I have been going through a trying time lately. My husband and I have been stuck in a substandard living situation with a landlord who is elderly and doesn’t think she needs to maintain the property. Our city has a housing shortage and rents have shot up while landlords are making increasing demands on anyone applying to rent, so moving wasn’t really an option.

Then, the worst neighbors moved in next door 6 months ago. It’s a duplex, so we share a wall. They are rude and look to cause conflict. They have seven cats that fight constantly, start fights with neighbors over parking spots (we now park several blocks away to avoid problems) and the husband is running an illegal furniture workshop, using power tools all day. Some issues could be brought up with municipal authorities, but these people are seriously scary and the rest of us on the street fear retaliation.

I work from home, so the noise from the sawing and catfights is bothers me all day. I am the type of person who hates loud noise, so it has me on edge constantly. Now they started tearing up the street one block from me with heavy equipment, so the noise is even worse.

All of that is in addition to the issues with my mom and work that I have posted about, which have been very stressful. I feel like I am at my breaking point a lot of the time.

On a positive note, we finally were able to buy a house. However, we will not likely be moved in for over a month.

I am trying to focus on the positive part, but it is hard when every day is a struggle. While the end result of moving will be positive, moving is going to be a lot of work and stress too. We need to have work done on the place before we can move, and we don’t get the keys until February 5th. So, I am looking at a month and a half or so of this noise, chaos, etc. until I can hopefully be settled in and get a break.

I seem to have run out of coping skills with all this. Emotionally, I am running on fumes, I’d say. The next month and a half seems like an eternity. What do others do when you feel stretched to your limit of coping with stress and chaos? Therapy isn’t really an option for me right now.