I’m out of the landlord business and I’m happy to have the cottage back. I’ve made four trips back and forth since Sean turned over the keys…well, all but the garage entry door key. Has anyone seen it? Now it’s a matter of taking things back that we moved to the condo in town. Slight problem! About the time we rented out the cottage, Jean rented out the Green Street house, so she moved things here as well. Most of the things at the cottage were nearly new since I had bought them when I got the cottage in the first place and we sorted out things from both places we wanted to keep and things we wanted to give to Goodwill.

Now I see that some of those things have worked their way in everyday use, so I think it will be hard to pry them away from Jean. I told her I was taking the portable CD player out to the lake because that’s why I got it in the first place. She had adopted it as her own, and carried it everywhere from next to her bike trainer playing the oldies to the kitchen playing Christmas music ever since Halloween. I waited until she was at work on Friday and spirited it away. She didn’t say anything but has been walking around with a black armband.

Back in September, I told Sean and Alana (the renters) that I wanted the cottage back by March 20th. That would give them plenty of time to find a place, but they would be welcome to stay all winter. Sean called me about three weeks ago and told me they had found a place and would be moving around Christmas. They had given me a $500.00 deposit back in September 2007 and had always paid their rent. The rent went from the 21st of one month to the 20th of the next. He thought they would be completely out by the 26th or 27th so what should they do about the December to January rent? I told him to just not pay it and we would prorate whatever time they were in there past December 20th and deduct it from the deposit.

They were supposed to close on the Kalamazoo house on the 19th, get possession that same day and be out within a day or so. As it turned out, they didn’t close until the 23rd, the weather turned bad and they weren’t completely out until the evening of the 30th. We met on the 1st of January for the official “turning over the keys” and to settle up the deposit/rent situation. In the meantime, I had gotten a billing for the 4th quarter sewer of $103.50, and they always paid for that in addition to the rent. So 10 days divided by 31 days in a month times $975.00 equals their allocation of rent of $314.51. And 91 days (from October 1 through December 30) divided by 92 days in the quarter times $103.50 equals their allocation of sewer of $102.37. That brings their share to $416.88 which, subtracted from $500.00, is $83.12 and that is the amount of their refund.

So I gave them an accounting on a sheet of paper and wrote them a check for $500.00. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Sean stood there in disbelief and couldn’t think of a thing to say. I said, “Before you pass out, here’s the thing…I could have rented the place to someone who didn’t pay their rent, sat there and trashed the place, and they didn’t. Next, he and Alana were all packed and set to move out before the next month’s rent started and, through no fault of their own, they couldn’t. They fixed all the minor things that went wrong with their own money, and only contacted me when something major happened…like when the siding blew off the house.” As to their share of the sewer, I didn’t tell them the bill was coming, and I knew they probably had spent most all of their savings just to get the new house and move in. I didn’t have the heart to spring that on them.

Without admitting any past transgressions, let’s just say I have a few minuses that still need to be offset by some pluses.

I’ll have plenty to do this winter painting, wallpapering and generally getting the cottage to be mine again. Matt is here for a few days, so I’ll prey on him to help carry out the TV and TV stand and the microwave. I may take out one of the basement chairs to sit in and probably won’t take much else until renovations are made. The renters left it surprisingly in good shape. Not as clean as I would have left it, but I may be a little on the picky side. I have since mopped the living room/dining area twice to get the tracked in salt to not streak the floor. Where is Judy when you need her to take pictures proving that men actually do know how to mop? Sorry guys. I gave away one of the “man-secrets”.

For those of you who don’t live in Michigan, we had a minor ice storm here this morning. The streets and sidewalks were ice-covered and very slippery. There were several reports of cars sliding into ditches. In eastern Barry County, near where Brian and Brenda Green live, there were reports of three mental patients running down the road, wearing stolen Trilander jackets, trying to escape. No one knew which hospital they had escaped from, but law enforcement issued a statement saying, “They must be crazy…no one in their right mind would go out running on a day like this”. Hopefully they have been taken back and are receiving the mental health treatment they deserve.

Just (Didn’t Run Today, Maybe Tomorrow) Jack