Have House. Need tenant.

The third Star Wars is on. I've never been able to follow it completely since I've never seen the 2nd one plus Lucas' films truly suffer from being broadcast on cable TV in regular analog. C'est la vie.

We could be pawning our wee color tube unless we line up a tenant for our house on the Hill. Its been one thing after another with that place. Today I had to come up with 4500 bucks to replace the roof on the house and porch. Next week I'll have the floors taken care of... Another 2500 dollars. While I do this I wonder... where is our tenant?

One thing I've learned over the past year or so is that renting a place furnished makes a huge difference in how the property is treated by the resident. For one, getting all their stuff in and out of the space always results in some kind of damage. Then, since they are surrounded by all their STUFF they relax and treat it as if it is their own. In the olden days - like when I was in college - this meant that the place was usually improved upon just because it could be...
this is not the case today. Between the pets they bring in illegally, the nail holes and overall negligence being a landlord is pretty discouraging. I wish I could afford to use the house as my studio. Its a sweet 1910 cottage on a huge lot.

I spent most of the afternoon taming the lawn there and am now nursing blisters. I should have worn gloves. Next time. Tomorrow the step brother of a friend is supposed to mow the lawn. We'll see. He hasn't returned my call so I am not anticipating he'll be there. Should I sell this place? Maybe. Just maybe. We'll see what happens this month. June seems to be the hardest time to list a rental property. Last night Mr. DD and I were foraging through our garage which is now a storage space and came across a mysterious plastic bag full of coat hangers. I realized it was something we probably pulled from our trash when one of our tenants moved out. They'll throw away ANYTHING: alarm clocks, lamps, clothing, books, stationary, telephones, etc, etc, etc. I was organizing the coat hangers and remembering the tenant - she was an MBA. Blonde, discreet. Preppie. Her boyfriend was studying medicine and lived a few blocks away. My picture of her was altered slightly when at the bottom of the bag I discovered two very odd p0rn zines (with photos from the 70's - very retro) and a purple diId0! Mr. DD thought it was hilarious and would make a great cat toy for our kitten. Yes, yes, I have my very own prevert...

The difference between where I rent property and where I WISH I could rent property is illustrated above. I discovered this sweet little square this past spring. I had walked past it many times before I realized it was a public square surrounded by apartment buildings, condos, ateliers, etc. Both public and private, the French seem more comfortable with the duality and differences between their inner and outer worlds.