sarahpants's Profile

Oh, man, did this post ever make me happy to be a homeowner at last....I rented for about 18 years, moved an average of once a year, so I can identify with just about every ridiculous story here--except the parrot one, that one takes the cake. My "favorite worst landlord" was a slumlord during college who'd lost a forearm/hand and wore a hook--he liked to show up unannounced, especially during times he thought me or one of my 3 roommates might be showering, just to "fix something" like a loose railing outside the bathroom. He scared the crap out of my roomie one night when he entered the basement and was again "fixing" some unidentified thing without saying he would be there--she thought a serial killer was in the house :) Ah, the memories.

Oh, and as far as the management companies being better than individual landlords, I found them no better--in fact, the last one was so bad (lost rent checks, refusal to do ANYTHING) I swore I'd never rent through another.

How cool. Great job!

I swear by my warm mist humidifier--I no longer wake up with a sore throat every morning because of the dry Wisconsin winter air. The warm mist type doesn't build up bacteria like the cold mist varieties because it's boiling the water to make it steam. (and it only costs $20) Also, an electric blanket or my husband to keep the bed warm.

I have to weigh in against the GoToobs--I was mesmerized with them and wanted so badly for them to be awesome but they are NOT. I took them on a couple of trips of varying difficulty--tropical vacation and hardcore wilderness canoe trip--they leak, they're messy to clean up, and I ended up having to quarantine them in a ziploc just so they would ruin anything on the way home. The thing that makes them so appealing--the soft-sided, easy-squeeze factor, is exactly what makes them pretty useless, in my opinion. I am going back to Nalgene mini-bottles--they're super-cheap and you can find them at Gander Mountain or basically any outdoor store. They do not leak.

everything Elaneb said. Loooooove this place. After all the time I've read this blog and looked at house tours, this is the first place I've seen that I would just move in tomorrow. But that's contingent on the cats--they must stay :) Great work!

love it! I grew up near Cashton, so excited to see Wisconsin repreSENT!

I'm with you on this one. What I ended up doing was buying high-quality carpet remnant, then having it custom cut to a shape that's sort of amoeba-ish. It's a neutral greyish/green, but the shape makes it stand out.