Our New House....

Yep... we have moved once again!!! I have been told that I need to stop saying, "we are NEVER moving again!", so that maybe it will finally come true. This time it was not by choice, really. After moving into our last house, which we loved and were doing a lease purchase on, we found out that the landlord lived accross the street. He came over and introduced himself the day after we moved in and explained that his son and his family also lived next door. No biggy, I mean we are super clean, and treat things nice, so that part didn't worry me. But they came over A LOT that first couple of days. I remember turning to Kevin one day after they left, the 2nd day we were there, and saying, "is this going to be a problem?" Anyway, we meet the neighbors over the next couple of weeks, the closest 2 families living by us were in our ward, and through them and the property manager we come to hear the whole story of this house and this family we are renting from. The Dad and Mom (our landlords) bought all 3 lots and built a house for them and each of their 2 sons families to live in. How wonderful if we could all do that for our kids right? They didn't charge them rent but did expect them to take good care of the homes and property of course. Well, that is putting it lightly because the lanlords standards were MUCH different than his 2 sons (or at least one of them) because the son that lived in our home moved out abruptly while his parents were on a cruise because he couldn't take it anymore. So, the parents (landlords) came home to find their son and his family moved out with no warning. I am fanatical about the house inside, and Kevin does the yard work every Saturday. We were on an acre and had A LOT of property to take care of. He always made sure the front was great and if something else took his time on the weekends (like kids, soccer, time with family heaven forbid!) he'd let the back grass go for a week or two. No big deal, it's just grass! Well, the lanlord would come over and bang on the door and walk into our back yard and such. This is NOT allowed when there is a property manager involved and they warned him on numerous occasions over the year. After I had Emmy we had a microburst hit down in our neighborhood and a guy in my ward was sitting in his truck and watched our RV gate explode fromthe force of the microburst that day. It just shattered. The lanlord came over to take measurements for the new gate the next day or so and was mad that there were chairs and toys strung accross the back yard. He banged on the door and rang the doorbell for 30 minutes, angrily! I had a newborn baby and Lauren at home and was there alone. He looked insane and I was not about to open the door. We called the property manager and she eaid that he did call her also and said the back yard was TRASHED and he thought we were trashing the inside of the house also and was pissed. Well, anyone who knows me, knows that we would never trash a house and I'm a clean freak the majority of the time. And it is absurd that he couldn't understand that the back yard looked like it had some things thrown around from the storm, I mean it was a strong enough storm to destroy the fence, but not throw around a few chairs and toys????!?!? He was not being rational. So, we invited him and the property manager over to see that we were treating the house as if it were our own. The property manager cam but he did not. She agreed that it was kept very nice and took pictures for him and explained some more of what was going on with him. She said that he had major OCD's bout the lawns and that was the nail in the coffin for the son who moved out. He was still mad that his son wasn't there because that's who the house was built for and they were still on the outs. He had always hoped that they would mend their relationship and he'd move back in, etc. etc. etc. Also, the lanlord had been diagnosed with severe kidney problems a few years back and was now having heart trouble recently. So, health was playing a big part in how he was over reacting, etc. We tried to be understanding. I always make an extra loaf of bread each week and for a couple of weeks we took it over to them with a nice note, etc. trying to build a friendly, neighborly relationship. We would stand out front and talk with his wife and Lauren would play with her little dog. The wife even said how nice the house looked and how it looked 10 times better than when her son lived there!!! But, the lanlord kept on us constantly. He came over when just the kids were home and banged and banged and was mad when they wouldn't answer, but they are not supposed to answer of course if we aren't there. He would come over and pull little tiny weeds before as they were barely coming up, and the kids would get home from school and find him in our yard. He stuck his head over the fence on occasion and yelled at our kids for whatever they were doing in the back yard that he didn't agree with. (granted one time Daron and Maddie were throwing little rocks at the basketball backboard and needed to be told not to. However, it is OUR job to do this, and NOT HIS. He should have come and knocked on the front door to tell Kevin or I so that we could handle it.) He opened our back yard gate when all of the kids were playing in the back yard and my nephews were over as well and just stood there and looked at all of the kids for awhile and then shut the gate and left. He should NOT open our gate ever, especially when there's kids back there. He is a stranger for all intents and purposes!!!! And, he called the police on Madison's Dad when he was dropping her off from dinner one night. Ridiculous!!! It was 7pm at night and he idled for about 10 minutes because she was finishing up watching a movie in the truck. So, he called the police because there was a car parked in front of our house. Shane's truck is at our house 2 times per week to pick her up for dinner and every other weekend as well, so give me a break!!! Anyway, it goes on and on and on... and we just couldn't so it anymore!!! I feel bad that he is having so many health problems and maybe he just needed to focus on us more than necessary to avoid thinking about all the stuff going on with that and with the bad feeling over his son. I don't know, but I am glad to be out of there and have been so much happier here!!! Our new lanlord is LDS and a very nice man. We love the new ward and are excited to be in the new neighborhood. The houses are closer together and there are lots of kids. Daron has already made two new friends on our street! We hope to be here for 2-3 years and then we want to buy a house in this area so that the kids stay in the same ward and schools through jr. high and highschool. We need some roots during those years for sure!!! So come visit!!!!!