My name is Suzanne. I’m 33 with a good job, but sometimes…life happens….
In October 2021, I moved into my house and finally escaped a financially and emotionally abusive situation.
I had lost most of my emergency fund to make sure we didn’t lose our housing altogether my ex chose to leave their job and not look for a replacement. They felt entitled to my income, despite us breaking up.
This home has been a sanctuary from my ex, but it has also financially cost me.
Since moving in, I have invested roughly 25k+ in emergency repairs: my foundation wall had moved about 3.5″ (13k), I needed emergency plumbing to move the gas line away from the wall (2k), my water line broke in my front yard (3k), my electric box fried some electronics and I was told it was a fire hazard (5k), my sewer line backed up and flooded my basement floors so I had to have it all ripped up and replaced (2k, thanks to insurance)
I’m struggling with this debt. I want to create a room in our basement ao we can generate rental income and start to make headway on this debt and to build our lives.
I’ve been sleeping there myself with my partner, and I’m ok not having a wall or a proper fire exit, but it’s not safe for my health to stay in the basement and rent the upstairs room.
I have severe asthma that has been getting worse. Although my partner sleeps fine, I’m waking up almost nightly and coughing to the point of vomiting. Even with my air purifier, I can’t stay there.
Since my partner is fine, I know it’s just my hypersensitive lungs and it would be otherwise OK to rent out.
But to do that…I legally have to change the window to an egress, and i need to have a wall put up with a door to make it an official.
If we can rent out a room in the basement, we can start to generate some rental income to get our finances turned around. However, I’m still fighting the credit card debt from everything else, and I’m scared to take on more.
https://paypal.me/SuzanneRipley?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US