Landlord-ing

Are you still there? Still waiting to find out what Jill is doing aside from her much-neglected blog?

Well, mainly I've been tidying and cleaning and straightening and visiting and getting the last hurrah of playing with the kids before summer is over and I have to start convincing principals that they need and English/ Drama / Ethics teacher JUST LIKE ME for that one empty position open at their school (schools open Aug 15, so I only have this next week, really).

Part of the way we've been keeping ourselves afloat this year is by having tenants. Yes, indeed, we are landlords. We have an upper duplex, and a basement suite as well. It just so happens that this month, all our tenants left. Which is okay, because now we can pick tenants that are hopefully more in line with our manner of living (ie - that don't come home at 9pm and listen to music / watch movies in foreign languages until 2am or bring all their buddies home after a rowdy night of clubbing at 4am so they can all swear at each other loudly while I'm trying to sleep). But a lot of work, because none of our tenants left their places very tidy, and they both left stuff, and both places need a fresh coat of paint. Also, the downstairs needs some insulation so that I don't hear our next tenant's music / movies / conversations and MOST IMPORTANTLY, they don't hear my small herd of elephants thumping around the house at 7am.

So, late night painting and cleaning have been in order, thus cutting into my precious and limited blogging time (not to mention the sleeveless tunic that needs one more seam sewn before I can wear it during the heat wave . . . ). And there have also been random people showing up at somewhat random times to look at the suites, often with interesting and slightly improbably stories to tell . . .

But all that is over. We have found two tenants who seem to be good fits (Hooray!). I only have to clean the upstairs kitchen and my list of tasks is done, as the new lady who will be living upstairs wants to do her own painting (double Hooray!). Dave, of course, still has a ceiling / floor to insulate, but he has recruited a friend to do a work exchange, so by the end of the week all the serious and intense landlord-ing should be done for a while. Whew!