. gone. power cord ripped the fuck off the unit, plastic snapped, metal crumpled.

i'm just really really glad it happened at this house where i'm on the first floor instead of at the last place, where it would have plummeted two stories down onto the roof of the landlord's family room

a/c is toast regardless but at least it wasn't particularly new :/

FUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKK

it was plugged in when it fell right?

well the outlet is dead. the whole circuit is dead. which weirdly is only 1/2 the outlets in my room but is my mom's entire room & bathroom

it's going to take at least a week for my room to be in a state where people can come in & do work, and that's a fucking stretch

i'm so fucked it's my fault i can't even fucking deal with myself right now

what's your "if I won the lottery I wouldn't tell anyone but there would be signs" thing? mine is getting a fully green kitchen

Beyond The Kitchen: A Dreamer’s Guide, 1985

I had to compile the notes here because they fill me with joy and mirth

Reblog and put in the tags what wall decor is closest to you right now 

The absolute upper limit of what can be considered affordable for a home is 4x your income. Ideally it should be 3x, but 4x is the limit for reasonably stretching your budget.

Using Sacramento as an example, median home price is about $510k, and median household income is about $85,000

That number for Sacramento is 6x, and that's for a middling city with middling employment prospects. So the entire city for almost everyone living there is by definition unaffordable. And that's not as bad as it gets

Let's look at Toronto. Median income is around $91,000, median home price is just over $1,100,000. That's a ratio of 12:1. You would need to be making a quarter of a million dollars just to be able to qualify for a mortgage.

For a home to be affordable, one of two things need to happen: 1) incomes need to rise astronomically overnight or 2) home prices need to crash astronomically overnight

In Sacramento, that means the median income needs to double (to $170k per year), or home prices need to crash by 50%

In Toronto, that means incomes need to quadruple (to $370k per year) or home prices need to crash about 75%

This is how bad the housing crisis is. I don't think people truly understand the gravity of how bad it is. Home prices should not be this high. Incomes should not be this low. Look back 100 years and you won't find a time when affordability was this bad for everyone everywhere. Things must change

The landlord fears the urban oyster mushroom farmer

I have seen this on every social media site and folks- if your home is damp enough to get full fruity flushes of oyster mushrooms (from stray spores from a grow bag batch), they are the LEAST of your worries. You know what doesn’t produce highly visible fruiting bodies? Most molds. And wood rot. Go ahead and grow them indoors, because they’re a canary in the coal mine if they start fruiting anywhere.

^ the above reblog right here!!! People in the notes saying "don't do this!!!" Are missing the part where people are not deliberately growing Oyster Mushrooms all over their apartment, but that the stray spores from Mushroom Growing Kits are revealing systemic dampness problems that Landlords cannot dismiss and forces them to take action.

incredible, inspired choices being made in this local realty listing

imagine buying the unity indie horror game house

accomplishment unlocked! i have used a weed wacker

the landlords are supposed to take care of the lawn, but they have not done so at all this year & the lawn is up to my chest & if i don't mow it down at least the front bit, my mom is going to murder us both by setting everything on fire, so

i have now mowed approximately 1/2 of the front lawn, at which point the mower's battery (and possibly the entire mower itself) cried for mercy & shut down

we only have one battery, so i will have to resume in several hours

which is, of course, right when it's forecasted to rain :/

THE LAWN MOWER IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE LAWN MOWER

okay, it's the battery, not the mower, but effectively it is dead

the landlords left behind two dead gas mowers, which they said i could help myself to fixing, and the working electric one including three batteries. but we wouldn't need any of them! because they were going to take care of the lawn at first & hire a service going forward! that is LITERALLY part of the lease that we signed!!!

two of three batteries died by the time we moved in last year, leaving us with one battery, which just now as i finished the last of the front lawn (which is tiny btw it's only like three feet deep), died & only flashes red in the charger signalling an internal failure

so!!!!! the strip of front lawn is finished for now but we do not have any way to mow anything going forward :)

oh my god a new battery is literally $150???????????? more if i want anything but the smallest capacity????????

i can buy an entire new mower for $250 (albeit gas-powered)

accomplishment unlocked! i have used a weed wacker

the landlords are supposed to take care of the lawn, but they have not done so at all this year & the lawn is up to my chest & if i don't mow it down at least the front bit, my mom is going to murder us both by setting everything on fire, so

i have now mowed approximately 1/2 of the front lawn, at which point the mower's battery (and possibly the entire mower itself) cried for mercy & shut down

we only have one battery, so i will have to resume in several hours

which is, of course, right when it's forecasted to rain :/

THE LAWN MOWER IS DEAD LONG LIVE THE LAWN MOWER

okay, it's the battery, not the mower, but effectively it is dead

the landlords left behind two dead gas mowers, which they said i could help myself to fixing, and the working electric one including three batteries. but we wouldn't need any of them! because they were going to take care of the lawn at first & hire a service going forward! that is LITERALLY part of the lease that we signed!!!

two of three batteries died by the time we moved in last year, leaving us with one battery, which just now as i finished the last of the front lawn (which is tiny btw it's only like three feet deep), died & only flashes red in the charger signalling an internal failure

so!!!!! the strip of front lawn is finished for now but we do not have any way to mow anything going forward :)

accomplishment unlocked! i have used a weed wacker

the landlords are supposed to take care of the lawn, but they have not done so at all this year & the lawn is up to my chest & if i don't mow it down at least the front bit, my mom is going to murder us both by setting everything on fire, so

i have now mowed approximately 1/2 of the front lawn, at which point the mower's battery (and possibly the entire mower itself) cried for mercy & shut down

we only have one battery, so i will have to resume in several hours

which is, of course, right when it's forecasted to rain :/

radio call-in show was doing a thing about renters and landlords in my province and ofc it was mostly landlords calling in cuz they have more free time. but the renters that called in were like. one was a lady in her 60s saying she has no retirement fund and her and her husband will be working into their 70s and that rent just goes up and there's nothing they can do about it on the verge of tears. and ppl calling in and saying they've been renovicted they've been homeless and couch surfing and sleeping in their cars and not sure where they're gonna sleep or how they're gonna afford food and how all the universities in the city have food banks for the students now when they didn't before. and the landlords calling in were talking about stuff like. equity. idk just the tonal whiplash of a woman being on the verge of tears with nowhere to go and working minimum wage fulltime and it doesn't even cover rent then the next lady is stressed about her. equities. and how they only wanna do short term rentals for students. one landlord compared rent going up to a store that sold shirts raising their prices, as if that's in anyway comparable, and basically said she's a business not a social resource. if you don't want to be a social resource mayhaps do not occupy a basic social need such as shelter. host did not challenge that statement. so soulless and genuinely disturbing to me. imagine being able to live like that. dear god. over $2000 for a one bedroom utilities not included and landlords getting mad when more than one person is stuffed into their stupid expensive 1 bedroom apartment as if anyone is happy about this situation. drove me crazy the way it was presented like Both Sides Have a Point as if Equities are just as important as Sleeping in your Car. i do feel this sense of inertia the last few years of okay something's gotta give now something's gotta give we're gonna hit the brick wall any second now but it just keeps going on like this.....

"if you don't want to be a social resource mayhaps do not occupy a basic social need" is a valid fucking point. Take note, landlords.