Our Rental

After selling our home, we scrambled to find a place to rent while our new home is built. We were very blessed and grateful to find a place that fit our budget and time frame.

The person who previously owned the home did many of her own remodeling projects and some of them have left us speechless. Many of you will not be able to enjoy the nuances of our rental in person so we thought we would try to share them here--although the pictures will not do it justice.

Bear with us, there are many pictures.


There is a big cement rock wall surrounding the front and side of the property. As you enter to drive down the lane, there are cameras mounted on the corners of the walls that have signs saying "no trespassing." As you drive down, there is an opening in the fence where our house is tucked. We like to say we are living in a compound. It is very peaceful back here.







The house looks decent from the outside. You may be thinking, "Wow, a 4-car garage!" Initially, so did we. However, only 2 of them are functional. She built extra house space into the garage causing the other 2 to be unusable. 



2 of the garage bays with the "house" built into it.

However, she built the walls around the garage door opener so you could still open and shut the garage--not sure why. The picture below is the inside of the house where she added space. the tiny corner on the left side is what Zack likes to call the Time Out corner. It is a tiny little space of no real use which is the area built around the garage door opener.



The picture on the right is the hallway into the house. There is no insulation, only plywood, wallboard, and paneling. The brick is paneling. The hall leads to a laundry area on the right and straight through the door is the kitchen. On the left is a small office area with glass french doors leading to....

a closet. What? Not quite sure why you need a closet with french doors. Again, this area is part of the garage with no insulation. The brick you see is purely fake paneling wall.

Then, you walk into the house through a sliding glass door. The kitchen is on the right and the family room is on the left. 



At the end of the family room is the fireplace that was a lifesaver keeping us warm when the furnace went out for over a week in January.



 Next is the kitchen. Not bad at first glance. It has nice double ovens, decent counter tops, and a nice gas stove top.

The bottom of the hood comes to my mouth making it difficult to cook and watch things on the back burners without ducking. The counters are lower than your average counter tops. We wonder if there were dwarfs living here. ;) 

The 2 pictures above show another interesting cut out and tiled nook next to the sink. The interesting part is when you go around to the other side and ope the cabinet, that little nook is blocked off in the cabinet. Not the most ideal use of space and a bit confusing. (and I didn't even mention the sink is in the wrong place, the elevated dishwasher, the hole in the cabinet with a mysterious random plug, or the sinks that don't drain :))

From the sink end of the kitchen, we have a dining area with a bathroom at the end because everyone needs a bathroom in their kitchen. It is officially the cat 's bathroom. Off the kitchen by the table is another set of french doors that lead to a walled in porch area with more french doors. The dryer vent exits onto the porch so we are able to have a foggy porch every time we do laundry.

Next to the kitchen bathroom is the door to my favorite part of the house. This is another porch. When you go onto the porch, you see a bricked in porch with a fancy tin ceiling. 

Not only can you sit on a bricked in porch, but you can lock yourself on the porch. the lock is on the outside of the door. 



When you enter the front of the house, there is a room on the right with 2 sliding pocket doors. This lady loved her glass window doors.

 
 We are using the room as storage/computer room. We haven't unpacked a lot because we don't see the point if we are moving again hopefully in about 4 months (fingers crossed).

The master bedroom is a large size with some of its own quirks. There is a hole cut into the wall by the bed we think for where a TV may have been mounted at one point. The crown molding ends in a random spot on the ceiling. There is a nice walk closet in the picture below. Apparently, the previous owner had her bed in there and slept in the closet. 

 Our bathroom is large with a small sink and toilet area. Naturally, the door to the toilet room has windows. Not the best door for privacy, but it doesn't shut all the way. In the picture below, it is closed as far as it will go. So, what is the point of the door??

 Next, we come to Nicole's closet. It is huge with nice organizer shelves and plenty of room. She really likes her closet.This is good because she has a very small room.

Nicole's closet

Nicole's bedroom

Zack's bedroom

Zack got a very large sized room with a normal sized closet.

 One more thing to note about this fun house is the wiring. The above picture with the 4 light switches is from our family/TV room area. Two of the light switches work and we know which lights they turn on. However, the other 2 are a mystery. This is a common occurrence throughout the house. There are some switches that are a mystery. We also have light switches in strange places. For example, usually, you enter a room and turn on a switch by the inside of the door. In this house, many of the light switches are outside of the room entirely. Then, the switches are at different heights throughout the house. You can see in the bottom picture, there is a light switch above the chair rail by the door. Then, inside the room, the light switch is below the chair rail on the wainscoting. The switches are at random assorted heights throughout the house. Additionally, many of the bottom outlets do not work. There is something to be said for doing it yourself, but sometimes it is better to have it done right.

 

We really are grateful to have a house, quirks and all,  to rent while our new house is being built. This experience makes us even more excited to be in our own home again.