DIVA TAUNIA'S BACKSTAGE PASS

Monday, March 05, 2007

THE BIG DILEMMA

My parents have an inlaw apartment attached to their house. My dad built it about 20 years ago for my Aunt Evie (bird and tire sale), and she has since moved into an assisted living community. We all took some turns living there, and I finally talked my parents into getting a tenant. They finally got a girl, A, who moved in last October.

She clearly didn't have a lot of money, so my dad worked out a situation for her because he thought she seemed nice enough. He dropped the original rent down from $1000 to $800 a month - and that includes ALL utilities, including cable and internet. THEN, he told her she could pay him twice a month on the second and last week of each month. THEN he told her that she didn't have to pay first, last, and security - she could just move in. This girl also has a very large rottweiler (of course, a selling point for my dog-loving father), and she NEVER could have found a situation like this anywhere else.

Of course, she turned out to be an awful tenant. She has never paid my father on time, owes him $1100+ right now, and my father FINALLY gave her an eviction notice. He and my mom said the "feel bad for her" and I actually had to lecture them on what poor business decisions that they're making. My dad is OUT OF WORK. This girl knows the situation and continues to screw my parents over. I told my dad that if he didn't evict her, I was going over there personally to throw her ass out. I'm pretty sure she's a drug-addict, and at the very least, she spends all her money on booze - which was evident by the piles and piles of beer cans that MY DAD cleaned off of her porch. She's just bad news.

So here comes the dilemma: my parents asked me to move back in to the apartment. I'm pretty certain they need help paying the mortgage, and they know I'm in a position to do that now. My dad re-did the whole apartment before his accident, so it's pretty nice now, albeit much smaller than my current loft. I just don't know what to do here. I know they just don't feel comfortable or trust having a stranger in there, and I know that they need the help financially.

I get along really well with my parents, and I don't mind living next door to them - regardless of the "you're living with your PARENTS?!?!" stigma that'll come along with this. I just feel like I'll be cutting myself off even more from society. Right now, I work all day from home, but I go out four times a day with Julip walking and I ALWAYS meet people. I won't have that opportunity in a small suburb backroad. There's other things to, but I decided to do a pro and con list:

PROS:

-I'll be able to pay my parents mortgage for them, and also pay save $600 a month LESS in rent and bills.
-I'll be able to start sacking away some serious cash for a house.
-There will be a big back yard and another dog for Julip to run around and play with.
-I won't need to pay for parking anymore and will have a nice big driveway again.
-I won't need to deal with screaming children on both sides of my walls like I do right now.
-I'll actually have separate rooms again - which will be kind of nice.
-I'll live closer to the friends I hang out with most often with.
-I'll be around to help with physical things that my dad can't do anymore, like shoveling snow, etc.
-I'll be able to help my parents out.

CONS:

-I may need to get out of my lease early, which could potentially suck.
-I'll have to move - AGAIN (don't worry friends, I'll hire a moving company).
-The place will be smaller.
-There's NO single people in the area.
-My parents live next door = not so much privacy about my life.
-No cool places to hang out in the area like there are now.
-Moving out at any time may be difficult as I'm sure my parents will start to become dependent on me being there.

The thing is, my parents have ALWAYS helped me out when I needed it. Now I'm in a financial and physical position where I can help them, and I feel like I need to do something selfless and helpful. It's not like I have a family or anything that would make this a difficult move. I just hesitate because I feel like it's saying goodbye to meeting anyone new - friends or otherwise.

In any case, getting out of my current lease would be tough. I think I'd have to try and pay both my rent and their mortgage for at least a few months. I could probably swing that, but it would be tight.

I'm open to hearing anyone's opinions or thoughts on this. There may be things I'm not considering too, so I welcome feedback - especially from folks who know both me and my parents - to help make this decision.

Posted by Taunia @ 5:08 AM