One room left.

At this point, we are all but full... the only room left is the smallest. It is known as the orange room - even though it is no longer orange.

Ross & I have moved back up to the attic; even though we're only there a couple of days a week, it works better to have our own space. Should be interesting with 2 wee puppies - will be doing a LOT of running down the stairs to get them outside... but we'll cope.

One of our current tenants has a vehicle, so parking is at a premium again - we CAN, if need be, make room for one more, but it does tend to be a pain for the 2 days a week that we are there.

And So we start again

Another school year, another room to rent.

Only one available right now - a large room at the front of the house, with a good size closet and a beautiful stained glass window.

No pets any more - but everything included - dishwasher, laundry, Satellite TV, utilities, telephone, etc.

Attic apartment that might well become as well - that is $650 all inclusive and can be partially furnished or not, as needed.

If you are interested, email me at flitting.org at gmail.com

Almost a year later....

Well, adventures in housing continue.

It makes me rather sad, but have learned the hard way why so many landlords are so very unreasonable.

They have to be!

Otherwise, you get burned. Repeatedly.

Eventually you learn, I guess.

We tried allowing pets. That SO didn't work.

Everyone SWEARS that their animals are fixed and fully trained, and that they will be responsible for them and clean up after them and....and....and....

We've had 2 tenants with cats. First one wasn't too bad, although after he left we discovered bags and bags of dirty kitty litter stored in the room. And, of course, cat wasn't fixed.

Tried again with another seemingly sweet young lady who turned into a tenant from hell. Unfixed, of course - and female; constantly in heat and attracting many, many strays, who sprayed everywhere. Not okay. When I insisted she get it fixed or get it out, she shorted the rent "so that she could afford to fix it" ....and STILL didn't do it. Not only that, once I wasn't there as often, she decided she didn't like the dirty kitty litter in her room so moved it to the empty room and apparently never changed it again. JUST the sort of thing one wants when showing a room to a potential tenant. NOT!

Once she decided to move out, too, she gave up cleaning up after it - cat puke left to dry for days in my office; nice welcome home present.

We didn't fare much better with dogs: again, one was more or less okay. The second was a horrible experience; owner turned out to be total jerk, and the dog showed it. Part of the problem was that Scrooge is only there part time ... which was confusing for the poor dumb mutt. He got to be dominant most of the time, but then when we would show up with Scrooge he had to back down.

And of course, unfixed Rottie - backing down was not his favourite thing. Made one heck of a mess of our bed showing his displeasure. Every time he was able to get in there, he left a pile - right on the bed!!! And his owner thought it EXTREMELY unreasonable of us to expect that he clean it up.

Anyway ... we can be taught and unfortunately, that means that we can no longer accomodate pets. Which makes me sad, but what can you do?

Fortunately, most tenants are not as obnoxious as those 2 were.... but they have changed our approach to landlording (is that a word? LOL) Am being a lot more careful about checking references, requiring first & last up front, and going with my gut.

Open House

Well - things are not ~quite~ to where we want them yet - but they're getting there.

A few more days should do it.... most of the remaining work to be done is up in the attic now; Ross is working on the flooring, I'm painting the stairs (fun job with the dog there! Peacock blue is NOT his best colour) and doing other assorted ~stuff~ and between the two of us, we're getting it done.

And it's a good thing, since we've got people coming to visit.

On September 6 from about 2 - 6 p.m. we're having an open house to show off our new house.

Hope to see you there.

Oh - and there are still rooms available, too, if you're looking for a relaxed all-inclusive place to live. No more hideous orange bedroom though - it is now freshly painted in cottage white. It looks MUCH better!

Save Money

One of the big differences between us and many other student rental situations is that - at this point, anyway - we are not requiring a one year lease.

Which means that you will pay only for those months that you need your room.

If you find a room for $400/month that requires a one year committment, your total cost is $4800 for the year.

If, however, you only need housing for 8 months, at $460/month (which covers all utitilities, phone, TV, laundry, etc.) your total cost is $3680.

You save $1120/year.

The house is coming along great - everything has been cleaned, and most of the main floor has been painted. We are working on the attic now - and then we will see about painting bedrooms - well, the orange one, at least!

SO much work!!!

Cleaning, painting and furnishing is SO much fun....NOT!

But we're getting it done. The phone is in - 741-6245 ...I went with a long distance plan that covers all phone calls (24/7) within Ontario. As long as people don't abuse that by calling outside of Ontario without using a phone card, will be available for everyone to use.

The dishwasher came today - we've got the kitchen cupboards all scrubbed down, so now just running all the dishes through before we stock them up. Meant to go down and make sure the washer and dryer work but didn't quite get there today; will do that tomorrow.

I wrote up a tenancy application/agreement today - if you're interested in having a look at it, let me know and I will send it to you. Or I suppose I could see if I can attach it here somehow. Actually, I know how to do that now that I think about it ...but am too tired to actually do it right now; will try to get to that sometime this week. In the meantime, though, do email me and I will happily send it to you.

The house is ours

Everything went well, and we got the keys to 218 Rubidge St. today at about 5 p.m.

We've spent most of the evening cleaning the kitchen - well, Ross did - me, I cleaned out one fridge but then pretty much ran out of steam. It is just too darned hot for non-stop work after an already long day!

Started annoying the pigeons already - Ross has been spraying a product that they are supposed to hate the smell of out of all the windows and from the fire escape. We can, if need be, pull out the heavy artillary - but even though he's licensed to use poisons, he always opts for the least lethal - and environmentally damaging option.

Tomorrow - and for the rest of the week - our goal is to get everything cleaned and disinfected inside and outside. And then we can start laying tiles in the attic, and painting everywhere. Would be nice if it cooled down some!

Anyway, if you're interested in a room, send me an email ..... will also post the phone number, tomorrow after the phone guy gets here.