The Sh*tty Day thread

[O.Supreme]

Usually I don't post here because I try to maintain a positive attitude even when going through trials. And even this experience might have an unexpected ending....however...

My family and I have been renting/living in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home for the past 2 years. Wanted to move out of our 2 bedroom apartment (which we loved), because we knew my kids would need their own space. Unfortunately housing in our area is really expensive. But 2 years ago we did find something in our price range (1,100 per month). Now granted it was an older home. No improvements had been made since it was originally build in the late 60's/early 70's (original windows, no central air which is pretty-much a must-have in Sacramento for the summers). But we made due, and survived 2 summers just fine.

Last Fall/Winter however we had record rainfall which effectively ended the 10 year drought in California. Also, last year we took in my mom (68) who was forced out of her living situation because after my parents divorce, my dad and his "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" sabotaged things. So her coming to stay with us meant the kids were again sharing a room as of a year ago. A few months back In 2 of the bedrooms we noticed the carpet getting damp whenever it rained. My wife used to work for a construction company and knows all about structures and figured it was a crack in the foundation. We expressed our concerns to the Landlord, which we had had no issues with up until that point. They came out and "inspected" the area around the bedrooms for any grading issues and saw none, and totally ignored our comments about the possible foundation crack. We were willing to even move things around in our house so if they wanted to take up the carpet and inspect the foundation they could.....Nope they just said "keep monitoring it and let us know..."

So Fast forward to May 1st. --My wife is moving some furniture around in the kids room and finds Black Mold on the walls behind one of the shelves. I've never had an experience with mold, but I do know it can adversely effect health conditions. So again we call the Landlord right away....She says...OK, I'm not going to charge your rent this month, but you have to be out of the house by May 31 because "we cant fix it with somebody living there"...???

So of course I start to panic a little, but after a few quiet moments my wife and I make a plan. Her parents have a house under renovation not to far away. We agree that if we help with expenses and help with the renovation, they will let us stay there. After one year of trying to find a senior living facility for my mom with no results, we find her a nice place the very next day. So here were are at the end of May, my mom is settled in her new place. WE are living out of boxes, but making due in my in-laws place.

But here is the kicker...They gave us our deposit back because we cleaned and left it in immaculate shape. The landlord promised to "investigate the issue" (I know by law they cannot rent to tenants if there is a known mold issue, they can sell if they want having disclosed the mold issue, but not rent) So, I go by the house yesterday to wheel out the trash, as I promised I would , and they are showing the house to prospective renters! My wife looked up the listing. Not 24 hours after we vacate, and they have it listed for $1300 per month, requiring a 650 credit score, and requiring tenants to pay Sewer & Garbage (which they were paying before)!!!

I was furious~! So I saw one gentleman standing outside while another family was touring the house. I told him about the mold issue, and asked him to please tell the other family, I don't want anybody getting sick from staying in that house. My next fear was that, because it is getting hot now, we might not see rain again until September, none was forecasted, it was supposed to be mid-90's all week.

But wouldn't you know it....I woke up this morning and it was raining! It will get the carpets wet. The stagnant air of a locked up house with nobody in it should promote mold growth quite well I would think, especially if it heats up quickly with damp carpet...This is an older couple that own a least 4 or 5 properties. They have 2 sons that are property owners as well. They have plenty of wealth.. I don't understand peoples greed sometimes. If they don't want to invest in improving the house, just sell it. I cant understand how someone's conscience would allow them to make a family sick just to throw some more money on their pile before they die...

Also, I'm thinking of reporting the landlords, but not sure if they can come after us legally. Even if I report anonymously about the mold, the fact that we are the only two parties that know makes it kind of obvious who reported it. I mean my wife has a photo on her phone of the mold, so we can prove it, its not slander...But I don't know if they can come after us saying *we* were the cause...I don't want any family to get sick, but I don't want to get caught up in a legal battle as well...not sure what to do here...

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

You defiently need to contact somebody about the mold issue because if it's against the law and they're breaking it then someone needs to be aware of the situation. I don't think there's anything they can do legally to you, what are they going to do sue you for being honest?

Plus you don't know how long you and your family have been exposed to the mold. It's not fun living with mold trust me, when I lived at my cousins we had it and didn't know about it and we where constantly sick. We finally got it cleaned up some what. I think I'm feeling the effects of the mold still and I've been out of the house for six months now.

[hanshotfirst1138]

I'd love to say I'm doing better, but sadly.....

[Dr Kain]

My teeth are a train wreck, just like my mom's. I've got two crowns next to each other on one side and on the opposite side a tooth completely gone. I had a root canal done and a crown in place, but then in 2011 my crown came out and it turned out the original dentist I went to back in Buffalo never actually fully removed the cavity when they did the root canal, so it was still rotting my tooth when the crown was on it.

Now I have two lower teeth that are slowly cracking because of the silver fillings the dentist I had as a kid put in there, so I need to get those crowned at some point. The worst part is, these two teeth are directly below the two upper crowns I have. WTF?

[Henry88]

Just lost my grandmother just one year after I lost my mom.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ Sorry, man.

[lhb412]

^^ Sorry to hear that.

[jellydonut25]

Been becoming friends with some of my neighbors as our kids are all the same age and getting to be friends and stuff...

...one of them said some HATEFUL stuff today that like, took me aback as I couldn't see saying something like that to people. I don't think we're going to be around when that particular individual is anymore.

[lhb412]

^People have been more loose lipped with hateful stuff recently, at least from my observation. I think snapping back a bit is called for. Be proactive! Some people are humorously surprised when you say "I think you're a bad person and I don't like you" to 'em.

[jellydonut25]

I did ask if he was SERIOUS (as I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was joking, especially since I'm not at all above inappropriate humor), and it was affirmed to be serious, and I loudly stated my disgust and disbelief.

[canofhumdingers]

Harvey is decimating Houston and the surrounding area. Thankfully my family got out of town Friday. Some of our neighbors stayed behind and have kept us updated on what's happening at our house. Thankfully we've been fortunate that our neighborhood has been pretty resistant to flooding (compared to other areas around us) in the few years we've been there. But our neighbor just sent us a video of our street and there's solid 3 inches of water rushing down it. It's already started to creep up over the curb and into yards in a few areas.

And there's another TWO FEET of rain forecast over the next day or two. I hope and pray our house makes it out unscathed but at this point the odds seem stacked against us. I mean, were talking a potential 3 to 4 FEET of rain in less than a week.

[lhb412]

^Damn. At least you guys are safe.

[canofhumdingers]

So far so good it sounds like. Water got almost to the front porches on my street then started going back down. The street was clear again sometime this morning. According to neighbors the rain has started again but is a slow steady rain and not the driving flash flood like yesterday and is still draining well at the moment. Continuing to pray that the worst is behind us and we don't flood. Definitely praying for everyone who hasn't been as fortunate.

Speaking of, has anyone heard from jellydonut? I know he lives in the Houston area, but I don't know where. Hope his family and house are ok.

[canofhumdingers]

Sounds like we may have squeaked through unscathed. No one has gone inside our house to check but neighbors immediately to either side of us both report no water came into their houses so I'm cautiously optimistic about ours. Looks like the rain has mostly moved out of my neighborhood and some roads are becoming passable again. We're now trying to figure out if we can get home safely in the next few days. May have to take a very long detour to get in.

[jellydonut25]

The worst part about this for me personally is that I just recently lost my job...and I doubt anyone in Houston will be actively hiring in the near future...meaning my time in Houston may be coming to an end.

[canofhumdingers]

That sucks, sorry to hear it. Hope your family and house are ok.

On the bright side, maybe you'll find work in a nicer place. I don't know how you feel, but Houston isn't high on my list of places I actually WANT to live. It's got enough to offer that I'm not miserable here, but I look forward to the day when I can move somewhere much nicer.

[klen7]

^^ I live near a town that was demolished by a big tornado. An opportunistic entrepreneur bought up a lot of real estate and basically turned the town around. Brought a lot of businesses to the area and really revitalized the entire area. Some people claim he exploited the disaster, but he certainly put the town on the map.

[lhb412]

^^ & ^^^ Good luck to both you guys. I'm glad you and yours are safe.

[canofhumdingers]

A friend had to evacuate their house after authorities had to open a levee before it broke. Not sure if their house will flood but they were definitely at risk of being trapped with small kids with no way out. So they evacuated and went to stay at our house. Good news is our house made it out unscathed. Very relieved too know for sure now. Sounds like most of my friends houses escaped flooding too, though some have had to evacuate for other reasons (being surrounded by water on all sides, potential sewage backing up into house, etc.)

Best news though is it sounds like everyone we know is safe.

[jellydonut25]

[lhb412]

Well, because of the latest weather catastrophe (hurricane Irma) my sister, her kids, and a bevy of animals are staying up here for the time being. They almost didn't make it out!

[Dr Kain]

Not exactly turning my day to "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", but...

HOW THE HELL DID AMAZON SHIP THIS OUT LIKE THIS!!!!!!!





No words can explain what I am feeling right now. Like yeah, I know it is an easy exchange program, but who the hell shipped it out like this? No, it was not damaged in shipping because they actually shipped it in a box that was immaculate, as were all of the other items inside. This is laziness at its finest. Not to mention it came in a clear baggie with a green line on it that said NEW. Does this look new to anyone? My god, I am just dumbfounded by this.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

Amazon has gotten really sloppy as of late I'm not sure why but over the past year I've had multiple issues with preorders from Amazon and a few issues with SHMAs I've ordered from them.

On a side note not a day ruiner but I bought a new external HDD for my Xbox One which is double the storage of my old one and MS implemented a new data transfer thing to move data easily between drives well I started doing the transfer about 2pm yesterday and as of right now its STILL not done yet.

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

Their free two day shipping often tends towards three days for me, but Prime also has all those Shaw Brothers kung fu flicks and Rifftrax movies on their streaming service, so I'm fairly happy.