Visited the Rental

I finally convinced a friend to do the road trip with me. Well, she called me and told me she had an errand to do and would I like to go with her, if we swung by my old house and picked up that lawn mower I had been wanting and check out the new tenants.





I met the woman. I saw the new paint in the rooms they had done. Only two rooms had been painted, which was disappointing. She had also painted R's old room that was so nice already. She had gone pink. She has girls, two little girls not in preschool yet. Pink is in, blue is out. The yellow is very bright in the newly painted bonus room. The Master bedroom looks stunning. I loved that room totally.





My girlfriend noted that overall the house looks better than when we lived in it. Okay, that works for me. My girlfriend got good vibes off the whole situation, which made me feel better as I am all a twitter from our last experience. It might be possible that she liked the family because they have an 11 year old chihuahua, which my friend tends to melt over. But she was right, the house was clean, the children happy and friendly. They seem to be loving the house, so all is good.My concerns may be nothing.





I left letting her know that if they are going to buy the house they needed to buy it by 2016 as I will be putting it on the market again if they don't buy it. I told her we have five years to sell and avoid capital gains tax or IRS issues and treat the house as a primary residence. I have four years left in which to sell the house. From previous conversations with the other new tenant and then with her, I got the feeling he was not very good at passing on important information. Information I would want to know if I was in her shoes. I want them planning and motivating. I do not want to carry on being a land lord for ever. This house cost too much money to be a rental. Even with the new mortgage we are still in the hole, just not as deeply. There is no room for repairs. The insurance is out of our own pockets. I want the house sold.





It was nice to see the house being cared for. As long as the rent is on time, I will try not to dwell. Meanwhile Tom laughed at me and asked what I planned to mow with my lawn mower back in my garage. There is a little swath of overgrown grass I can mow in the back. Once the blackberries are cleared from below I could grass down there. It will be a pill. My girlfriend said she wouldn't want to be dragging that lawn mower up and down the hill. I said maybe I would get a cover for it and just keep it down below as needed. Maybe get a little shed for tools for down below. I wish it was a self propelling mower now. I didn't need one at our old house, but I could sure use one here.





I am beginning to see plans though. I am pinning down the plants I will want to put in. Everything from a Camilla or two to a couple of Arborvitae and a Laural to fence off the neighbor's house visually. A few fruit trees are needed. The snow has delayed any yard work at the moment. But it is almost April and spring break and my boys owe me some serious yard work for summer expenses.





There is even a merit badge involved for Trevor to earn his summer camps legitimately from the sweat of his own labors. I look forward to the help in the yard. I will even let him feed the blackberries into the fire. I can only burn until June so if he doesn't want to have to drag the debris up the hill to the driveway, he'll need to motivate and start burns now.





Meanwhile Trevor has been home sick this week. I got a call from the school nurse, Trevor was in her office with a head ache and nausea. When I asked how bad she said there is a vomiting flu bug going around and she would prefer he not throw up at school. I said I would be down in ten minutes. She said he would be outside waiting. I arrived at the school in time to see Trevor heaving into a garbage can by the pick up area. The school nurse knew what was coming.

Trevor has a gross bug and has been home for three days now coughing and heaving and feeling miserable. I have been pushing chicken noodle soup and water and juice, easy foods on the stomach. I dread the make up work time when he gets back to school.





This morning there was snow again on the ground. Riley thought there might be two hour late start. I tell him to check the e mail for an alert. He calls out to me "late start". Minutes later my phone rings and one of my girl friends calls to tell me she is surprised there is no late start. I tell her Riley said there was. I go and check the e mails myself. Riley was reading an announcement from his old school in Oregon. They have also had snow and are on late start. Our school is on regular schedule, thank you very much. Hate to disappoint Riley but he had better run to catch his bus. I tell him he needs to be careful to check which school bulletin he is reading in the future.





Trevor lies miserably in his room coughing and just feeling overall miserable. I look out the window at the late March snow on the ground wishing I could go out and garden. I am going to check Craig's list for plants. This weekend is a gardening show I am going to attend. Despite the weather I am going to think positively green.