Finished Painting!!!

We finished painting! Actually, we finished Friday night! I was SO happy to be done with it and I am pleased with the way things turned out. I think the house looks a lot better with a fresh coat of paint. It will rent easier in the future and hopefully this tenant will stay a bit longer than previous tenants!

THANKS SO MUCH TO ALL THE GOOD FRIENDS AND FAMILY THAT CAME OUT TO HELP! There's no way I would have finished this if I hadn't had so many people willing to spend a few hours painting!!!

The New Tenant!

My new tenant arrived yesterday from NM. He seems pretty nice and really likes his cats. I foresee him spending a lot of time on the big front porch! He was sitting out there when I got home last night.

The house already smells a bit like cats. It's just his stuff that was moved in. I'm a bit nervous the place might smell like cats after he moves out but hopefully a good cleaning and cleaning some carpets will help.

He likes to cook and to garden. I suspect he might stay on top of me to keep the front yard looking a bit nicer. It's probably good though. I'm super lazy about yard work and I hate doing it. I kind of need to be obligated to get it done to keep me motivated.

He's promised to bring me some chocolate from his work. Sounds like a bad plan huh? Guess it's supposed to be healthy chocolate that they sell at whole foods.

We got another room painted and now we have 1 more to go! I added the total for all hours put into painting and getting that house ready. So far we have spent 66 hours, taping, cleaning, patching walls, and painting. That's a lot of time! I've put in 26 of those myself but I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family that have been willing to come help!! Pics to come soon!

21 hours of painting!

I spent 5 hours Wednesday and 16 hours yesterday painting in the rental! My 21 hours combined with the many hours of my friends and family has made it possible to clean and tape and paint 2 bedrooms, the kitchen, and the bathroom! We are over half way done!!

I have some painting pics to post but I haven't had time to upload them to the computer!

This old house has sooo much molding! Big 10 inch molding around the floor and molding around all the doors and the ceiling in some rooms. I'm getting really good at using the paint brush!

My Dad, Brother in law, Sister, and friend Dia came and we taped and cleaned on Tuesday Night. We also finished painting the small bedroom.

Paul came yesterday morning after working all night and helped patch the millions of holes in the walls and then helped me paint the other bedroom. This wonderful man stayed up for like 23 hours straight to help me paint yesterday!

Thanks to my good friend's Andrea and Ross we finished up the kitchen and bath at 1 AM last night. Andrea came early and helped me clean and tape and get started painting! Ross stayed until 1 AM and painted all the hard corners and crap. I have video of him shakin his booty on top of the refrigerator!!

Now we just have the two living rooms. They have tons of molding around the windows and doors and on the walls. I still have paint in my hair and on my skin after my shower to get to work this morning. I didn't sleep well and woke up late!

I'll have my Dad and Paul to help me again tonight and my tenant will be moving into the bedrooms and the kitchen today. We need to hang blinds tonight and clean up the drop cloths and tape from the kitchen and bath so he has space to live the next few days while we finish the rest of the house.

I'm hoping that tomorrow night will be the last night! I am SOOO very tired!! I just want to go back to bed right now!

D&M have been so neglected the last few days. They are lucky to have Paul who is taking them out this morning for me. I just haven't had much time for anything more than food, water, and potty breaks.

Getting Ready!

I'm getting ready for a very busy week! Starting tomorrow I will be working at the Super Pet Adoption all weekend. At least I am working and not volunteering. So I will have a good sized paycheck as a result. Then next week I will be painting starting Monday when my tenant moves out. Painting every night next week with my new tenant moving in on Thursday.

I am starting to get nervous that the place won't be clean enough on move out day. This has happened pretty much every time in the past. I don't mind keeping some deposit money in exchange for doing a bit of cleaning but I just don't have the time next week! I will need to be painting.

I am so lucky to have some wonderful friends and family who are going to help! I have friends and family scheduled to come almost every night next week. I hope they show up because I am going to need all the help I can get!!

Found a tenant!!!

So happy that I found a tenant in about a week! That's the fastest ever and it's a huge relief! I still have a bunch to do with painting and a few minor repairs but I'm lucky to have good family and friends to help! My dad is great about helping me fix stuff when I need it. Saves me a lot of money in hiring stuff out that I can't do myself.

My new tenant is a big time cat lover! He' s had dogs in the past but currently has 3 indoor only cats and no dogs! That means I get the best of both worlds. An animal lover who can handle being around my two rambunctious pups and no concerns about whether or not the dogs are going to get along!! He likes to garden so we will be keeping the veggie garden for next summer. It's so nice to have fresh tomatoes and squash to cook whenever I want it.

He will be here on the 18th. He's moving from out of state. My house will only be vacant for 2 days! That's nice for me financially but it causing some stress since I was planning on repainting the whole house. We just want to do one coat to freshen stuff up in there. He knows it won't likely be done before the 18th but I am going to try to get the bedrooms and kitchen and bathroom done. That means I will be having painting parties and inviting all my local friends to come over on the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. My family is coming to help on the 16th and hopefully maybe some other days as well. I hate to have to ask for so much help but I'm gonna be in a crunch to get the painting job done as quickly as possible. So any of you that feel like doing some artistic painting of plain white or plain light blue just let me know!! I know it's not too creative but it's easiest to stick with the colors that are already in there so I don't have to do multiple quotes.

Busy Busy Rental

My phone keeps ringing and I'm hoping that I will have a finalized new tenant by the end of the holiday weekend. I may have to wait to do some reference checks until Tuesday due to the holiday.

I really think I may have found someone I like. I just hope things work out with his application!!! Keep fingers and paws crossed for us.

What are people thinking?

My rental house is going vacant. I have advertisements up for renters. My phone is ringing off the hook during the day which is great! It's always good to get lots of calls. I often have to show the house to at least 75 people before I find a good renter. Usually, half of people that call or email say they are going to come see it and half of those people actually show up. So it takes a lot of talking on the phone and emailing to actually find someone that I want to live in my rental.

Last night at 4:25 AM my phone rang. Startled out of my sleep, I managed to reach for the phone and answer it. A man asked if it was me and when I confirmed, he stated that he called because he was interested in the rental? Seriously? I asked him if he realized it was 4:30 AM? He said yes but he works graveyards? I responded that just because he is awake it doesn't mean that I am. He offered to call back and I told him after 7 AM would be fine. He never called back this morning and I don't blame him at all. I wouldn't have rented to someone who called me at 4:30 AM anyway!!!

I just don't understand how people really think that it's okay to call someone you don't know in the middle of the night to ask about a rental property? My brain started racing and of course I never really got back to my restful sleep. I got up dragging my feet this morning after hitting the snooze button for an hour.

I wish the guy's number had shown up on the caller ID. I'm inclined to call him this afternoon and ask him about renting. Just to wake him up out of spite. Unfortunately, his number was blocked on the caller ID! If he does call back, he'll likely hear an earful from me!!

Leaky Plumbing!!!

It never fails that as soon as I spend money on myself, something goes wrong to make me feel like I did something I shouldn't have. As I was walking out of the AT&T store the other night with my new phone, I got a call from my tenant. He found a big crack in a pipe in the basement that was leaking. GREAT!

Turns out a big crack was a bit of an understatement. The crack is over 3 feet long and runs through a whole length of drain pipe. It's definitely not a great thing. I duct taped it for now and that seems to be working. I have a home warranty that will luckily cover it. I almost cancelled it a few months back and now I am so glad I didn't. The plumbers will be out today to see what needs to be done to fix it!

Dog's or no dogs?

I have a rental house on my property here. I share a yard with the tenants and their dog. Their dog is the one that attacked my baby girl just two months ago.

My tenants are moving in about a month and it is quickly becoming time for me to start showing the place. I have always allowed dogs in the past but have been picky about the kinds of dog owners that I would rent to. I want someone responsible who keeps their dog inside. I also need someone who is going to be understanding of Dylan and his "issues" and make sure that they don't just let their dog bolt out the door until the dogs are all properly introduced. Dylan takes a bit of time to accept a new dog into the yard so I need someone patient enough to wait a few weeks before the dogs can openly socialize.

I've been contemplating not allowing dogs in the future. Only because of the recent situation with Marley. I would love to be the awesome animal friendly landlord but I just don't know if it's a good idea. Marley's injuries were extensive and the owner of the dog actually has shown little sympathy (let alone offer to help pay the bills). His roommate, however, has been awesome checking up on Marley and how she is doing. I never would have expected this to happen with Marley and I am fearful of allowing other dogs on the property. I know Dylan isn't the nicest boy and I would have expected him to be involved if there was ever an issue.

I'm not sure if I should allow dogs on a case by case basis? I really like dog owners who are responsible and I think they value their rentals a bit more than people without pets. They are more likely to stay long term too since it's difficult to find a rental where pets are allowed?

Since Marley got injured we have been coordinating time in the yard so that the two females don't ever get to be together. It hasn't been too difficult so maybe I will just have to make sure that the tenants I rent to have the same willingness to coordinate?