You Get What You Pay For

My momma always says, "you get what you pay for."

Logan is a town known for it's low pricing. People here expect to pay less for things here than in say, the real world. But even with this natural discount, there are still times when you say to you yourself, okay...maybe this just really is cheap.

Tim is moving from the farm house he lives in now to a small apartment in a house, like a triplex dealy. There were some pretty important reasons for the move:

1) Farm house is 20 minutes away from town, work and Mary. New house is in town and only 3 mintues away from Mary.

2) It allows pets. Possibly the first apartment we've found in Logan that does this at all, especially without an extra charge.

3) Farm house is expensive. New house is not.

Yes, it came very cheap. $175 a month (hope you don't me telling, Tim) with the water paid for. Tim even gets the first month free! Are you wary yet? You should be.

When we first walked in to check the place out, Terry the landlord warned us it didn't look so hot. We assured him that wouldn't really matter, Tim was looking for a cheap place to live, so who cares what it looks like, right?

Wrong! Walking straight into the apartment, the first thing you notice is the smell. Old dog and smoke clinging to the walls of the place, and possibly rot. The walls aren't painted all the way in some spots. Pale blue here, paintbrushy white there, with paint still on the windows. The floor was an old rotting wood that had been painted over a couple times, but nothing could stick. Grays and dark grays, blobs of white where someone wasn't careful enough with their paintbrushy job on the walls. But the real mess was in what was left over from the previous tenant. Dog food, bits of shreded couch, spilled ground coffee beans, and DOG POOP! It looked like a pack of dogs had lived there.

Tim opened the fridge for a split second, saw it was empty and closed it, then the apartment reeked strongly of rancid fridge for the next 15 minutes (maybe longer, we left before it dissapated).

There is one room in the house I just won't really go into. The bathroom. Tim was brave enough to open the toilet today, but we couldn't see any porcelian inside it. Just muck and grime! There's dead gnats on the walls, strong curly fungus growing at the base of the floor, a puddle on the floor from who knows what, and a giant hole right by the tub that threatens to take more tiles and floor with it if you press it with your foot. Tim had the great idea of stamping the word "CONDEMNED" accross the door before anyone tries to go in there.

Tim spent all day cleaning up the crap that was left by the pack of wild dogs. He wiped down countertops, stovetops, vaccumed, swept at least 5 times and did everything else to help the place look better. When he finished, he told me, "it looks better and worse. It's clean, but now I can see all the crap I couldn't see when all the crap was in the apartment!" Holes in the walls, mildewed sinks, grungy floors...but even I could admit the place had potential to look pretty cool.

We took it upon ourselves to nicen the place up. We got some paint, some new furniture (Yay for DI!), space heaters off craigslist, and a new mop! Today, we worked on painting the front room (which will be my favorite room when we're finished). My camera was almost out of battery when I took some pics, but I did what I could:

Chloe sleeping on the new couch. This is the only time we've ever got mad at her for getting OFF the couch. We didn't want her to get into the paint.

Tim getting the top trim with the new awesome color!! I believe Melissa would approve. There's a large window to the right of this picture that really lights up this room in the daytime, and it's got taller-than-average ceilings, plus it looks awesome!! Go this color! Oh, and we're doing another coat of it tomorrow...

Shots of the gross floor. We're going to fix it. I feel like Bob the builder this week. Can we fix it? Yes! We! Can!

Here's the yucky kitchen. Notice the beautiful chipping design above the doorway. One plus...the small window had snowflakes on it from previous owner. One negative...cabinet had cut-outs of male models, possibly ready to be pinned to cabinet doors. Previous owner was our acquaintance/friend Mike.

This wall represents the whole deterioration process going on in the bathroom. The curtains have decomposed into nothing but a large towel and staples! Yes, this is the bathroom. The wall is actually the least gross thing in there. I ran out of battery before I could get the floor or the toilet.

Well, wish us luck. On a personal note, I think it's the mark of a true man who leaves his apartment better than he found it. Tim is the kind of guy who makes transformations happen. He's so dedicated. *Sigh* Four more months...we've been way too busy to plan wedding stuff. We might be getting invites out very soon, though. More details on that later.

Love you all!