Memphis your blog has brought up a lot of bad memories when I once had a roomy.

A few years ago I was living with my ex fiance in our own 2 bedroom apartment.  It was alright until he lost his job, and he had to find somewhere else to live temporarily...

That's when he spoke to his friend who offered his "semi finished - but dry and liveable basement" to us for a while.  Rent was $400 a month all inclusive - including digital cable. And that's where the good part ends.

We went over to his house (which he shared with his mother and girlfriend) to take a look at the place.  It was indeed a basement.  It didn't have a door seperating the basement with the main floor, and there was a shared laundry room which you needed to come into the basement to use.  It wasn't finished... it had no flooding at the time.  The ceiling and electrical / plumbing was all exposed.  The walls were simply painted white.  There was a couch and television that we were advised we were allowed to use but was nearly impossible to bring down there - so preferrably they stayed there. We were thankfully allowed to have our 2 cats with us, provided that they stayed downstairs (nearly impossible when there's no door).  We however were not allowed to smoke inside.. which was ok because they had a nice sun porch and a huge backyard with nothing but protected forest behind the property. We shared a bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room.  Of course I wasn't happy with most of this but it was our only option at the time.

We moved in, and that was when the fun stopped.  My ex's buddy thought it was alright to come down and hang out whenever he wanted... which sometimes occured when we were sleeping, or having very quiet sex (making sure not to inform our roomies).  After a couple times of this.. and our landlord not knocking on the wall when she came down to do laundry, we asked them kindly to knock before coming down.  We then invested a little money into buying an outer shower curtain that we hung from one of the water or gas lines exposed on the rather low ceiling.  We used this as a wall in which we stacked our boxes of things that we were unable to unpack due to lack of space.

Every weekend my ex and I would spend a couple nights at the trailer park that where once lived. We did a little drinking, hung out with friends, and made frequent trips back home in order to retrieve my cat from my landlord's bedroom after wandering upstairs regularly.  We spoke about having a door installed, and she agreed... although nothing was ever done... except excessive bitching about my cats stepping foot onto the mainfloor of the house.  We did our best to make a door out of a framed poster and bed sheet... but it didn't work.  One weekend we went out and surprisingly didn't get a call from my landlord bitching about my cat escaping through the make-shift door.  When we came home, I immediately heard crying coming from my basement appartment.  I go downstairs to discover my cat in her carrier cage - sitting loppsided on top of a pile of my boxes - beyond the privacy shower curtain.  I flipped!  After letting her out, I made it very clear to everyone in the house that they were not to touch my property, enter my part of the basement, and were to inform me of any problems with my cat.  Then my landlord had the odasity to blame me for this issue, and instructed me on purchasing my own door for her basement. So purchase I did.

We went garage saleing. We found the ugliest and most miss fitting door we could have for $10 and intentionally installed it crooked on the door frame.  It didn't fit.. looked like shit.. but it served a purpose.  By then we had been there a couple months, and really needed to do something in order to feel more at home. We decided to move some furniture around to make for ample privacy and make the best of what we had.

  Because we were not planning on staying for long, and because we were informed that there was no mold or water in the basement - we had our mattress on the floor while our box spring (that didn't fit down the stairs) and bedframe were in storage in my parents garage.  When we lifted the mattress off the floor we were faced with a very pleasent surprise.  Black mold patches ALLL over the bottom of the mattress.  We didn't have the money to replace it.. and my landlord flat out refused to pay for the damages.. we were faced with buying a single bed frame and mattress, and box spring. We couldn't afford it... but were able to borrow money in order to finance the $500 purchase (more than my rent).  We found the same thing with the couch they left down there... but worse. It was in the cushions - EVERYWHERE ... even along the wall behind the couch.  We had to work hard in order to convince our landlord to throw it out... which we had to do for her... we couldn't fit our nice recliner couch downstairs... not that we wanted to now anyway.. so we went without.  We started moving boxes around only to discover that they too had water damage, and a lot of my clothing and sentimential items from my childhood were ruined past repair.  Of course the landlord was taking no responsibilty for this as she was unaware of the water coming into the basement... which was bullshit... because mold started popping up everywhere, all along the floor and walls, the longer we stayed.. the more mold there was.  I'm allergic to mold.. and symptoms eventually started to catch up with me and I was always sick.

 So because of this, I had a cat that was now terrified of anyone who wasn't me or my ex (is still like that.. and never was before that), no couch, a $500 single bed that we barely fit on, distroyed and irreplaceable property, and a slum lord to top it all off.  And if you think that's bad.. it's not the worse.  Unfortunately since I was the only one who could roll a joint in a house full of pot heads - my landlord would often ask me to roll her weed for her.. that she never bothered to smoke with me.. even though we spent the gas money to go pick it up for her.  But when it came to our weed she made a point to "come out for a ciggarette" whenever she heard the coffee grinder going (sometimes her ciggarette was one she "bummed" off us).  She even went as far as stealing our weed and food from us.  If we made a large dinner we ALWAYS offered everyone in the house some... in fact during the first couple months I cooked for them every time I made something - just being generious.  Not once were we ever offered any food - no matter how much extra they had.  Sometimes when we heard they were getting take out - we would chip in but that was it.

 Then there was my ex's friends, his gf, and their friends.  Usually I would keep my ciggarettes outside in the porch for when we went out to have one... that all came to an end when I caught someone stealing my ciggarettes only to find out that my ex's friend offered them some.  His girlfriend was the scum of the earth.  She was a WOW nerd to the extreme.  She collected welfare (in which she lied to, to get more money) so she could literally lay her fat ass on the floor in front of her computer only getting up for food and to take a shit.  I was nice to her at first, but she was always nasty to me so I decided not to put the effort in.   She also had 2 cats.. that often wandered downstairs away from their stuffy bedroom in which they spent their sorry little lives.  Landlord didn't have a problem with that though... she was obviously picking favourites.   One time I came home and there was a bunch of people sitting in my apartment playing my Nintendo Wii system... but aparently that was our fault because we said that my ex's friend (and only him) could come and play if we weren't home. 

Eventually I became very depressed.  My ex wasn't working at the time, and he didn't intend on looking any time before a day before his EI ran out.  I was working.. and it didn't look like we were gaining any ground as in getting out of there any time soon.  I told my ex that we needed to do something and move out... and he didn't have a problem with staying LONGER!!!!!  "It's ok for right now" as he'd usually say.  Eventually because I was being a cunt to everyone in the house we were evicted without any real notice or any given reason besides "personal reasons".  She wanted us to take our ugly door with us... but we told her that she could keep it in payment to all the mold that was obviously our fault.  Before we managed to move out - I broke it off with my ex.  He was planning on lining up yet another basement apartment where the landlord lived on the property.  I was having none of that.  That landlord ended up ripping my ex off, and he then had to move back in with his parents.  I'm extremely glad I got out when I did... and I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THAT SHIT EVER AGAIN!

So yeah.. that's my blog in response to Memphis' blog about bad roomies - you think that's bad.. try what I did.