I'm not sure how many people will be able to identify with this one - where we live, we use propane for heating and cooking. It's a rental house that's in *very* bad shape. To see pictures of the house, go here.
I've uploaded some pics of the damage to the house caused by termite damage that my landlord was aware of and didn't treat. He tried to rebuild the bathroom floor three years ago, and it's worse now than it was before. He tried to rebuild the back corner bedroom floor (which was about to fall through) and it's now at a major slant downward, as is all of the rear of the house. The toilet won't flush half the time, and has to be plunged.
The landlords are elderly (upper 70s) and own a ranch, and they refuse to hire out any work done on the place, and opt to do it themselves since they're such penny pinchers. I admit that we're behind in the rent, and they're making noises about eviction. They are even trying to claim that *we* caused the damage because of a water leak that we failed to notify them about in time. I told them about it as soon as *I* knew about it, and the only reason they fixed that was because of the water bill, which they have to pay and dun me for my part at $25 a month. I've *seen* termites swarming out of this place for the last four years (we've been here for six years). But they don't seem to want to believe it's termites and not water damage. I guess they'll find out when the house collapses. Hopefully, that won't happen til *after* we find a way to move out of here. Since we're in Texas, we have little recourse as tenants. Texas isn't a very tenant friendly state.
We were paying $450 a month (including the $25 for water) until about three years ago, and they upped the rent by $50, even though they *knew* it's not worth that much.
The problem is that we don't have the funds to move anywhere else right now. It's not just a month's rent. It's a deposit. And moving utilities, and in some cases, deposits for utilities.
And that's where we come to the real crux of the problem. The aforementioned propane.
Around here, none of the propane delivery people will sell and deliver less than 100 gals of propane. At a price of $2.10 a gallon (and that's the *cheapest* I can find), that's $210. Right now, I could barely manage half that. We're down to 10%, which, if we get a cold spell, won't last long at all. And that's running only a hot water heater and one Dearborn space heater with a pilot.
It really sucks when people have to decide whether to get propane or eat. Or to get propane or pay their rent. Add to that the rising price of gasoline for me to get to work, and you have a whole new set of problems.
Right now, life really *does* seem pretty dark and unyielding. I fully expect that the landlord will start eviction very soon. They said the end of the month. My son can't help me til the end of *next* month at the earliest.
But I have a surprise for them. I will make *very* sure that they don't try to rent this place out again. I'll get copies of those photos to the county building inspector to get it declared condemned, forcing them to either tear it down or burn it down. It's not worth repairing it would take rebuilding the entire back half of the house - and the wiring's not the best in the world either.
That's *another* story.
Keep us in your thoughts, please.
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