Apartment, Ol' Gal, something is going to change here.

We're definitely moving away from our apartment, one way or another. Whether we wait until September to move or if we get out now - who knows, but one way or another we're leaving. We received a notice in the mail stating that our rent is going up, and there is no way we're going to pay more to live in a place that has caused us so much stress, time, & money. If I had a way of knowing that everything would be fixed for the whole year AND that the new neighbors would be good AND that our safety concerns were fixed - well, then I would stay. But since those things aren't possible to know, we're going to part ways.

If it were just Jared & I living here, maybe we could swing it. We could make do with caving ceilings and all of the other problems. I probably could have lived the few days without drinking water or being able to do the dishes. But with Oliver? It doesn't fly. Any time a repair needs to be done, we worry for Oliver's health because of old lead paint. We can't live without the kitchen sink having water, because if we need to mix a bottle we can't use the bathroom water. Who knows if that is safe to drink? Even if we use bottled water (which is not good for mixing bottles with on a regular basis) we still have the problem of not being able to properly clean them. It is a huge pain.

Besides the inconvenience, these problems cost us money. We had to buy bottled water when the plumbing problems happened. We also had to go out to eat because I couldn't cook without water int he kitchen. We had to buy an air filter to filter out construction dust in the air, lest our 3 day old baby breathe it in. On multiple occasions we've had to leave because conditions were either hazardous or too inconvenient to live here with the baby. Driving to grandma & grandpa's house takes a lot of gas, seeing as they're 40 minutes away, and in case some of you have been living in a bubble.. well, gas is expensive. Only once did we receive a rent abatement, and even the abatement that we got was not sufficient enough to cover our losses. This just isn't working.

And don't get me started on the lead paint. Just don't. I can't get into that without getting really mad. The closer Oliver gets to crawling, the more I worry about it.

SO, dear apartment! Either the lead paint issues need to be fixed so we can live out the rest of our lease in peace, or we're going. Because lead paint is not cool. Not cool for us. Not cool for anyone. Especially not cool for the baby.

I'll spare you the "It's not you, it's me" speech because, well.. Let's face it. It IS you.