A Renter perhaps or am I staying

It looks like I have a renter for my house. Every day, I waffle on what to do with this place. I don't want to sell it but I don't want to live in it because I could save so much more living with my mom. But what to do with it in the meantime. Well, sadly a buddy from work has just broken up with his partner of 11 years and is looking for a place. The upside is he knows every thing that is wrong because we have already talked about it. Also he knows that I have been working hard on fixing things up since I have owned it. He knows I bought a new hot water tank last year etc. So he knows what he is getting into. He drove by the other day and liked the outside. We just have to coordinate schedules and do the walk-through.

But there is a problem. My mom. I love her to death, don't get me wrong but she was part of the reason why I moved out in the first place. She can't help herself from re-arranging stuff that doesn't belong to her. She can't stop poking her nose in places that it doesn't belong. If I am paying rent then I am paying for the right to put stuff where I want it. Not so. She was a firm believer in that whole my roof-my house argument. I thought that had changed, she has lightened up quite a bit in her old age but today I was made plainly aware that perhaps nothing has changed.

I don't have a vaccuum, just a Roomba. And it is great because I only have carpet upstairs but my mom feels the Roomba doesn't do a good job and comes with her vacuum to clean my carpets every once in a while. Whatever, I don't care. Well my Roomba is dead, so I welcomed her and her vacuum this afternoon. The problem was a couple of times she asked me if I wanted to do A or B. Both times I said no, I don't want that. Both times she completely disregarded what I wanted to do what she wanted. I feel like she either doesn't hear me or she does and she just doesn't care. I actually think it is one or the other depending on the situation.

So we parted and we were both upset. I called her later to make sure she got home ok because she hadn't called me yet and I tried to rationally explain how I felt. I was hoping she would say that she was sorry that she wasn't respecting my wishes in my house and that she would work on that. Instead she got mad and said she was never coming with her vacuum again. Knowing my mom the way I do, I bet right now she is stewing about how ungrateful I am and thinking that she is never coming back to this house period. Her reaction makes me think that if I moved back home, it would only be a short period of time before I was resenting her and was miserable like I was as a child. The only problem would be that I had to wait a year to get back into my house because I had rented it out to someone else.

What to do? And why I am I so bad at making decisions?

Homemade detergent and credit cards

I finally finished using my first ever batch of homemade detergent. It was good but I knew what I wanted to change when I made it again. It came out too thick and was thus very slow to come out of the container. Also I used Fa soap which I love but the smell was not very strong at all. Also, I felt I needed to add something as I had to use more of it per load then I was supposed to based on the advice of other web users. So this time I used two bars of Irish Spring soap. I grated them and put them in a pot with 4 cups of water. When it was liquidy, I turned the temp down to simmer and put in 1 cup of borax and stirred until smooth. Then I added 1 cup of washing soda and stirred until smooth. Just for added oomph, I then added 1 cup of baking soda and stirred until smooth. I then added 1 cup of vinegar slowly, so as not to foam up and cause a problem.

I use a 8.8 L jug, the big ones with the spout. I poured the warm solution into the jug and then add hot water until the jug was full. Then I just let it sit. Every time I walked by it I shook it up a little. By the next day, voila, 9 litres of laundry detergent. I tried it today and I still have a few issues. I don't have a nice Irish Spring scent like I expected. But on the upside it is more powerful even with more water. I used the amount I normally use and had to put the clothes in again to rinse. On the next load, I used half and then decided to use a third or a quarter next time. That is exciting. I am expecting this jug to last me an entire year. All that for about $5. Sweet.

I also had a small victory. I paid off one credit card. Mind you, it was a card with a $500 limit but it is done. I had already cancelled the card and was just paying it off. Now I am going to snowball that payment into my next card. I have two more cards. ONe with $1200 owing and one with $2000 owing. I have been reading lately about how one shouldn't cancel a credit card when it is paid off because that actually lowers your credit rating but I did that before I knew that information. THat and I was extremely unhappy with the company so I wouldn't have kept it anyway. My intention when I applied for it was to have a card with a small limit as my main card and to put away the card with the $2000 limit.

However, I have discovered the pay-as-you go credit cards. I have a Nextwave Titanium. I use it for online purchases. My thought is that if anyone gets the number oh well, I only put enough money on it to pay for things as they come up. I am going to get rid of this card though. The fees are horrendous. $7.50 a month and $0.50 per transaction. It also charges you $2 every time you put money on the card. I have ordered a Bank of Montreal card - it is the same card load idea, except you pay $10 for the card and there are hardly any fees. So I am anxiously awaiting its arrival so I can stop paying exorbitant fees.

My Crazy Old Neighbour

I feel way older than my years.

When I was growing up, the neighbours two doors down were an older couple. The wife was pretty nice but I thought the husband was a total jackass (God rest his soul). He patrolled his lawn like he was a general in the army. Unfortunately for him, there were about 7 of us (children) on the block and we all used to play together after school and all day during the summer. We did regular kid stuff- riding our bikes up and down the sidewalk, street hockey, street football and so on. He really had nothing to worry about. I mean if he was alive today, he would appreciate us as kids like I appreciate him now as the old guy on the street.

He used to yell at us constantly. These are the things that drove him nuts:

- stepping on or near his lawn
- if one of our bikes was laid down on or even near his lawn
- if we stepped on his property at all
- if one of our toys, balls, hockey pucks etc landed on his lawn
- if we were in his eyesight, earshot when he was outside

I wish he was alive so I could talk to him now. I have become him. I would apologize for causing him so much grief. Don't get me wrong, he was a little crazy and could have definitely benefited from lightening up a bit. But sometimes I purposely do something to make him yell, just because I knew it would ruin his day.

I am now him and I think it will only get worse. I have no patience for the 16 year old to say ... 25 year old person. The older I get, the more I seem to be annoyed by people younger than me. I can't stand it when my neighbours kid walk on my lawn or use my yard to cut across to the other street. I guess I am old fashioned. When I was a kid, I was made by my mom to go across the street and ask the neighbour if I could cut through their yard to get to school. And if my memory serves me correctly, I had to ask every year even though they were the same neighbours.

I really don't know how to stop the progression of this and I am not even sure when it started but I should really just stock up on heart and high blood pressure medication now. Sorry Mr. D.