Cats do it inside!!

I feel the need to rant for a bit. Recently, PH (patient husband) and I have come to the conclusion that we really need a place with a yard. While I rather enjoy family potty time (this consists of PH and I taking the girls outside to do their business before bed time), it's time for open-the-door-and-out-you-go potty time. I'm also ready for a place with a kitchen that's not the exact same size as a postage stamp and the ability to do my laundry without looking like I'm ready to hit up the slots. Most importantly, though, the girls need a yard. Someplace where I can throw the ball, they can run it down and not bring it back to me.

So we began our search. We've tried to be realistic. This is California and people are house poor, so the mortgages they need to pay are really high on houses that aren't so great. As far as the actual house itself goes, we just want something with two bedrooms. We're fine with one bathroom and as long as the kitchen isn't smaller than what we currently have, great. It just has to have a fenced in yard. That's it. Someplace for the motorcycle would be nice but if I have to park it in my living room, so be it. Also, since our current apartment has everything but a yard and indoor laundry, we don't want to pay too much more.

We are going to be stuck here forever. So far the places we've looked at in our price range are in shady neighborhoods and look like meth labs. Although, to be fair, we did decide to go so far as to look at the inside of one place because it was on a dead end street and the houses were very well maintained (come to find out the same guy owns all the houses on that street and the next one over so he can control what goes on. He's an ex-cop and a genius if you ask me). It would have been a winner...except the kitchen was as wide as the oven. I kid you not, if you opened the oven, you had to stand OUTSIDE the kitchen. Actually, you couldn't even open a drawer and be in the kitchen at the same time. Our current galley kitchen (which I have a whole slew of unkind words for) is TWICE as big as that kitchen. With as much time as I spend in the kitchen, I would have been in a throwing things fit of rage within a week.  As much as I loved the yard (did I mention it had a super cute back deck and a place for the motorcycle??), PH appreciates that I still have some sanity left and would like to keep it that way.

So here we sit (well me actually, not sure when PH is getting home), still scouring Craigslist, completely disgusted that landlords would rather rent to people who have cats instead of dogs. If you want to know what kind of damage cats can cause, I will give you the number to my BFF and she will tell you how they had to replace the carpet, not once, but twice in the cat room in the house they bought. My dogs go outside to do their business; cats do it inside!! Then they track litter everywhere and yes, they may be self cleaning, but those tongues aren't exactly anti-bacterial people. Have you ever heard a Siamese "talk"? Way louder than either of my dogs bark. I've worked very hard to train my dogs not to chew, not to bark, not to go in the house, so I'd just love to say a big thank you to all you jack wagons who screwed it up for the rest of us. Here's hoping that all of us who try to rent with dogs find you and inflict some kind of brutal punishment upon you.

UDG