On 3/2/2011 7:06 AM, Smitty Two wrote:
In ,
Jeff wrote:

You built a very nice deck at a house you are
renting?

Well, renting is one of those ambiguous words, my fellow insomniac,
since it could be said of the landlord or the tenant. In this case, I'm
the tenant, and yes, I built a nice large redwood deck. Also a very nice
shed, with windows, drywall, track lighting, phone, internet, and cable
TV.


How do I get you as a tenant?

My kid lived in it for a while, in between using it as a shed. And
put in expensive landscaping, and did quite a bit of remodeling to tear
out a wall, remove a closet, build a closet, and install windows in
order to make the bedroom larger. And converted an old tack room into a
laundry room, by bringing in water and gas, running new electric lines,
and drywalling it. Years ago I put in a jacuzzi, but that just got
carted off to the dump last week. I had to put in a new breaker box for
that and run 240 out to it.

Sounds like you have a very good relationship with the landlord and
have been and will be there for a while.

What makes you different is that you also own, and taking care of
property is really only something you learn as an owner, not a renter.
The divide can be quite stark!

Myself, I want to make the rental comfortable and easy to live in. I've
found that you can get a lot of "aesthetics" for not a lot of money.
That is the fun part for me, doing cool things on the cheap. Never
having had much money, I like it when it looks and feels like money,
when it is not.

Jeff