Landlady? Me? Huh?

[primsong]

I'm still trying to get used to the idea of being the one on the other end of the rental pipe. Thank the Lord that it looks like we'll have some good renters lined up, and I've found a fellow in our church who can do the paint and repairs that still need tending to. I've been slowly wiping down cupboards and walls and patching to get it ready to paint, but I admit I'm grateful to have someone else just do the real painting so I don't have to. I've arranged for the repair of a bathroom, ordered some replacement blinds and found a possible property manager - too many little details still to do, but what a relief it will be to have it underway and to not be trying to tend TWO yards as spring comes on.

The really humbling thing about cleaning up a house that's been moved out of is realizing what a pig I am - the crud clinging to walls where furniture was, the grime on all those little nooks and crannies that just didn't get reached so often, the gunk that had to be chipped out of the cracks on the stove. Bleah! Yick! The nice thing is seeing it gradually become nice and clean again, ready for a new person to appreciate it.

And you know, when I was the renter instead of the rentee, I had no idea what a huge chunk of the rent goes to so many other expenses - it sure dwindles down quick when you're looking to it to help pay the mortgage on a new place. :-P Still, no complaints - I know we're blessed to have it at all, I just can't see myself as the landlady yet - too many stereotypes from old tv programs still haunt me.

Ooh - and we got a couch! I found one at a consignment place - a real couch! Like people can sit on! I haven't had a couch for years...we only had beanbags on the floor and the kitchen chairs... A couch! :-D

Comments

[lin4gondor.livejournal.com]

I know of what you speak. We are doing renavations here, and one of the few comforts in all the hassle is the fact that I am not going to have to look at the grime of the years much longer. Most of it isn't my grime, either, though I know I have contributed.

But I have to fess up to the gunk in my stove. :-/ That is actually on my list of things to do this week.

I hadn't realized you were keeping the old place to rent it out, no wonder we haven't seen you! I can imagine that will make a difference in how stretched you are feeling when you can get yourself down to one house full-time -- though being a landlady will have some continuing duties. I'm praying those tenants are wonderful!

And speaking of prayer, just so you know, I intercede for you on a regular basis for those things that trouble you in these days.

((((Prim))))

[primsong.livejournal.com]

((((Lin))) - you are a treasure, or perhaps a treasurer. Both...

[the-tinidril.livejournal.com]

Not only a couch, but an actual place big enough to accomodate it! My couch fills up the front room creating an obsticle course... but it is better now that I rearranged things (see latest post in my journal).

Take pictures!

[primsong.livejournal.com]

You said it - that's why we didn't have one before. If we had, it would have made getting through the room too difficult! We did have a futon for a short time, when we had a friend living with us and she obviously needed a place to sleep at night, but once she had her own place we gave it to the church to get it out of the way. It's in the pastor's office now doing duty to many more folks than would have ever sat on it at our place.

My kids find it quite the novelty - they're young enough they don't really remember way back to the futon, much less the last couch which was when the eldest was a baby.

[maidoforange.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the couch, (((Prim))). I know what you mean about grime revealed in moving and my mom could tell you about the difficulty of being a landlady.

congratulations on getting everything organized!

[lyria-theringer.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you will make an excellent landlady, since you are so organized. No horror stories for your tenants to share. I truly hope you do get respectful tenants (oh and clean ones too) so that they will care for your place.

As long as you show that you still care about the old house, your tenants should care about it too. With my last apartment, the landlord would not help us with anything at all, and I went from caring and maintaining the place to not caring at all what happened to it. I feel ashamed thinking back on that, but it is true. My previous apartment was always spotless, except when the spots scampered around and turned out to be cockroaches Yuck! :)

Oh,no you left your dust bunnies,,abandoned????

[syrcleoftrees.livejournal.com]

Yes,there should be a society,I think it is Oreck,they will collect all those unwanted dust bunnies,and soon you will have more.Was'n that a Star-trek episode???

OH,a couch and a place to put it?Wonderful!!!
(whisper the dust bunnies,just wonderful.)

[rosienicarus.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! A couch! :-D I know how it is to go without things like that. We ate dinner on the kitchen counter (or kids on the floor) for almost a year, before we got a dining room table. Glad to hear you have a comfy place to sit! Before long, you'll be falling asleep in front of the tv. :-D
I think the key to having renters is having a 1-2 year lease... so you only have to do deep cleaning and repairs only so often. I heard somewhere that a person has to make at least $500 above the mortgage amount on rent in order to break even. You'll have to let us know if that statistic is true.

[primsong.livejournal.com]

That's where we're headed - a lease, and thank goodness we have some renters just waiting for the paperwork. I have a guy in there replacing the bathroom floor today, so some progress is being made. One thing at a time... I spend a lot of time saying that, "just let me finish (x) and THEN I can think about (y)."