Mackin' Ta A New Hizzouse

I came home today to discover our landlady is raising our rent.

By ten percent.

Almost more irritating than the monetary increase was the letter that she sent informing us of the increase:

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VIA CERTIFIED MAIL

(editor's note: it was delivered regular mail)

Kathy (last name completely botched) and John (last name)
(address)

RE: Notice of Rent Increase

Dear Lisa and John,

(editor's note: WTF? ADD much?)

This letter is to inform you that rent will increase (blank dollars), effective September 1, 2008. I understand that this increase is significant; however, due to current prevailing market conditions I found this to be necessary.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Regards,

Denise

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In the grand scheme of things, the total difference in rent isn't the end of the world; we can easily afford to continue living here. So we listed the pros and cons of staying and sucking up the increase:

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Pros

1. We don't have to move (which is inclusive of all of costs and hassle associated with moving

2. ...?

Cons

1. We are currently bookended by apartments. Obnoxious tenants. They make me mad.

2. No fenced yard. In fact, the back yard is practically useless. No deck, no landscaping, not really good for anything other than grilling food and bringing it upstairs and inside to eat. I had the most incredible back yard / deck at my last house. I miss that.

3. I've never been entirely crazy about the layout of this house. It's not enough on its own to compel me to move, but I've just never been in love with it. For what we're paying, I should be.

4. We live across the street from a batshit crazy couple. Naked guy that suns himself on their deck facing the street during the Summer. Last Summer, they broke up and while I don't have irrefutable evidence, I'm ninety-nine percent positive she took out a restraining order on him, he violated it by showing up at her house completely wasted one day, and had a crazy-ass sit-in protest with the SPD until they finally forcibly took his car keys away from him and strongly encouraged him to leave the premises. We had a peaceful five months until she took him back. I could write volumes on these loons.

4. We live a mere 2 blocks from the Seattle Center and during events, our neighborhood gets a little crazy. I'm ready for a nice, quiet street.

5. People inexplicably love to park in, or block, our driveway. This makes me murderous.

6. In the two+ years that we've lived here, the landlady has not once come by or called to see if anything needed to be done to the house. The gutters haven't been cleaned since before we moved in, she's never checked on the condition of the roof (of which I've noticed clumps of moss starting to grow), the paint is cracked and starting to peel, etc. This one, I just don't get. The house is valued at well over half a million...why would you not take care of your investment? Stupid.

7. The occasional mouse. We actually borrowed a friend's cat back in February, a sort of "rent-a-cop" scenario. Haven't seen hide nor hair of the mouse since. But, still.

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While none of these issues are dealbreakers in and of themselves, combined, it seems silly to pay what she's asking us to pay. We can do better.

So, the house hunt begins. In some ways it's exciting; we have been on a month-to-month lease basis after we had lived here for a year, so we can abandon ship at pretty much any time we decide. We can take our time and look for the perfect place. In other ways, it totally sucks: I had already begun circulating my resume and the whole interview process fiasco a few weeks ago, and I don't handle more than one major source of stress at a time very well.

But mostly, it's kind of sad: we've built a history here. We got engaged and married while we lived in this house.

We became a family in this house.

There are memories that live here.