Wanted: new tenants

Today marked the absolute donenatudeness* of our last vacant apartment.  The flooring guys installed carpet throughout the apartment on Thursday.  Today we did the final vacuum, installed a final few phone jack covers, and put drawer slides in the stove drawer so it opens and closes easily.  All in all, this apartment is sweet.

Now we need a tenant.  Our property manager showed it this week to the perfect tenants.  They liked the apartment and they seemed perfect.  Perfect, that is, until they said they had an 80 pound dog.  Screeeech.  The brakes locked up on that conversation.  No, no, no.  A small dog maybe - 5, 10, 15 pounds, maybe.  But 80?  To quote the Wizard's guard in the Emerald City, "Not no way. Not no how!"

Is there anyone left who doesn't own a big dog????

*Donenatudeness:  From the root word, donenatude.  Meant as a reference to something that is finished, or complete. 

Independence Day - almost

It's almost Independence Day, and I'm not talking about July 4th.   If you've been following this blog at all, you know we've been working on 102 forever.  It is our last vacant unit - and it's been vacant since last June.  Our Independence Day will be the day we take the lock box off 102 and declare that it is done.

The tenants moved out last June (2010) without notice owing us a boatload of money - surprise!  It was a mess.  There was food in the cupboards, trash everywhere, a mattress and other "furniture" left behind, feces on the bathroom floor, and the carpet was Nasty, with a capital "N." 

So, facing this mammoth task, we focused our efforts and money on other vacant units that we could turn around faster.  It sat vacant month after month after month.  Finally, in March we turned out attention to 102.  When Courtney moved out in April we were briefly distracted by refreshing her apartment. 

But, basically we've spent every weekend in 102.  Here's the drill Saturday morning - arrive at 9:00 a.m. and work til 5:00 or 6:00.  Sunday work from 2:00 - 5:00.  That's about 22 total 'man hours' per weekend. 

Here's what we've done:

Downstairs bathroom:

• CLEAN the downstairs BATHROOM.  That was job #1.  Bleeech.
• Replace medicine cabinet
• Replace light bar

Tear out carpets (all of them).
Scrape the popcorn stuff off living room ceiling and refinish and paint
Paint (God bless Tino who painted the apartment in exchange for rent that month)
Replace outlets throughout the apartment.  They were all loose and cords would actually just fall out.
Kitchen:

• Replace back door with new steel door (all the glass panes were broken out and door was falling apart). 
• Replace broken window (we did that last June when they first moved out)
• Replace floor in laundry room (not floor covering..the floor clear down to the joists.  It was rotten, rotten, rotten.)
• Replace hot water heater,
• Lay new kitchen floor.  We're experimenting with self stick floor tiles.  I think I'm gonna like them!  They have a nice weight and we'll be able to replace one at a time when they get gouged.
• Clean cabinets (inside and out) and replace hardware
• Clean nasty refrigerator, find and replace door shelf brackets.
• Replace kitchen blinds.  (Bali makes some very nice vinyl blinds that are super easy to install!)
• Replace dining room light fixture

Upstairs bath: 

• Remove grout from tub tile, and re-grout.  Easy to say, hours and hours to do!
• Replace upstairs bathroom floor.
• Paint vanity.
• Replace wallboard behind toilet. 
• Replace medicine cabinet.
• Replace outlet - yes, honestly, the outlet was fried!

Replace smoke detector and CO2 detector.
Replace light fixtures in almost every room
Remove bi-fold closet doors, scrub down, and re-install. 
Remove sliding patio door in master bedroom and replace with 6' window. 
Fix the rotten floor along the base of the patio door.

Buy new carpet for both bedrooms, hallway, stairs, and living room.  615 square feet. 
The guy is coming to measure on Tuesday.  Hopefully we can get the carpet installed yet this week. 
I'm exhausted!  Going to bed for about a month!

You never know what you're gonna find

Memorial Day.  Harley owners are out riding their noisy Hogs.  Others are in the mountains getting their cabins ready for summer.  Families gather and fire up the barbeque.  Children are playing in the yard and blowing soap bubbles, watching them float with the breezes.

You can guess where we were.  Last weekend Diego put a new subfloor down in the kitchen of #102.  A scant 1/4 inch of plywood to give the new floor a nice level place to live.  Then on Saturday we put leveler on the seams.  Later, while Diego was working in the bathroom upstairs, I sanded the leveler down.  Sunday we got a late start at 3:00 and cleaned and vacuumed the floor and then painted the floor with a primer in prep for tile.

Today, Memorial Day, we started at 9:00 a.m.  We decided to use self stick vinyl tiles, thinking that when the inevitable gouges occur, we can pull and replace individual tiles instead of replacing the whole floor.  The field tiles went down really fast.  The border tiles each had to be cut, and although not difficult, did take quite a bit of time.

Meanwhile upstairs....Diego was fixing the walls in the bathroom.  It became apparent that a part of the drywall was damaged and would actually have to be replaced.  When he had the wall opened up there was something back there.  Diego came downstairs with - no kidding - a pair of dirty mens underwear hanging from a screwdriver. Eeew!  I can only imagine how they got there.

Sold but not over

Monday was a "key" day -  the day we turned over the keys of the 8 plex to the new owner and the day passed without drama.  Frankly I was ready to walk out of the closing if needed.  The buyer(s) are a family; mom, dad, and son.  Son is local but mom and dad are several hours away.  This is a good thing since the dad is a bully and tried to pick at least two fights with me the first day I met him.  Fortunately, the son had a power of attorney which meant he signed everything and mom and dad didn't have to be here. 

When it was all over Diego's question was, "so if I go over there now am I officially trespassing?"  Ha! 

So after closing I went over to the other building to work on that apartment.  Like I've said before, my knowledge of electricity can be summed up pretty fast: white to white; black to black.  So when I decided to replace the back porch light switch this is what I found: black to black to black, but the white and ground wires were just bundled up together.  Yikes.  The amateur in me says don't touch this one.

That didn't stop me completely, however.  There was still the dark bathroom to address.  Sunday I hung the medicine cabinet and Monday I tackled the light bar.  The wire was coming out of the wall in the wrong place.  Diego gave me a few pointers on how to pull the wires and said he was confident I could do it.  What could I do?  I had to prove him right. 

White to white - black to black.  With only one finger bandaged in sacrifice (utility knife cut both the sheathing on the wires and the sheathing on my finger), I finally pronounced "let there be light," and there was!  (and I only had two light bulbs, thank you very much!)

All good things must come to an end

Although we've only been "in" the apartment business for a bit over a year, it has sometimes felt like a prison sentence.  The 8 plex has been full of colorful tenants and fodder for many good stories. 

• Remember Vicky - who kept telling us lie after lie until Jana finally evicted her in November? 
• There was the leaky bathtub in #2 that caused a $13,000 repair bill in the apartment underneath. 
• There was the scary tenant who said if he couldn't keep the pit bull dog he was leaving - he left.
• And on and on.

Well we've had enough, frankly.  About 6 weeks ago we put the apartment on the market thinking that only God could bring a buyer.  Well, He did.  We received an offer yesterday that looks like it's going to work.  We're still negotiating a few details, but it's looking good. 

However, we're not out of the rental woods yet.  We are only selling the 8 plex, and will retain the 4 plex for now.  The 4 plex is newer and I think we can get it stabilized.  And maybe, maybe we can have a little piece of our life back.  Stay tuned!

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.