is it cursed?...

That house...that lovely, pain in the a$$ house...

So, our renters moved in the last weekend of January, as you know if you've been reading this blog.

Here is a list of the problems that they've had so far:

• sugar/pavement ants in their bread on counter

• washer quit working

• packages delivered to the house were stolen from in front of the door

• dryer quit working

• flying carpenter ants

• female tenant got a job in Lansing and wants to be taken off the lease

• letters lost in the mail (perhaps stolen from mailbox?)

• male tenant asks me if while we were living there, had we ever noticed any strange noises

• male tenant fell through paver patio because of erosion hole underneath - making him think that was the source of the ants

• male tenant upset with neighbor on one side of him for raking all his leaves and debris onto our property ~ "he had better clean that up", male tenant says

• male tenant upset with neighbor on other side of him because she is taking care of some feral cats, and now there are even more and at least two are pregnant

All not fun things.

Here is what we've done about it:

• nothing.  He bought some ant traps and spray - no more sugar/pavement ants

• already addressed in older post, so I will not bore you with the details

• not much we could do about this.  Male tenant has contacted the merchant and is in the process of getting either a refund or another delivery...hope he's home for this one

• just like the washer, handyman Jerome figured out why it wasn't working and fixed it

• called Rose Pest Solutions.  They came out and made the determination that they were in fact flying ants and not termites as the male tenant believed them to be.  They came out a week later and exterminated.

• had them sign an amendment to the lease leaving the male tenant wholly responsible and she is now off the lease and has moved to Lansing

• asked if they felt I should get the USPS involved and was told no.

• yes...I have.  When Justin was around 11 or 12, there was a loud banging on the wall between the bathroom and a bedroom.  Justin happened to be taking a shower at the time.  I scolded him for banging on the wall and he exclaimed that he didn't do it.  When the banging happened again, the next thing I know is that there was a very wet, very naked & very frightened kid running for the living room.  We called my (at the time) boyfriend's father to come by and investigate.  It had recently snowed.  The father walked around the outside of the house and determined that there were no footprints; no signs of anyone near the house.  Still don't know what that was all about.  The tenants hear a woman's high heel shoes walking down the hallway.  yipes.

• bring Rose Pest Solutions back to show them the hole...it is determined that the hole was not created by ants.  Perhaps erosion from the gutter downspout.  We will need to remove all the pavers, fill the hole with dirt and possibly concrete and put the pavers back.  Maybe this weekend.

• male tenant will approach the neighbor if he doesn't clean it up, otherwise we will pay a visit to the neighbor

• taking a 2 hour class about spaying and neutering feral cats at the Humane Society.  We will then speak to the neighbor lady (she's in her 80's) and ask her if she would be fine with us taking care of this situation.  If she's OK with it, we will then capture each cat, bring them in and have them spayed/neutered, chipped and given a rabies shot and then bring them back to their home.  Having a bit of a problem though.  It seems that if you bring in pregnant feral cats to get spayed/neutered, the Humane Society will do the surgery while they are pregnant, but they will euthanize the fetal kittens.  I don't like that.  I will have to figure that part out.  Oh, BTW, the spay/neuter is FREE! As long as they really are feral cats.