We're losing our home
 

Our landlady just informed us that she is not renewing our lease. We have to be out by the end of February. F*cking B*tch!!!!

That sucks. We've got until "spring"...

Where was that commune thread...?

OH NO!

That's devistating news! Did she say why?

Oh crap! :(

I'm sorry, JWB. Want me to kick her?

OMG - I can"t believe it, after all that work you put into the place! May the curse of Ymma Sumac fall upon your landlady, and may you find better and longer lasting digs.

There's a mobile home for sale 2 doors away from us :)

I'm so sorry, that truly sucks!! I agree with E, may you find a better place that will appreciate the hard work you put into it.

I am so sorry and I completely feel your pain. I was told the first week of Jan that he was selling - I was supposed to be able to stay until it sold but he changed his mind and now I have to be out in 2.5 weeks (he gave me 30 days).

It's a tough time to rent from owners. :(

Her letter says "Due to unforeseen circumstances", whatever the hell that means.

When I got home, Bill was already checking Craigslist for listings.

Lisa and Chris, we just saw a listing on Main - just a couple of blocks from you!

I 'spect you fixed it up so well it suddenly looked like a good time to sell and make a profit off your labor. :(

She might have a friend or relative that she'd like to rent to. I'm guessing that Lakewood isn't Berkeley, but you still might want to see if there are any local tenant advocacy groups that might tell you if you have a right of first refusal or any other protections. Good luck.

I am so sorry JW-:( I hope a blessed door opens for you.

Well, this has to mean that there's something better for you out there, and you are meant to be somewhere else.


That said, and however inappropriate this may be .... you now know the risks of putting a lot of work into a rental. While you should always endeavor to make your home space wonderful, you must also be wary of too much effort that might be worthless at a moment's fvcked up notice.

Hey, I thought a new law came in to action the beginning of this year~ landlords have to give a 60 day notice to vacate.

Same would apply to you, BTD.

Where to find this in print?

Thanks CP and MW. Me, I've only been here since October.

Where are you looking to live JW? I found a bunch of stuff, just none that I liked, or could afford.

Thanks for finding that, CP. :snap:

Sorry it doesn't help you, BtD.

I hope you find the ideal places for you guys.

This house we've lived in for almost 11 years was found by accident. We had seen it driving by many times, empty. Never was there a sign or number to call. We settled on a smaller more expensive house with a lousy floor plan, bad yard, ugly colors and wall paper, and on a bad part of the street. When I went to put the money down on that place, I saw a listing {in the realtors office} for this place. The phone number was missing a digit. No one could call for it. We got it. My best buddy lives across the court.

I wish for you guys to be so lucky. :)

She can probably get around the new law because we won't have been in here a year until the end of February.

All of the improvements we made are portable - and they're going with us!

Maine is a great street! We'd love to have you in the 'hood. Just don't go below 19th Street. Let me know if you want me to do a drive by.

This same thing happened to my Wife and I early in our marriage. First two places we lived we rented and improved........just to be told thanks & goodbye.

We own our own home now......which has some of its' own unique pitfalls but at least any improvements we do belong to us.

Good luck JW. I just know that in the end you'll probably wind up better off.

Darn it.

People have asked us why we don't make improvements, such as landscaping, etc. We keep it clean and watered. I use portable plants.

The best to all of you.

You packin', NA? ;)

Thanks! I PM'd you the address.

We have to start packing now. FUDGE!

Somehow I have it in my head that the new law only applies to month to month tenancies. It sounds like Bear has a lease, which would allow the landlord to enforce the termination date. If she allowed them to hold over, then it would convert to a month to month.

Most of the above I just pulled out of my bottom from 15 years ago, so take it with a grain of salt.

Cool! I'll drive by in the AM and report back. It's BLOCKS from us.


HEY! Extra sleeping quarters for NYE! ;)

I found the listing and the pics. Make an appointment right away. It's purty!

We have. Noon Saturday.

That totally stinks. But maybe iSm's right, maybe things will be much better in the next place.
:)

That sucks, but maybe it'll be cool in the end, even if it's inconvenient right now.

Out of curiosity, what kind of improvements did you do to the place? Other than bolting knife racks to kitchen walls I don't think it's ever occured to me to make improvements to a rental place.

I hope for good news next week after your appointment on Saturday! :)

Oh now that sucks! One thing you can do is curse the place right as your leaving. "Where I spit no grass grows ever" :evil:

Fingers crossed on the place near NA and E. Now get packing, moving on up to bigger and better, that's the ticket!

You're close. Paper towel holder and under counter lighting in the kitchen; towel bars in the master bath (there were none when we moved in); and lighting and other decorative improvements on the patio. All stuff we're going to take down and take with us. We also did a lot of work cleaning up the area around the backyard pond - it was rather overgrown when we got there.

You have to be a little careful when talking about the 'hood' and 'doing a drive by' when referring to the LBC.

:evil:

So sorry JWB. Nothing sucks more than having to move when you're not planning on it. I've had to do it twice when the apartments I lived in flipped to condos. And it's not easy to find something you like and are happy with in a short timeframe. Good luck!

Why? We actually have racial diversity here.

And what does the C stand for in LBC?

Sorry to hear about this, JW. I hope your next place is much better and hassle-free.

A little over a year ago, we had to move with 2 weeks notice and I don't think I've ever been as stressed. I feel for you.

City

As in Long Beach City College? I don't get it. We don't call it LBC or Long Beach City. But, The OC didn't really capture life in Orange County either.

The house is cute. I forgot my camera this morning, so I'll swing by again when I go to the Groomers to pick up a pretty girl.

I forgot to mention another improvement we made was adding two window ACs. We're taking those with us as well.

I looked it up on Local.Live. I couldn't see the front very well, but the back yard is huge!

You'll have to ask the gangsta rappers.

Do I sense a little bit of possible happy anticipation?

Do you want some help looking for other rentals, or are you pretty well set? I can help, you know. (MLS access and all that rot) Just need to know what you're looking for.

Just curiosity. I looked up several others as well.

Thanks for the offer! We have appointments to look at some places the next 3 days, but if none of them pan out, I may be contacting you! (I honestly forgot you were a real live realtor… :blush: )

I took pics but now I have to upload them. There is also a rental house down the street from us (or up, actually) but it is across from the school. I took pics of that one too.

Neat site. I need to police our backyard.

Oh, and Strangler Lewis can profess to how cool it is to live near to us. (Or how awful it was. ;))

LoT commune 0.1

While strolling through the park one day . . . .

Yes, yes. Lovely weather. Lovely.

Would you like a Bourbon, rocks?

Naw, it was cool. It's 17 years later, and I'm still drying out, but it was a good time.

Glen Livet, two small ice cubes.

Okay, bourbon.

I'm so sorry to hear about this JWB! Your home was gorgeous, and I have no doubt that once you find a new place, it will be better than ever before. Best of luck to you and your search.

We talked to the landlady tonight. She's pregnant, and she and her boyfriend want to move in to the house. She now says we can stay until the end of March.

We have been talking about trying to find something we can buy.

Buying is good.

Check your PMs.

Bill made us an appointment tomorrow to see an apartment over Lubery on Broadway.

If you guys move in over The Lubery, I'm going to laugh my ass off.

It has a big roof deck overlooking Broadway. Think of the swanky party possibilities! :cool:

Ooooh! They carry my favorite kind! It's obnoxiously hard to find.

I vote for buying, though. (Because, of course, you make all your important decisions based on a vote of Loters, right?)

We lived on Broadway many years ago (next door to Strangler Lewis) and, let me tell you, Holloween on Broadway is FUN STUFF! (Of course, I was between the Mine Shaft and Lil' Lucy's (a DK bar).

Why does this not surprise me? :D

Can you rent lube?

Yeah, I was going to vote that way, too. (All the rent money basically thrown away, and all that). But the lure of a party space above The Lubery is too great to pass up. I vote rental!


:p

Someone should have visited Lubery!



Business first, then pleasure.

Hey, I'd throw in a chunk of change each month to the LoT Commune - if we had enough people interested........ ;)

No, but you can buy KY at the drugstore! :D ;)

OMFG!!!!!

We went to see the apartment over Lubery. Incredible! The building was built by a furrier in the 30's. His showroom was where Lubery is now. He had a workshop behind, and an apartment to one side and above. Here are some pictures of the apartment. The hidden built-in cabinets behind the paneling in the living/dining room are original. The kitchen and bathroom are completely original too. Wow!

The front:

The entrance to the apartment:

The Living/Dining (with built -in storage):

A view in to the Kitchen:

The Bathroom:


The upstairs hallway:

The entrance to the 2nd bedroom:

The deck:

The view back towards the apartment (& the 2nd bedroom):

WOW! God, I love Long Beach.

Swankerrific! Would they let you paint some walls?

Wow!! Could it match your sig-pic any better?! That's total awesomeness.

Yes.

Um, the once-joke of above-the-Lubery doesn't look quite so silly anymore.

If you move there, we could have matching bathrooms. ;)

My first thought looking at that first bathroom photo was "wow, what a weird little cubby for the toilet.

We found a really cool place today. We put in an application, so keep your fingers crossed for us!



The entryway:


The view in to the dining room from the front door:


The living room:


The dining room from the living room:


I see a wall of books here:


The kitchen:


The breakfast nook:


A telephone niche in the hallway:


The main bathroom... Well... the rest of the house is nice, at least:

Where is it? It looks like my neighborhood.

Near 7th & Redondo.

Not my neighborhood, but still a nice place. ;)

I hope you get it. The main bathroom is cooool looking.
:)

Ummmm.... no. It's a mishmash of about 5 different types of tile, cheap "brass" fixtures, nasty wallpaper, and those tacky floral painted ceramic knobs. We joked that we'll only use it at night... with the lights out.

The arcitectural details are great! But, I just want to go in there and rip out that carpet and tile and paint the kitchen. Our house looked a LOT like that one when we bought it. The carpets were up, the flourescent ceiling light in the kitchen was gone, the gold flooring was removed, the kitchen was painted and the walls were painted all within a week.

Funny, we sort of stopped there and never did much more. ;)

If we were buying instead of renting, the bathroom would get redone before anything else! Pictures just can't convey the fugliness.

Nice butt. ;)

I'll pass that along... ;)

Something about seeing this comment paired with your avatar just strikes me as amusing. Perhaps because I can picture you actually making that face while saying that. :D

Very cool place, but if that photo conveys, as you imply, only a fraction of the hideous nature of the bathroom...yikes.

We got it!!!! :snap: :snap: :snap:

Very cool! I was just going to PM you about a 2 bedroom in Cal Heights I saw today.

Congrats on the new place! :)

Yay - congratulations! Now the fun begins.

Congratulations. And I'll join the minority: except for the wallpaper, the bathroom looks neat. If you ever live in a place as we do with a single piece of fake plastic "tile" covering a large empty hole in the bathroom wall, you'll long for your mishmash of colorful tile.

Yay! mazel-tov. And, hmmmm, I think the bathroom looks great (but I guess the photo does not convey horrific materials).

Congrats! The pictures show the place to look very nice and roomy.

I also liked the bathroom right off. The only thing I noticed was the tub is dirty!!! I would notice that because I hate to clean the tub. I'd buy one or two bottles of your favorite cleanser and let those do the heavy work. Blech!!

I almost want to change the name of this thread to, "We've found a new home." Every time I read the title as-is there's a moment that I start to think "oh yeah, poor JWBear" before I then remember that it has a happy ending. Of course, if you got the place above the Lubery, that would have been a very different happy ending...

OUCH.

Actually, it was pretty clean. It's yellow colored porcelain, so maybe that makes it look dirty in the picture.

Someone's end would have been happy! (Ba-dum-dum)

Here's some more pictures:

The patio:


The sunniest bedroom:



The bedroom with the door to the patio (note the cool ceiling treatment):



All the closets have marvelous original built-ins:


The 2nd (more tasteful) bathroom:

Ooh, look at the roof on your neighbor's place! Love it, with the Ivy I'd swear, add a little worn off thatch and you're living in the queue for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!

LOL!

Congrats! I'm so glad to hear the news!! Even though moving is such a pain in the but I hope you enjoy the new place! :D

Congratulations! Now good luck on the packing and moving.

Gotta say, I loved the pink bathroom at the other place. My purple and black tile loo was the thing that sold me on our apartment.

Congratulations, congratulations!:snap: :cheers:

Oh, it was the bathroom above the Lubery. :blush:

I love those closets! Instant organization!!!

Congrats on the new digs. I really like that place - VERY nice!


Might I suggest some penicillin?

When scolling past this picture, it gives me vertigo. A couple of the pics in the first round did that too. Weird.

The sheer fabulousness of JW's new digs are overwhelming your senses.

Or, you've got some inner ear thing going.

We got the key today! We're going down Friday to take measurements.

Maybe this will help:

10' 11"

18' 6"

9' 7"

2' 11"

7" 5"

;)

Ok. This is it. Moving time. Tomorrow is the big day. I'm shutting down my computer now. I'll probably be off-line for a couple of days.

See all you swanksters real soon!

Good luck with the move- may everything arrive intact, including your sanity.:D

What a mess! Well, we're in now.

Unfortunately, we discovered that only two phone jacks are working - neither of them are in the office. We couldn't get the phone company to come out until the 8th. So, we can't hook up the computers to DSL yet :( I'm in the living room, logging on from my laptop using dial-up.

Oh, how primitive!!!


You're not sleeping on the floor, are you???

Goddess no! One of the first things we did was set up our bed!

Sounds like good incentive to go wireless.

Congratulations on surviving the move!
Welcome back, even on dial-up, you've been missed.

Why didn't I think of that sooner! I have a wireless router, and the PCs and laptop are all wireless capable!

We need a smilie for slapping your forehead.

LOL....

... except I just discovered that my DSL at this number hasn't been activated yet... <sigh>

The good news is that I got the kitchen all put together today. Yay!

Lol! Do you have any idea how weird it is for me to see a guy who knows how to put a kitchen together in the first place, let alone be (and rightly so) excited about that?

So, whatcha making for your first real meal in your new casa?

I don't know yet. Maybe pasta something.

Pasta a la fromage

Ongoing DSL saga....

apparently Earthlink can't provide DSL to this area. No one told me that a week and a half ago when I put in my order to move the service. I just found out today after over an hour on the phone with their installation department. :mad:

I signed up for Verizon DSL. (It's cheaper anyway...) However, my old DSL modem is not compatible with Verizon's service, so they are sending me one. They say I should have my service working by the 5th.

So.... I'm stuck with dial-up until then. <<sigh>>

I hate moving.

I can empathize with the plight. The last time we moved (7-1/2 years ago), we would get a group of possibilities (we were looking for a house or condo). The first thing I did was look up the address to see if I could get DSL. If DSL was not available, that location was eliminated.

I'm surprised you can get DSL from Verizon but not Earthlink - must be a contractual issue.

Are you keeping your Earthlink address somehow? I am still paying Earthlink way too much and I am thinking about switching (unless Earthlink agrees to lower my rate). However, I would like to be able to keep my Earthlink (well, Mindspring) addy.

Yes, I downgraded my Earthlink account. I would get rid of it completely, but I have too many things that I use those email addresses for. It would be a major pain in the a$$ to change them all.

How much are you paying for the minimal Earthlink? I am probably going to do the same thing.

I'm embarrassed to say that I forgot to ask.... (I wasn't in a happy place by that time.)

We still don’t have DSL (see above). The Modem kit never arrived.

I called Verizon today from work. There were two numbers, one for Customer Service and one for Tech Support. The CS number had a wait time of 45 minutes to an hour, so I called the TS one.

The TS guy said that there is a problem with my order, and that is why the modem didn’t ship. He said that I need to talk to Billing, and transferred me. After a long wait, I spoke to a Billing Rep. She was sympathetic, but told me that they have nothing to do with shipping modem kits, and that she couldn’t even pull up my records until TS had finalized my order. She said she would transfer me to someone who could help.

I was on hold for about 10 minutes when a recorded voice came on to tell me I was number 147 in line, and the wit would be 45 minutes – She connected me to Customer Service….

I hung up and called Tech Support again. I got another guy who, as soon as I told him what I was calling about, said “I’ll connect you”. Another wait on hold – then “This is _____ in Billing, how may I assist you. !!!!!!

I shares my sad tale with her. She was also sympathetic, and also told me she couldn’t help. She put me on hold for Customer Service again.

Another call to Tech Support. I got a woman this time. She gave me the same line about contacting Billing. I told her that I had talked to Billing TWICE now, and they can’t help me.

I asked to speak to her supervisor. She told me no. She told me that since my account wasn’t finalized, I couldn’t speak to a supervisor!

I hung up the phone on her.

By this time I was steaming. So, I Googled the phone number for Verizon corporate headquarters. I found a number for the CEO’s office in NYC and called. I spoke to the secretary of the CEO of Verizon – I actually got through!

I explained what had happened. She was very nice, and transferred me to someone with a title like “Executive Manager for Sales and Customer Service” (I forgot her exact title). I explained the whole thing to her. She apologized, and said she would look in to it and give me a call back. Less than an hour later, she called! She told me that she found the problem with my order and fixed it. My modem kit would be sent the next day. She also said she would call me tomorrow to confirm it had been sent.

It pays to go to the top!

WTG!!!! After such an incredible and totally unacceptable runaround I hope corporate gets all over their asses.

I kept all my earthlink addy's by going through time warner cable. I pay a little more than the roadrunner rates but I get to keep all the addy's.

Way to go to the top. Although being a former Assistant to the Chairman people like you were a pain in my bahooty. But I would do the same thing, try to get them to someone who could help. If they went to all the trouble to find you the least you can do is help them out if you can.

YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!! Way to go, JWBear!!!!

I have a feeling that I'll have nothing but excellent service from Verizon from now on. My record is probably flagged somewhere... "Give him what he wants or he'll call the CEO again!!"

Oh my gosh! That rocks! YOU rock! Kick some booty!!

Ya know, as people in customer service know {which would be, Me}, you can help them or you can say you can't. I don't think they care how long you are left waiting on hold but I would imagine they are watched at how long they stay on the phone. So, pass the call as quick as possible.

Gawd, I am so impressed with you. :snap: :snap:

Holy Sh1t ! :eek:

God Bless American Corporations, huh?

I'll never complain about the 12 minute queues of my service providers again ! :blush:

I wasn't about to wait that long.

I needed you on my side during the great Cingular Debacle of 2002.

Needless to say, I'm not getting a sim card for this trip.

From the Verizon website:

Just don't forget that while waiting on hold for 45 minutes!

Link to Verizon Page "Meeting Customers' Needs"

Let me just take a moment to say that the landline and cellular divisions are completely separate entities. No way in hell anyone would be put through that sort of crap in the cell dept, at least not around here. I've heard some real horror stories about CS down there- is it that there are simply too many customers and not enough staffing?