The summer of 2011 will go down in history....and thank God it's history!

We have had a crazy summer here in the Fulcher house.

July was the hottest on record....so we spent it in the pool in the backyard.  Along with trying to keep Zeb busy, and getting a break from the heat, this made the month fly by and also very enjoyable.  There was the few days we spent trying to fight our landlord to fix our basement, fighting both face to face as well as in court.  I would say that the final outcome was not a win for either.  We agreed to move, as he decided it was in his best interest to just demolish the home, and I guess you could say he lost as he ended up having to pay us to go, and as far as I'm concerned lost very good tenants. 

We spent so much of our summer looking for a new place to live, fighting with our lawyers to get our landlord to follow the order that was put in place by the tribunal (which by the way he has yet to do, and short of taking him to small claims court and going through all that, we don't have a leg to stand on.....landlords have all the power in this province) , and realizing how little so many landlords in this area care about the product they have out there.  After seeing, I can't tell you how many houses, we realized that there are just so few  places around here that are actually places anyone decent would live it.  Seems to me, and just me by the way, that if you want tenants that don't destroy your home, maybe you should show you are proud of it.  I would think that if you are interested in making owning rental property's an income for you, you would take care of said property.  I can tell you, not many do.  There was one house we went into that had three bedrooms, and linen closet, and several other closets throughout that had not one closet door on any.  At the end the owner asked us if we thought he was charging a good price.  He explained that this was his only rental property and was unsure if he had set his price right.  I said to him, "I personally would never rent this home, as I personally feel that I should have doors on my closets".  His reply was that a couple of years ago he had a tenant who he thought was on "social assistance" that totally destroyed the property.  He ended up spending 15,000. on the place to fix it and just had to stop when the money ran out.  I replied to him that the only tenant he would attract to his home were those that would not care about it.  I said that anyone interested in living in a home without any doors on anything is never going to care about the upkeep of your home.  His reply was, "well, for the right person I would put on new doors".  I walked away thinking, I guess he didn't feel anyone coming to see this house would be the right person to fix what needed to be fixed.  What I have learned about this whole experience is, first, don't do anything to a rental home that you wish to be reimbursed for without there being a written agreement.  Second, if you make any sort of agreement with your landlord there has to be terms included in that agreement. Eg. If you want to use the repairs and updates you have make to a property to be used in lieu of rent, than you need to have it in writing how much those repairs and updates are worth, and for how long you can go without paying rent that would equal those updates.  Third, no matter who it is your rent from, don't trust anything they say.  If there is anything that is done that goes against your original lease, there needs to be compensation.  And lastly, if you can at any time in your life, become a landlord.  This area could use some upstanding people who want to give a good quality home at a good price.  I feel that this is one area that needs more regulation.  I didn't realize how little landlords have to do to rent people property.  There are no licences, or fee's.  There is no safety requirements, there is no class they have to take.  I can't think of anyone who has any sort of business ( and yes, rental property is in fact a business even if you only have one rental unit) where there are no licences, or required skills, or training involved.  Any Tom Dick, or Harry can pawn off their falling down, fire trap to anyone willing to pay the rent.  This has to stop.  I try not to think about how many safety violations are surrounding me in my rental home, but I do know there are plenty.  And I should be afraid.  Now, after having to do so much research this summer, I know my rights as a tenant, and I will never allow myself to be put into this position ever again.

The summer was a good one despite all the stress we were under.  I am always happy to have Zeb home with me all summer.  It gives us a time to bond, talk, and do things together and have fun.  The great part was that Damie was home for the whole summer too.  She has been between jobs, as she is waiting to start training with Allstate.  The process is alot longer than one would think, and so since it has taken until the end of Sept. to actually start she was here with us this summer.  All three of us had a good time together.  We didn't go anywhere, except to Toronto for a night ( which, if you ask Zeb, was the most amazingly wonderful trip), but other than that, we spent a few days here and there but nothing special.  We sure miss going on family trips like we did when Zeb was smaller, and we do hope we will be in that position again, however it has taught us how little our child expects from us to have fun.  I think we all get a little caught up in giving our kids things like trips to Disney, or taking them on cruises etc.  but what we have learned over the past couple of years is, all he really needs from us is us.  I like that, I like that we can have fun and feel like we really lived it up on a shoe string budget.  I think, and this is just how I feel, but I think sometimes we feel pressured into doing more than we should.  I think there was a day when no one took their kids anywhere, and they still became well rounded, balanced and interesting people.  I don't think my father went anywhere in his life, except when his mother moved him to Toronto Island for a year so she could work during war time.  Other than that I don't think he left his small town life.  I know my mother never went anywhere with her family when she was growing up.  The only place she remembers going was to the Detroit Zoo, and to see The Henry Ford Museum on a class trip.  This was the norm than, no one did much (unless you had family that you got shipped away to, or your family was rich and you were able to go on a vacation).  When I was a kid I had my mom's parents who owned 9 cottages in the Bruce Peninsula at Stokes Bay.  They rented out those cottages every year and spent the whole summer up there taking care of the renters.  I would go up there for a few weeks every summer.  It was amazing.   Each cottage was rented to a different family every week (lots of the same families came back every summer, and there was one family that came for the whole summer ever year).  I always had someone to play with, whether it be a girl or a boy it didn't much matter to me.  We would spend hours swimming in the frigid lake, playing along the shoreline, going canoeing or walking in the bush.  There was a small hamlet with a general store one mile from where we were and sometimes my grandmother would give me a quarter to walk down to the store with a friend and buy an ice cream, or black licorice.  I loved ever minute of it.  I love the nightly campfires, singing songs, or listening to scary stories, or just sitting around starring at the fire.  I love the night sounds, the quite one only knows when they are in the middle of no where.  I loved listening to the lake hitting the shore as I fell asleep.  I loved having to put on a sweatshirt and pants in the evening and feeling that warmth around me.  I loved feeling tired and sleeping soundly, in a way only a child can do.  Those summers stick in my mind, and I hope one day to give Zeb, even a little taste of what that was like. 

Summer is coming to a close, Zeb has started the first grade, and we are leaving the house we have lived in since Zeb was one.  It is all a little melancholy, a little sad.  I know we will all be just fine in our new home, but it's hard to walk away from the only home Zeb has ever known.  He will make new friends, maybe some in the neighbourhood, which will be a nice change as right now we do not have a neighbourhood.  He will do fine in his 300 student school.  And Damie and I will stay strong, and optimistic about our future.  I hope it all goes as planned, and this is the new beginning we have been looking for.