housing authority

During the seven years of apartment renting, we have experienced some crazy things. Provo is generally a safe place to live. We found an almost new apartment complex tucked behind some shops on Center Street. By shops I mean, Triple A Pawn and Harold’s Lounge, the only hard liquor bar. We were so excited when we moved in because there was a run down Mexican restaurant, La Taquaria Tormenta, across the street. We went in our first week of living there and literally no one would serve us, even with Patrick being Mexican and speaking Spanish. Thus began our suspicions that it was a cover for a Mexican drug ring. We assume it was “them” that blew up our storage shed with Mexican fireworks which prompted a full scale invasion by the Provo bomb squad.

In Provo, we also had some homeless people living in a van in our parking lot, weekly bar fights (which our small framed neighbor was always trying to break up), and some druggie neighbors who would randomly knock on doors looking for a ride to pick up a spouse from jail, 50 cents for the coke machine (in a parking lot across the street) or feminine hygiene products. But the free live cock rock bands we got to hear when the back door of Harold’s lounge was propped open made this all worth it.

Our summer in Merced, CA we met a couple in our ward who asked up to housesit during our stay. So we got to live in their house for free. What was the catch? Oh they were the only people in their neighborhood in hot, humid, central CA with no pest control. So really we lived in a house infested with crickets in the laundry room, ants that would randomly march in two-inch lines across the kitchen floor and the hugest black widow living in the garbage can…but it was free and you know how I love a good deal!

Trying to find a cheap apartment in Westchester prompted us to move 3 times in 3 years, Each time living in just a plain out weird space. Slanted ceilings blocking the refrigerator, 54 stair walk-ups, bathrooms off the kitchen, electric wiring that made running a fan and hair dryer simultaneously impossible, cockroaches, and a house mouse. But we never paid more than $1190!!

Richmond is covered with apartment complexes, but in our quest to live cheap, we rented cheap. In 9 months, our water heater had a massive leak, the ceiling above the shower caved in, we had a termite infestation…all this with crazy loud neighbors. Yesterday we had a snake. Not inside our apartment, but right outside the door. My bongo playing neighbor told me about it when I was coming home. He and a friend had been trying to kill it, very unsuccessfully. After they threw a car battery at it, I realized we needed some professional help. So I called the office. Then again realizing we needed real professional help, I call the animal protection. Eventually the guy came and removed the snake from the car battery trap and PUT HIM BACK IN THE FOREST. If there was a forest around here I would feel fine about that. But the tree lining separating our apartments from another complex…no. I felt a bit better about the solution when the office called back with theirs. A maintenance guy liked snakes and wanted to have it. Great.

So what’s the moral of my apartment story: cheap rent will give you some funny stories to tell.