I'm still, STILL painting! I'm on the hallway now and soon a second run on Charlotte's room. Her room has so many angles. It's a drywallers nightmare and it's one of the the rooms we decided to do ourselves with our new drywalling skills,--a little foolish but after a lot of second and third takes we're almost done with it and it's starting to look nice. I would call it my least favorite room in the house though because of all the angles.
We had some shocking news dropped in our laps the other day. Well shocking for us at least. We got a text message from the renter of our house in Th*n*n saying "leaving the house end of august" Splat just like that. He reached the end of his three year bail earlier this month and was supposed to be renewing his lease for one more year. We were preparing the papers for the new lease to drop off and sign in a few weeks and we were supposed to be waiting until next summer vacation to think about doing the work we need to do there. Not any more!
The problem is he hasn't paid rent in over six months so I was kind of dubious about renting to him again but Seb felt it was just easier and gave us less to think about. He's *promised* to pay the rent and catch up on his old rent with work in the house. Our rent is so low I can’t believe he can’t pay it. I think he just doesn’t want to inconvenience himself and I think he’s one of those people who gets a charge out of floating through life rent free because it gives them a sense of power, or maybe not power but, I don’t know really…disconnection with the rest of the chumps who think they have to pay for things. It’s just a type of personality I’ve seen in the past. Usually it’s someone very egotistical and in his case it’s definitely the case. Call it women’s instinct if you like but I have never felt that he was on the up and up with us. His stories never match up.
So we’ll probably be spending our vacation in Th*n*n. The jobs to finish the house are a series of little things (compared to here!)--installing railings, varnishing floors and some drywall work in our bedroom. We have a few windows to install to close up our old work rooms and some painting jobs to do. In order to rent the house in September before we leave we'll have to go cram all this in. I suppose we can do it.
Once he's gone and from here on out we're only renting that house seasonally. In France you can rent to students from September to May and then rent your house seasonally as a vacation home from June to August. This way we can have the house for us a little in the summer maybe and there's no risk of getting a squatter for three years. For the students the parents serve as the backers so the rent usually gets paid on time by the parents in most cases, or so we’ve heard.
I've had this happen a few times over the last months and I'm trying hard to not lose my ability to trust because I know it's not a healthy way to go through life, but really how do you manage when this happens a lot? I just sold my new flat screen tv to a neighbor for a really great price, 300 euros which is less than half of what we paid five months ago and she told me after two months of saying she'd take it, "oh I'll have to find a way to make payments because money's tight is that okay?" I said um okay I'd see. I trusted her to take the tv and told a lot of really eager buyers they couldn't have it so that she could and now she's saying "let me pay you in three installments. Can you give me until December? I'll put the money in your bank account by Christmas" Then I see on face-book she writes "just spent two hundred euros in the sales, whew I'm nuts!" which made me think hm-mm, there's the trust thing again. I'm supposed to take her the tv in a few days but I'm really bugged by this trust issue lately and I think I might just cancel everything and keep the tv or sell it to someone else. It makes me feel miserly though. On one side I really want to believe in people but this sort of thing bugs me and I feel like it keeps backfiring on me and we get burned.
Otherwise, the kids are really enjoying the nice summer weather and I’ll have to sit down and write a post about their little quirks,--especially Charlotte’s refusal to wear clothes and the way she looks parading around our entire yard, big belly sticking out, screaming every time you come near her with underwear. It's really funny.
7 comments:
I know what you mean about the trust thing. My trust circle is pretty small and whatever anybody does outside that circle doesn't surprise me anymore.
I think keeping the th-n-n house as a summer get-away sounds like a great idea. Who knows, maybe well be in that neighborhood...it's happened before :)
Oh my goodness. More work for you before you go!
When we moved, I had a new acquaintance agree to buy our refrigerator and clothes dryer only to have her come back a few days later to say that she wanted to pay it in installments. I have to admit that I was pretty apprehensive about it but, fortunately, it all worked out and they paid everything on time. I hope it all works out for you, too, but I certainly understand the trust issue.
Ugh. I understand you completely. I hate trust issues like that. And now, as time goes on, I trust fewer and fewer people. I am starting to feel like an old lady, but you can only get burned so many times before you start tightening the circle... I have no idea what I would do in your shoes about the TV. I hate situations like that and it just seems like one more thing to deal with before you leave and you already have your plate a little bit full right now.
I am not that far from being a student, and I was really careful to pay rent on time, with parents involved I think it might be a good way to rent your house...
meredith - Yes, it makes a great summer house and then of course a good rental for ski vacations so I hope seasonally will work out. Hopefully you'll come visit someday.
Erica - I know and I really wouldn't mind the payment thing but she wants to do it while were in china starting in october which I find just a bother. She could have started two months ago if she really wanted to do it. I just can't see her going to our bank two towns away making the payment with her three kids in tow either. she still has a few of my dvd's and she can't find them so I'm pretty sure she'll just forget to pay me once we're gone and I'll have to hound her like I have for the dvds. It's just too much too think about!
Ashley - I always paid my rent on time as a student too. I'd hope to get someone like me!
Wow, it is amazing how much is happening just before your move. It's probably so much better that you are able to get that guy out of your house now, before you go. Putting it in the hands of an agency will make things much easier on you. They don't trust anyone! It's so disappointing when a friend lets you down. Maybe she thought she was doing you a favor by taking it off your hands and now she's having second thoughts. If you call her and say that since you're moving you would feel better not having loose ends like that, maybe you can let her off the hook and sell it to someone who's willing to pay for it up front.
Good way of putting it thanks. I actually told her the wrong selling price so she was really getting a bargain. It's Seb's tv (guy thing) so I think I'll just let himn sell it. I should have stayed out of it in the first place, sigh!
Sorry for saying this but you need to stop letting people walk all over you. I'm sure it's better to be trusting and nice but the bad people figure you out and take advantage of you in that way. I hope you sell it with cash up front and not give it to the 3 installment lady. I'd also stand in her doorway and say, "I'm here to help you look for my dvd's", and not leave without them.
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