The Move

A few words on the move this past weekend…

1. Kudos to our 1:00 crew that were so efficient they made our 6:00 crew unnecessary and we were able to leave Calgary 4 hours earlier than planned.
   
2. Never have I seen a move go that quickly. My two brothers, my Mom, Dad and Brad unloaded our truck in 20 minutes. Those boys were moving mattresses on their own and doing everything so quickly that the Denise and Jenny just stood aside before they were run over (there will be much more for you to do on the 17th, we can stay inside the new house and move boxes to the proper rooms)


3. You would think I'd learned the lesson in the last move… my flour and sugar buckets can't just have the lids put on them, they need to be taped. Last move it was the flour that tipped over and spilled, this move it was the sugar. It's a good thing we'd thought to bring a broom.


4. Our U-Haul experience was entirely satisfactory and we'll be happy to use them again.


5. As we packed up in Calgary Brad did an awesome job of fitting things in Tetris style until we realized we didn't actually need that much room. Apparently we should have tied things down (don't worry, nothing broke).

Hoping to Settle

In our married life Brad and I have been pretty blessed, we really haven't had a lot of trials or difficulties (knock on wood). Our finances are well organized, we've both been well employed. We're healthy, have a great relationship and have been really happy except in one aspect… we seem to have difficulty with housing.

There was the first apartment where there was confusion about whether it was ours or not and then the whole heat debacle. We lucked out and found a lovely new place where we've been since January and we've enjoyed it a lot.

Then there was our Lethbridge house. We had everything lined up months in advance only to have it all fall apart a couple days ago. We were pretty stressed out about it as we have no time to go look at new places and we were supposed to move our things in a week.

One thing about me, I hate looking for apartments, I think it's a long, tedious and frustrating process and my previous landlord history has made me nervous to speak to them at all so I'm lucky I was blessed with a husband who takes care of that for us. I just make sure I'm real supportive and we're both happy. We were a little picky about this Lethbridge house. I really wanted 3 bedrooms, a dishwasher and I was not living on the West side, so when Brad sent me an email and photos of a house on the West I wasn't interested at all, until I looked at the first picture when I thought, "I'm in trouble". This house is beautiful, I'm not sure how you could turn it down. It's less than two years old, meets all our criteria (except the location) and is only slightly out of our price range (we can make it work). The move will not be as smooth as it will now involve a storage unit for a month but at least we know where we'll end up eventually.

Click on the photo below for more photos of our soon to be home.

Lethbridge House

Here's hoping the location sacrifice is worth it because I'm excited to have such a beautiful house.
L

Celebration

Brad - "My stomach is full of little blonde girls"

We celebrated the warm, unpacked apartment with a round of Shirley Temples.
L

Let Me Tell You...

This new place is so great, here are the highlights.

1. The bedrooom is big enough that we can finally bring over the pretty bench that we got as a wedding present
2. The living room is big enough that we have the option of using my old coffee table again
3. There are two bedrooms
4. The bathroom fan doesn't make a sound that makes you want to pull your ears off
5. There is a real front entrance, a non carpeted front entrance
6. The carpet is a nice, normal grey colour, not green shag.
7. A Full size fridge and stove
8. Two SINKS!!
9. Two bedrooms
10. More cupboard space that I had at first though
11. We've already met 2 of our 3 neighbors
12. It's rigtht across the street from a Dollar Store, Little Ceaser's, Subway, M&M Meat Shops and a Drug store so when I'm at home without a car I can still go somewhere
13. Moving in is a breeze, there aren't 3 flights of stairs to climb
14. We only have to share the laundry room with 3 other people
15. We have heat, real heat!
16. There are big windows to let in lots of light

I'll take pictures eventually but we are so blessed to have gotten this suite, someone is looking out for us.
L

A Warm Place

Yay! We're not homeless, we've got a great new place to live and we can even more in today!

More details to follow but cheer for us, we needed some good news :)
L

The Leg I Stand On

There have been some comments about our landlady and people wondering what our rights are and so I thought I'd clarify by posting the letter that we've submitted to her. It clearly outlines what our rights are and that we're well within them and that she doesn't have a leg to stand on. It's in her best interest to just let us go with our damage deposit.


Subject: Breach of Contract

Dear Susan*:

For some time now we've been without a proper source of heat in our apartment and our frequent requests for a solution have been ignored. We discovered that this year we have zero heat and with the extreme cold of the past week our apartment has become unlivable. Concerned about your pipes freezing we've been running an electric heater and using our oven to provide some sort of warmth. Both are additional costs to us and we've decided it's in our best interest to find a new place to live.

As you have not complied with the Landlord Obligations as outlined in the Alberta Residential Tenancies Act we are submitting 14 days notice and will vacate the apartment by 12:00 noon on January 1st. We have listed the obligations below as well as the actions we are legally allowed to take.

Landlord's obligations

• Make the premises available for the tenant on the agreed move-in date.
• Not to disturb the tenant's possession or peaceful enjoyment of the premises. This means that the landlord is not to bother the tenant beyond what is necessary to do the landlord's business.
• Make sure the premises meet the minimum requirements set out in the Housing Regulation and the Minimum Housing and Health Standards under Alberta's Public Health Act at the beginning and during the tenancy. The Minimum Housing and Health Standards can be found on the Service Alberta website.
• Complete move in-and move-out inspection reports and provide copies to the tenant.

Below is an excerpt from the Public Health Act http://www.servicealberta.ca/pdf/consumers/housing99.pdf

8. Heating Facilities
(a) All heating facilities within a housing premises are to be properly installed and maintained in good working condition, and be capable of safely and adequately heating all habitable rooms, bathrooms, and toilet rooms within the building to a temperature of ;
(i) at least 22°C(710F), or
(ii) maintained at a temperature of at least 22°C(710F) when the control of the supplied heat in a dwelling is the responsibility of a person other than the occupant.

(b) When the outside temperature is colder than the winter design temperature as referenced in the Alberta Building Code(97) Section 2.2.1.1 and Appendix C, then the Executive Officer may permit an indoor temperature of less than 22°C(710F) but greater than 16°C (600F). (Without the use of extra heaters our temperature sits below 10°C)
(c) Cooking appliances and portable space heaters shall not be used as the primary source for the required heat to a habitable room.
(d) Every owner of a housing premises shall ensure a continuous supply of electricity, water and heat unless the rental agreement stipulates that such utility services are the sole responsibility of the occupant.

Voluntary Code of Practice - Alberta's Residential Tenancies Act
http://www.servicealberta.ca

Termination for substantial breach by landlord
28 (1) A tenant may apply to a court to terminate the tenancy or may terminate the tenancy by serving the landlord with a notice at least 14 days before the day that the tenancy is to terminate where
(a) the landlord commits a substantial breach of the residential tenancy agreement, and
(b) an executive officer has issued an order under section 62 of the Public Health Act in respect of the circumstances that constitute the substantial breach, and the tenant believes on reasonable grounds that the landlord has failed to comply with the order.
(2) The notice must
(a) be in writing,
(b) be signed by the tenant,
(c) set out the reasons for the termination, and
(d) set out the termination date.

We expect our full damage deposit back and we are prepared to follow the necessary steps to ensure it is received in a timely manner. We have put a stop-payment on all remaining cheques and would like them returned. We're happy to give access to our apartment for viewing with potential renters as long as 24 hour notice is given.

We respectfully request that all further communication be conducted in writing, either as a letter or an email and we've included all necessary contact information. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Brad & Laura Wiebe

*Names have been changes to protect the identity of our really crappy landlady.
L

A Way Out

I have this knot in my stomach that never loosens. My hands are a little shaky… I'm really nervous.

I was trying to be tough and managed to not complain at all on my blog about the temperature in our apartment. Last year we had really horrible heat so we expected it to be cold but we weren't prepared for the entire lack of heat that we've been experiencing. We get not a single bit of heat from our pipes and our landlady has done nothing to fix it. It's no way to live when it's minus 45 degrees outside.

So we've decided to move. We don't know where we're going but we're giving notice tomorrow and we're not giving 30 days and we're going to try our darndest to get our entire damage deposit back. I'm sure it's going to be an unpleasant fight where reason is thrown out the window on her end and we do our best to stay calm but the law is on our side.

So think about us and send support our way, we need it to deal with the worst woman you've ever met and wish us luck tonight as we go look at a place that seems like it'll be much better than where we are now. To end on a happy note I'm including pictures of the hoped for basement suite. The windows are small I know but it's bigger and a little cheaper than what we have now.
L