Courtney's World - the final chapter

I have sad news for you.  Courtney moved out on Saturday.  But in true form, she moved out without telling us.  Diego arrived at the building to work on the apartment next door and there was a big ol' UHaul sitting in the driveway.  Courtney's husband was busy loading the truck and Courtney was just wandering around. 
When asked, she told Diego they'd found another place to live that would take her dogs. 

When I arrived I went to talk to her.  She got really testy with me and said they were moving because I suddenly wouldn't let her have two big dogs and that there was mold in the bathroom that was making her sick.  She then went on a little rant that she had reported the mold and that Jana hadn't done anything about it. 

Let me tell you all right now - mold is a serious accusation, and both Jana and we take it very seriously.  She never reported any mold issues.  Further I checked her apartment that very afternoon.  Two guesses what I found and the first one doesn't count.  Ding.Ding. Ding.  You're right!  No mold. Anywhere. 

I have mixed feelings about Courtney leaving. 
I'm offended that they left with no notice (after she begged stay as long as they only kept one dog).
I'm relieved that she's gone and we won't have to deal with her anymore.
I'm richer now that she won't be plugging the drains every month.
I'm sad that I won't have anymore great Courtney-stories to share.

 

Who are you?

I don't have any good storiest to share this week, so I'm going to borrow one from my wonderful property manager.  She got a call from a tenant who lived in a house with a vacant basement apartment.  The tenant wanted to know who had moved in downstairs.  The answer was "no one.  It's still for rent."  Ha!  That's what she thought.  It turns out that there was someone living in the basement.  Here's my paraphrase of the conversation.

Jana:  Who are you?
Squatter: I'm Lisa 
J: Why are you here?
S:  I needed a place to live.
J:  How did you get in?
S:  The door was open so I moved in.
J:  But you can't live here.
S:  Why?
J:  Because you aren't a tenant.  You haven't paid any rent, you haven't signed a lease, you haven't done anything.
S:  But I am living here.
J:  But you can't  just move in without signing a lease.  I don't even know who you are!
S:  Why, I'm Lisa! 

of course ... It's Lisa!  That makes everything okay.  And the conversation went downhill from there. 

Jana called the police who said they couldn't/wouldn't do anything.  This woman is living in a parallel universe where it's okay to just move into any vacant space.  It wasn't breaking and entering, since she hadn't done any damage.  They suggested that Jana would have to go through the eviction process.  I kid you not!  They have to go through the expensive eviction process to throw out the person who just moved into an apartment because the door was open.

So, Jana posted a 3-day Eviction Notice on her door and, fortunately, Lisa left ... presumably to find another unlocked vacant apartment. 

Dumpster Diving

In this episode of Courtney's World we find her peering out of her kitchen window to find someone pulling up to the apartment dumpster throwning a bunch of trash into our dumpster.  Ever the  good "Do-Bee," she writes down the license plate number and calles the police.  Yea!  Then she digs around in the newly-delivered trash to find the name and address of the offender.  Yea! 

The cops respond and take Courtney's statement and proceed to contact the offender who says she'd gladly retrieve her trash rather than get a "theft of services" ticket.  However, somewhere along the way Courtney told the woman that was okay for her to leave it there.  WHAT?  The cops trot back to Courtney to verify and, sure enough, Courtney gave her permission to leave the trash.  So, the official disposition of the Police case is "unfounded" and we/they won't prosecute because Courtney gave her consent to leave it.

So if you can figure this one out, call me!  Why did she give permission for the woman to leave her trash and yet still call the cops AND give them a statement?  On what planet does she have authority to tell someone that I'll pay to have their trash hauled off?  Why...I could go on, but ...Why? 

We offered one of our tenants who was significantly behind on rent the opportunity to do some painting in exchange for rent credit.  He did a great job!  He was kind of slow but we were "paying" him for the job, not for how long it took. 

Subsequently he split up with his wife and is living with his mom about 15 miles outside of town.  He has now asked if he can live in one of our vacant apartments in exchange for more work.  Without a doubt, there is plenty of work to do.  He's proven that he can do a good job and he's eager to work.

My fear, however, is getting him back out of the apartment.  We have a vacant apartment that is going to require a lot of work and is on the bottom of our list for renovation/repairs and he offered to take that apartment. 

Call us crazy, but we're actually thinking about it - but with parameters.  Written parameters, with a sunset clause.  Hear me out.  The grass will be growing (or is that groaning) again very soon, which means fixing sprinklers, spreading weed and feed, mowing lawns, and trash pick-up.  We also have two other vacant apartments that need lots of attention; painting, carpet shampooing, window blinds, screens, etc., etc., etc.

So we'll see what happens.  I don't know whether we'll do it or not.  And if we do, it might turn and bite us.  Stay tuned.

And now for scenes from our next episode...My favorite tenant, Courtney is in rare form when she calls the cops on someone dumping their trash in our dumpster. 

Spa Day

We've been pretty absent from the 8 plex since October.  It's a case of the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  Our attention has been on getting Mom's house ready for our daughter and working on one of the vacancies in the four-plex.  This combined with relatively few maintenance issues this winter, we just haven't been over there very much. 

Then, last week, Jana tells us that she's rented #8.  It's been vacant since July and we'd already painted, shampooed carpets, replaced window blinds etc.  I thought it was ready to rent - until it was actually rented.  Then we looked again with a critical eye.  Yikes!  Our walk through on Saturday yielded a long to-do list. 

I spent last Saturday afternoon in the tub.  It wasn't a spa-day, however.  I was scraping grout - except it wasn't grout.  It was more of that blasted rock-hard putty* - my Dad's favorite cure-all.  This stuff does not scrape out.  I spent hours and still didn't completely win. I even tried our nifty little multi-tool that has a jiggly little saw-blade kind of thing. 

I was back in the tub on Sunday with caulk.  It doesn't look great, but it's water tight, and that's the biggest thing.  I also replaced the doorbell and the latch on the storm door, installed the smoke detector, measured for window screens. 

Meanwhile Diego was under the sink.  Repairing the air gap, fixing the diverter to the sprayer, replacing the valve stems, replacing cabinet floor, and more.  I love him.  I feel like everything he does at the apartments is a tangible demonstration of his love for me.  He didn't ask for this but what a guy! 

**************

*Durham's Rock Hard Putty.  My Dad's answer any maintenance issue that requires filling a hole.  It is a fine yellow powder that you mix with water in a disposable cup.  Don't use too much water - keep it the consistency of peanut butter or maybe a bit looser, depending on the application.  You can cut it, sand it, and paint it, and if it's thick enough, you can mold it.  But be careful - it really does dry rock hard.

How did Dad do it all those years?

I'm not sure how Dad did it all when he was younger - manage the apartments alone, that is.  Mom helped for a lot of those early years.  Both of them cleaned, painted, collected rents, posted eviction notices.  But in the later years mom couldn't do the physical stuff. 

Clear up until three months before he died he was still responding to calls for plumbing emergencies, no heat, etc.  He poured his heart and soul into those apartments.  I'm not sure if he enjoyed it or just did it because it was his retirement.  He was self employed most of his life and there was no 401k, no defined benefit plans, no PERA.  Just hard work. 

The biggest problem that we face with the apartments now is that Dad didn't really do it for the last 10 or so years. Not for lack of trying, but climbing ladders, painting, and cleaning trashy apartments is really more than should be expected of any 78 year old man.

So the maintenance issues just piled up over the last 10 years and Dad either did things just enough to get by or just ignored problems completely. But it's caught up with us now.  I've thought that I might have grieved more over his death if he hadn't left us such so much work to do.  Sounds kinda heartless, but honest.

So we spent the day getting #8 ready for a new tenant.  We did a walk through first then I scraped tile,  dug the nasty grout out from the bath tub and installed a new smoke detector.  Diego worked on some leaks under the kitchen sink and fixed a leaky bathtub in another unit that we discovered.  We called the glass company to measure windows to replace cracked glass. 

We're hoping to take tomorrow (Sunday) off from the apartments, but stuff just keeps stacking up. While we were working in #8, the gal from #1 said her oven door won't open and the garbage disposal won't work. We found the leak in the bathtub in #4, and Louise in #8 has a broken window.  Yikes!

Who knew? The Pit Bull and the Screen Door - Part II

One of our rock-solid paying tenants moved out last weekend.  He was such a nice guy.  The tattoos and piercings were scary looking, but he was polite and friendly.  His apartment was always spotless when we had to be in it for some reason.  But he refused to get rid of the pit-bull dog.  And since he said it was either the dog or him...we waved goodbye. 

He left the apartment clean and brought the keys back - just like you'd hope a tenant would.  So, what's the catch?  The other tenants in the building are dancing with joy.  It was only when he moved out that they started telling us about the parties, the noise, the tons of people who were always hanging out there and the fact that his friends would take up all the parking places.  I need to vacuum the front yard to get all the cigarette butts! 

Why wouldn't they tell Jana or us?  They didn't want to cause trouble.  Were they afraid of him?  Or are they afraid of us?  Or are they just nice people who don't want to make waves?  Regardless our remaining tenants are happy campers.  Now if they'll just pay their rent ...