After nearly eight months away, we finally got back into our house on Friday night. It couldn't have come a moment too soon as the area has been experiencing horrendous winds and Jamie was sleeping in a caravan and I was sleeping in the back of the Defender, so we weren't sleeping much at all!

Arriving at night, we were chuffed to see the house super tidy. It smelt nice too - they'd sprayed a natural essential oil mix around I had left. I'd left pretty explicit instructions on cleaning, pretty much just vinegar and water and clothes. You shouldn't need more than that. I was so happy to see no damage to the wooden benchtop Jamie had spent two days restoring.

She had also left us a fresh loaf of bread she baked herself and some flowers, and a big welcome home message. What a lovely person!

The two of them were only in their early 20s and it was their first time out of home. We had given them a chance as we really liked her. It was only afterwards we met the boyfriend, who was a little odd but earnest enough. He did say some weird things that had us worried like 'can I paint the house and get ducks?' so we gave him a stern talking to. She was very embarrassed he had said that but I think he was on the spectrum and didn't have a filter.

In the light of day, the house was probably only 80 percent tidy. The windows were a mess, there were a lot of cobwebs, and he had left shit everywhere from his wood chopping and mowing. Worse though was the oven, which made me really disappointed as it wasn't clean. It was brand new and I hadn't even used it at all. I had said to wipe it down after every use but that hadn't been done so there was a lot of baked grease and grime. As I write this, Jamie is scrubbing with vinegar and baking soda. An oven is a big job too.

In the end we decided to tell them we were disappointed, particularly as they should know for next time. It's all clearly laid out on Tenancy Vic website which we had sent them the link to.

She was quite apologetic and offered to pay for a cleaner which was nice of her. I said it was okay, we just spent a lot of the afternoon cleaning, and that she should know for next time as the next landlords might not be as nice. It's no big deal in the scheme of things and I guess that's just what you expect if people are renting your house.

It's also hard to get too annoyed as we are lucky enough to have a house. We have bloody worked hard for it though! I know people can get annoyed at landlords but some are just ordinary people with not a lot but what we have worked hard for.

I have to laugh though - me in my 20s, clean an oven? As if. So this is probably just long overdue karma.