Dishwasher in Unit

For those of you looking for knitting content, or not wanting to hear some choice ranting, I suggest you wait for my next post. As this post will contain no knitting content and a lot of ranting.

Grant and I have decided it is time to move. Not far mind you, we just want some extra space and are dying to get away from our neighbors. The current downstairs neighbors smoke like chimneys and thanks to the lack of insulation or windows that actually seal we smell it upstairs. Not only that, but right now they have taken to some very raucous nightly fights involving yelling and door slamming. I keep thinking one day the cops will knock at my door and ask what we heard like something out of Law and Order they are getting so bad.

So we have been looking for a new place. Since January or so. It's now August, and we still haven't found anything. What we want is relatively straightforward, I would think. A 3 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms. One off the master with at least a shower and the main one off the hall. It needs to have either a washer and dryer or hookups. We'd like it to not be on a major street and be somewhere between Southern San Mateo and Northern Redwood City west of El Camino. This is a pretty big area and I feel the layout we are looking for is pretty reasonable.

However, in the rental world we suffer from one very fatal flaw. Oh no, not our credit, that is absolutely picture perfect. Not our previous rental history, that too is perfect. No, we are wicked and evil cat owners. This makes us unworthy renters in the eyes of the landlords of San Mateo county. Never mind the fact that my cats are well behaved and come with great references. Never mind the fact that I have gotten back in full every security deposit I've ever given with them. Never mind the fact that they have Soft Paws claw covers and can't hurt a damn thing anyway. No one wants to hear it.

So we are relegated to rental hell. Let me tell you that we have seen some spectacular pieces of crap out there to rent (and I'm not talking about cheap rents either). There was one place that had mold growing in the closets and we were told it would be painted over and could we please just leave the closet doors open for ventilation so that the mold didn't grow back. Another that put a 'bathroom' in a former closet, but in order to brush your teeth at the sink you had to leave the door open and stand in the bedroom. One place had a master bedroom so small the owner's son snickered when he said it was the master bedroom. There was one with carpet that stunk in the family room. The most recent one had carpet that stunk all over the house and when asked, the realtor explained that the owners would not change the carpet, never mind the hum of the freeway on the back porch.

The one and only nice place we have seen decided they didn't want to accept our application because of the cats. Never mind that it's been on the rental market for over a month. Never mind that we offered not only a pet deposit but $100 more per month in 'pet rent'. Oh no, they have no interest. They would rather let it sit empty, losing revenue, than rent to evil cat lovers.

So we continue to pour over Craigslist in hopes of finding a new place. All the other rental type sites I've seen cater to big apartment complexes and the newspapers are a bust. If anyone knows of a better place to search let me know.

We've also noticed a very odd correlation. It seems that most places that take pets are 3 bedroom 1 bathroom houses and most that won't are 3 bedroom 2 bathroom houses. Is there some reason I cannot have both 2 bathrooms and a cat? Perhaps it's because a 3/2 is more desirable, and therefore they can be pickier. I don't know. I just wish they didn't all hate my poor cats.

On a humorous note, one of the condo postings I saw today included the feature of 'dishwasher in unit'. Now, I understand 'laundry in unit', as many buildings have shared laundry facilities. But I've never heard of buildings with a shared dishwashing facility. I mean, the very fact that there is a dishwasher implies it is in your unit, or at least I would think so. Could you imagine going down the hall with your dinner dishes and dropping them off at the communal dishwasher? I don't know, it made me chuckle anyway.