This is part II of "Why Terry Stevens has moved so doggone much in the past 9 years."  For part I, scroll down a bit or click here.

Third Rental:  The School

Wow, this really screams "Home Sweet Home," no?

As a kid, I was not a big fan of high school.  I excelled in class.  My attendance was where things fell apart.  I couldn't wait to be done with it.

The irony of renting an apartment in a renovated high school wasn't lost on me in the least.

It was a really nice apartment.  Nice amenities.  Because the developer took some sort of government funding to build the place, they had to adjust rent to a tenant's income.  We were a family of four that didn't make diddly, so we caught a nice break.

Then I started making diddly.  Full price rent at that place equaled a doggone nice house payment.  If I wanted to pay that sort of money, I would have just went hinder over teakettle in debt with a subprime loan instead of renting.

Anyhow, we got a whopping 30 days notice that our rent was going to skyrocket.  Once again, the Stevens family was on the move.  We didn't have much time to orchestrate this, which is probably why in our rush to find affordable digs, we ended up at...

Fourth Rental:  The Lead House

Paint, it's what's for dinner

My wife and I aren't going to be hosting our own home renovation show any time soon.  You can fill volumes with what we don't know about home improvement.  That's why I always run a cash register when I work at Home Depot.  Money counting, I know.  Hardware not so much.  Identifying lead paint on sight?

Well, I know how to do that now.

A friend of ours brought her son over for a playdate one day.  A couple days later he went in for a rountine checkup with bloodwork.  The bloodtest showed elevated lead levels.  The only other places that her son had been in prior to the appointment were two homes built within the last 5 years and our place.

We were terrified.  One call and inspection from the Health Department later and it was confirmed.  Our apartment was lousy with lead paint.

The Stevens family dodged a bullet in this joint.  Rosemary and Ragnar have always been really good about not putting stuff in their mouths.  Their blood tests turned up nothing in the way of lead.

The landlords let us out of our lease early with no penalties and we moved our merry band along once again...

You know, if Star Wars proved one thing, it's that trilogies are the way to go when it comes to sequels.

It's when you get into prequels that the story goes to pot.

The Stevens Family Gypsy Caravan Journey concludes tomorrow.

Your TTPK Hint for yesterday is:  "Mosinee _________ (for now)".

Your Blog Keyword for today is "3parts".  It's good for 250 WDEZ Club Points until 1700 on 2/24/10.

Be Cool,

TS