The best laid plans

Jeff and I recently agreed to become property managers for a friend who owns a house locally and lives far away. He was unable to sell his home in the current market and we are taking care of trying to find a renter. Turns out I have actually been doing all the work. It has actually been a lot of fun. I get dozens of phone calls a day, I have shown the house a few times, no renters yet.

There have been all kinds of drama. Being involved in other people's lives so intimately. We have the previous renters who got divorced and sold their furniture to a local lady. This lady keeps putting off getting her furniture out of the house. She is a sweet little old lady who gives you a real good sob story and show, but the furniture, she bought it 6 months ago and still hasn't picked it up. Jeff and I flip coins over who has to call her next. While the house was on the market, the real estate agent was unable to get her to pick up the furniture. It seems that she bought this really nice high end furniture for almost nothing from the previous renters. Her home was destroyed in Katrina and being rebuilt. Meanwhile she is living in a tiny apartment and would have to put the furniture in storage. Plus, this house is air conditioned etc. So she is getting free storage. Plus, she is trying to avoid paying to have it all moved twice. I am fixin' to call and tell her that the Good Will truck is coming to get the furniture tomorrow if she wants it she needs to come and get it before Good Will. This furniture is actually nicer than my furniture, I keep thinking how lovely it would look in my house. I worry about Karma though. Better to give it to the needy. A whole lot of needy people in Mississippi. It would totally crack me up to see this top of the line brand spanking new furniture at a Good Will.

I also had to clean the kitchen and bathrooms, not so much had to, as no one asked me. Still, would you rent a house with a dirty bathroom? Would you buy a house with a dirty bathroom? I couldn't believe that the relater would try to sell a house in this condition. It is a really nice house. Worth at least twice as much as my house. One of the more expensive, high end homes being sold in our area, on the market with dirty toilets? For six months. The owner was out of town and did not know. I guess this is why he needed us.

I also noticed that when you walk in the front door, the first thing you see is the living room, with a beautiful fireplace, gorgeous mantle and two floor to ceiling windows on either side of the fireplace. Outside those windows is a beautiful backyard and behind the backyard is a lovely forest. The windows were covered with drapes, the drapes were closed, I thought, what? The above mentioned furniture was placed in front of the windows and the drapes were closed. So I opened them up and moved the furniture, gave the room a good flow, and some light, accented the beautiful view. I spent two whole days at the house, cleaning, replacing light bulbs, rearranging furniture, opening blinds etc. Still no renters.

The funny thing is that no one asked me to do all this stuff. It just needed to be done. Or at least I thought it needed to be done. Jeff was a bit upset that our bathrooms at home are in serious need of a good scrubbing and I was off cleaning someone else's bathrooms. Men.

When we moved here from Japan. I did all the research about the area. I made graphs and charts. I researched every neighborhood within 50 miles of Jeff's work. I found where I wanted to live, based on the schools, crime, home values, Katrina flooding etc. I came out here on my own and bought my house. Jeff tells me everyday what a great job I did and how much he loves our home. At the time I would ask him endless questions about what he wanted, which drove him crazy, but now he is glad. We all love our home and, if I do say so myself I got a great deal.

Sometime during the last week or so Jeff and I both had a thought, we had it independently and when he mentioned it to me I was shocked to see that I was thinking the same thing he was thinking. I have my life all planned out. Jeff and I have plans, my education and future job. How long I will be a stay at home mom. When he will retire from the military. Every detail for the next 50 years is all planned out. But, we both had this weird idea, to throw a wrench into all the carefully laid plans. Can you guess what it is? My mind is just bubbling with ideas and alternatives and plans. I just don't know.