I was born under a wand'ring star

In the 12 years since I graduated from college, I've lived in 7 different houses/apartments in 5 cities.  Never would I have imagined that much change would be a part of my life, and yet each change has brought me new experiences and new insight on the world and myself.  This latest move brought with it some interesting challenges, so here goes the story for posterity.  **Warning, it ended up being a long story, but the end is...interesting :)

The move out was fairly uneventful - the hired movers were on time and efficient.  A little misunderstanding with the management had my mom and I making a last minute trip to Wal_Mart to buy cleaning supplies and furiously cleaning while Dad headed out driving the U-Haul truck.

My mother doesn't like to drive in the city, so I chose the "easiest" way to get out of town.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the way I normally went and I had us take the wrong exit and detour several miles out of the way.  To give me credit, I had just gotten a call from my new landlord saying as she left my new apartment, the guy weedeating the back patio accidently threw a rock at the glass patio doors shattering one side!!  No worries, it was boarded up and would be fixed asap.

Meanwhile, massive storms were right above us and Mom and I pulled over on the highway at one point because I literally couldn't see ahead of me.  And they were moving our direction, so what about my stuff?

When we arrived at my new place (which I had never seen the inside of due to a lack of rental property available!!) , the truck was half unloaded by the young men I had arranged to be there.  They were sitting with Dad watching the rain - because inside the Air Conditioning had STOPPED WORKING!  On July 26 in Texas, this is NOT what you want to hear.

Eventually, it was sprinkling lightly enough, the truck was unloaded. (although the extra time and pay was more than I had budgeted for). 

In trying to hook up my washer/dryer, my father discovered the water connection was leaking/spewing.

So I called the landlord at 4:45 to report the AC and the water issue.  She said maybe the air was just taking a long time to cool off the place - call back in the morning if it still wasn't working.  Her maintenance man had quit the day before and she would have to call around to find a substitute one  :( 

(I think my parents considered packing the truck back up at this point.)

At this point, Dad decided to take a shower, we went to dinner and he drove home.  Mom decided we would NOT be sleeping in an un-airconditioned place so we called the daughter of our friends (who were out of town) and she welcomed us to her house for the night. 

Mom volunteered to drive - we got in her car, and it was dead.  No starting sounds at all.  So we took my car instead, got a quick night of sleep in a house that was full of boxes because they had only moved in a couple weeks before (did I mention these are GOOD friends?)

The next morning I was sick at my stomach.  Could all these issues be resolved?  Would my new landlady prove helpful or not?  How much confrontation would it take on my part to rectify these situations?? My stomach was doing flip-flops just thinking about it!!

  Upon returning to my new place about 8:00 AM, we called AAA (for both our cars, because now tire lights were lit up on my own car).  But before they could arrive, a maintenance man showed up!!  He repaired the water issue and hooked up my washer/dryer.   He found the problem with the AC, fixed it and we immediately began feeling cool air!  He assured us that someone was coming to fix the glass door later in the day.  And then AAA showed up and our cars were restored (air in my tires - the storm had dropped the temp so fast, the pressure had gone down and a jump for mom's car to go to the store and get a new battery.)  It was mid-morning and all the problems of yesterday were fixed - without any confrontation from me!!!!  The Lord had heard my cry and answered once again.  :)

  

The new door - we didn't even care when the repair man showed up at 1:00 and completely took out the old door thereby making us lose the new cold air we had been enjoying :)

 This apartment has been decorated and arranged by far the quickest of any place I've ever lived.  Thanks to my sister-in-law's help with previous places, I had certain things ready to hang.  And thanks to my friend Jenni's visit a few weeks after moving in, I feel pretty good with curtains and furniture arrangement! (It's not all done, of course, but here's how it looks now.)

Living room looking at front door (nook on the left) & down the hall to the kitchen.

Galley kitchen with cutout to the dining area.  Check out the short frig and the world's skinniest pantry.

Across the hall from the kitchen is a half bath decorated with my TX motif.

The dining table (washer/dryer is in closet to the right and stairs are to the left)  I've even cooked and had new friends over for dinner!

  

My bedroom with my new queen bed.



Yeah, those cutouts in the wall are strange - and open up to the entry way.  It means there's no real sound proofing between upstairs/downstairs, but since I live alone, that hasn't been much of an issue :)



First time to have a second bedroom!  Guest room/office/right now - holding area for junk and least arranged.

Jack and Jill bathroom connects the 2 bedrooms...and also holds one more issue discovered that first day.

Before dinner, Dad showered quickly and came out saying "I think the paint is coming off in the shower."

So the landlady had told me it was an "old" shower and to freshen it up, she had decided to paint it.  Yes, it's an ugly grayish-green.  Finished it just a day or two before I arrived.  But evidently she used the

WRONG KIND OF PAINT!!!!  The kind that comes off with water.  Um, that's not good paint for a shower!!!  I do believe she was honestly mortified when I talked with her the next morning.  Turns out this was the only thing I had to be confrontational about.  And without a permanent maintenance man she asked if I could live with it a bit until a solution could be found.

First step was to run a bath and at least get the paint off the floor so I wouldn't have to stand in it.

As you can see, it literally just came off in big pieces at first.

But then it started coming off in small pieces, a bit at a time.

I learned if I let it dry after the shower, I could just sweep up the paint chips easily.

Which for the first few WEEKS I did daily.

It was like a backwards puzzle, taking out pieces a bit at a time.  Fortunately, at this point I didn't really have to worry about it getting on me - just dealing with it in general.

And so, I kinda got used to it.  I'd lived with several worse things in the Philippines.

But last month, I spent time with a couple friends back in DFW and showed them these pics and they both asked - When can we help you come move???
So maybe I had let this go too long.....Thank you Friends for reminding me to stick up for myself.

I came back, talked to my landlady and she sent her new maintenance man that day who said he thought he knew of an acid that would take off the paint that had appeared to adhere to the fiberglass shower.  The next day he took off most of the paint but ran out of acid and said it would take a couple weeks to order some more.

So yesterday, Nov 5, I finally reclaimed a paint-free shower!!!

I've learned this lesson before...but will try to keep it learned this time. 
Procrastination is not your friend. (and) When you're single, you've got to stand up for yourself. 

 So there it is in all its glory.  If you made it this far, thank you.  But mostly just wanted to document it for myself.  I want to always be grateful for the way the Lord provides so generously for me, but I also don't want to sit around wasting the good brain and spirit He gave me to take care of myself, too!  Who knows what is in store for my future residences, but for now, I'm happy to be in this home.

p.s. Song title is from fairly obscure musical "Paint Your Wagon".  For a chuckle, rent the movie version and you get to see Clint Eastwood singing!!  (And he's one of 2 husbands to a woman in a mormon-reversal situation set in a Westward expansion gold-mining settlement.)