Last (Minute) Repairs

We have been working every available moment fixing up the rental house before we officially move out...

In addition to cleaning and moving out our stuff there are a few repairs we have been making.  One of the doors had a hole in it.  (One of the kids locked themselves in a room, couldn't get out, and was upset, ...  )  We temporarily had a poster up over the hole but this is our responsibility to fix.  So V bought a new door and I chiseled out spaces to recess the hinges, got that hooked up, then V painted it to match the old door color.

Another door had a crack in it that was smaller.  At first V tried to spackle it but it wouldn't hold.  So she sawed out a square, sprayed foam inside, put epoxy on top of that and spackle on top of the epoxy layer, sanded it down, and now it is ready to paint.

We also went around and patched and painted various small holes from hanging pictures and bolting furniture to the wall. 

Finally, the top was broken on one of the toilets.  (An arm of a shelf support mounted on the wall above the toilet collapsed and the shelf board speared through the top porcelain lid of the tank.)  It was a small kid sized toilet (in the master bathroom...?) and we couldn't find the same size replacement so we just replaced the whole thing with a normal sized toilet.

I have also been cutting the grass around the house whenever I get the chance.  The landlord has been showing up at random times and fussing about the grass (she said we "let it die" and ruined the back yard, but there is more grass there now than when we started--I have pictures and we talked to neighbors who agreed to write letters about the condition of the yard when we moved in, which our landlord commented on at the time).  I am worried about a showdown with her; once we told her we were moving her attitude completely flipped.  She did not show up at our meeting to walk through the house for a final check.  She marked out our names on mail in our mailbox and wrote "VACANT" next to the address (we are still paying rent for the house, still occupying it, and I am pretty sure it is illegal for her to mess with our mail).  And she has been showing up without warning (she is supposed to give 24 hours notice) walking around the house without announcing herself, and doing strange things like peering in the windows and turning the water on and off (which we are paying for) on the outside faucets. 

Another issue is the carpet in the living and dining rooms.  It was old and stained when we moved in and she offered to buy new carpet.  I asked her to wait until we moved out because we have young kids and this way we don't have to worry about them spilling anything or marking on the carpet.  Now she is saying the carpet was perfect when we moved in and that we have ruined it...  Again, I am going through my old pictures to see if I can find ones showing the condition of the carpet.

I could go on about other details with the window blinds, kitchen stove, refrigerator, erosion under the house, the front door, wiring... but I don't want to.  I am glad we are moving out.