If you would’ve asked me 3 years ago how much time it typically takes Mr. and I to re-rent a rental unit, I’d say, “It depends upon how much work has to be done to clean it up for the next renter – so, 6 months tops.” If you’d ask me that today, I’d say, “It depends if there’s a pandemic that includes. . . blah, blah, blah, you all know the things. . . so, if there was a pandemic, it takes 1156 days.”
The rental unit was cleaned right after the renters moved out at the end of May 2020. We had a cleaning service clean the kitchen stove (I HATE THAT JOB), bathroom, and main dining area floors. $100 well spent. We replaced the refrigerator so that was all sparkly clean. All we needed was a renter.
Then the lockdown craziness hit. And we opted for temporary renters, aka, spiders who moved in and got all comfy.
We did have some major plumbing issues in between. I told you about that and the mess in the bathroom which also added to the delay legitimate excuses for being unable to rent the place in the normal 6-month period.
When we received a referral for a renter at the end of June 2023 we were simply thrilled with the idea of someone willing to move in and rent the place. Last weekend I helped Mr. do the final cleaning. I only needed a few tools as the quick cleaning involves, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, and clearing of spider webs.
After I dusted the blinds, being ambitious enough to wash the windows, I pulled up this blind and saw something I didn’t expect.
I yelled for Mr. to come and see what I found and of course, took a few photos for you to see. His mind went racing into, “Dang, now I have to buy something to treat the molds.” And my mind raced thinking, “I don’t know how long it takes for moss to grow on the North side of a house. Possibly 3 years?”
And how long it takes for a spider to build a bridge over said moss?
Charlotte would’ve been impressed with this spider’s efforts. As I zoomed in closer, I thought to myself, “Should I just pretend I didn’t see it and leave it there for the new renter to find?” No…GRR…I said to the spider through the glass pane, “I’m sorry, but, you and your handiwork are in the way of me cleaning out the moss, so you’re going to have to leave now.” I opened the window and the spider took off down a crawl space in the side of the window.
Thank goodness all of the years we’ve been landlords have taught me that rubber gloves and sheer determination get things clean and ready for the next renter. The moss came off easily and the spider web disappeared with the motion of the window opening. I’m happy to report, I have no idea where the spider went. Plus, the new renter has a Maine Coon cat that may find chasing spiders a joy to do. 🤷🏻♀️
As I loaded up my bucket of tools, I let out a sigh. This old place is so cute, I hope she likes it here too. And I hope the next apartment that is opening up end of August isn’t a 3-year empty deal.
For the lazy, hazy days of summer and the month of August, it means for us, aka., the mighty tired of rentals landlords, we have one whole month in 2023 where we’ll have EVERY rental unit rented. I can’t even count the number of days since that has been the case! We’ll take the small wins when we get them as we know summer is a common time for people to move in and out of places.
While the next renter is getting ready to move out, I’ll enjoy the fact that many flowers have bloomed in my garden. I inspect the garden beds daily.
My morning glories aren’t stellar, but they’re growing up the lattice now which makes me happy.
On the last day of July, I saw the second Black Eyed Susan bud opening up and captured this tiny bee in the progress of coming in for a landing.
The small, yet fascinating, moments remind me how much I love the lazy, hazy, days of summer when projects happen to get completed (mostly). . .between the hot humid days and the AQI issues from the fires in Canada progress on our retaining wall slowed a bit, but it’ll be done before the snow flies!
I remind myself every year that nothing is permanent when it comes to renters – they come and go and we’re thankful when they find new landing spots with us to hang out for a while. Being landlords is always a work in progress.
On another complete side note, my brother and I took a road trip yesterday to visit our Dad and Stepmother at their home up north of us. I hadn’t been there for 1277 days. It’s nice to see and hug them in person. My brother and I posed for a photo with Dad for memory’s sake. When my nephew and our kids were young, this was the spot we all stood for photos. The kids adored hanging out there during the summer. The trees and plants have grown exponentially and we’ve all aged GRACEFULLY 😂
Post Inspiration: Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “pick a number.” Choose a number—any number—and write about it any way you’d like. Have fun! Terri Webster Schrandt’s Sunday Stills: Aug 6 Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer; Brian at Bushboys World Last on the Card July 2023 and Ann-Christine Lens-Artists #261 Work in Progress.
PS – What has been the longest time you’ve waited for something to happen? Do you enjoy watching the stages of flowers bloom – what is your favorite summer flower? What’s the yuckiest thing you’ve had to clean up after? Did it freak you out the first time you visited a place post-pandemic? If so, where was it and how did you make peace with it?
I didn’t realize you had rental units, Shelley! We toyed with the idea at one point, but we kept hearing horror stories of renters who wouldn’t leave after being evicted (esp during the pandemic). Plus all that cleaning–yuck–you were smart to hire a cleaning service! That’s one way to spend a not-so-lazy summer! (Not sure why your links don’t pingback to my WP telling me you linked but I see you didn’t this time). I’m happy to read you spent some time with your family. Glad to see your post and good luck getting those rentals sorted!
Hi Terri – welcome back! I enjoyed reading your post – so full of fun thoughts and photos of summer.
Ah, yes, we have had rentals since 2001. We’ve been through a lot and have learned a lot and we even have some of those horror stories. The things we’ve cleaned could provide a sizeable horror storybook.
Dang…oops, yep, my pingback didn’t work because I had to post before your post was live. Now that I look closer, you changed the layout on your blog so it wasn’t the first post on your main page, so I’m linking this comment to it now. I’ll pay attention better next week. https://secondwindleisure.com/2023/08/06/sunday-stills-lazy-hazy-daze-of-summer/
It was great to see family. I’m glad to read you had a nice time with your family and friends too. Your deck looks like the perfect spot to entertain and to relax!!
Thank you for your well wishes! I look forward to reading about your trip to Canada. 🥰
Thank you, Shelley! I changed my WP theme and noticed that too, LOL. Wow, rental income is great for so many people, I’m glad it works for you even with the downside. It was a two week whirlwind with 2 men and their two little dogs (they are easy guests!), then add 6 more family that included a toddler! I love them all!
You’re welcome! I’m thankful I wasn’t the only one who noticed the theme change. 😉
Yes, rental properties when all is well are a nice way to make passive income. When they’re not going so well or have been trashed and need remodeling then it’s not so fun to be a landlord.
Aw, that sounds like a wonderful time indeed!! 🥰😍🤗
The Morning Glory looks lovely, Shelley, and the Black Eyed Susan buds will be gorgeous when they open. Good luck with the rental.
Thank you, Cathy – I wanted to make sure to provide some photos that weren’t yucky spiders! The Black Eyed Susan will likely find their way to the Yellow Prompt for next week. 😉 I enjoyed your post too – your scenery photos are so lovely.
Thank you 🙂 We’re having a bit of an influx of spiders too. I’m quite happy to leave them alone outside but I really don’t want them in the house.
You’re welcome! I’m right there with you – they can stick around outside and leave me alone in the house! 😂
🕷️*shudders*
🥰
Lovely plant photos, Shelley! Spiders creep me out, my instinct is to stomp them out. I hope your renters don’t stink your properties up with stinky cigarette smoke, yuck!
Thanks, John! Yeah, I normally go for the squishing technique too – this one got away before I could do that.
We only rent to people who understand no smoke or don’t smoke inside of the properties. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this gal won’t. So far she seems like a conscientious renter!
That’s good. Smoking ruins a car too it really devalues it!
I agree!!
Congrats on finally getting that place rented and I love your floral images.
Thank you, Ingrid! It’s nice to meet you here in the blogosphere. I LOVED your Wisconsin photos you shared on your post. I’m glad they brought you some cool memories as you endure the HOT summer in Arizona.
I love the morning glory pictures! They are exquisite!
Thank you, Carol, I’m tickled purple that they survived this year. 💜 I check every morning to see if their vivid purple colors are smiling at the sun’s arrival. Thanks for stopping by – it’s great to hear from you.
Your photos are delightful, Shelley. I like the morning glories and the black eyed Susans with the bee – those are great. I hope your new tenants are good ones, worthy of all the work you guys did.
Thank you, Dan! I’ve been saving some interesting bunny photos to compete with the ones you’ve been sharing.
I’m sure the flowers in my yard will make another debut or two in the rest of the summer posts.
I hope your wishes about our new tenant come true too! I’m sure I’ll have more rental stories to share…we’re not so sure how the one that is opening up will look. He’s been there for 4 or 5 years. We’ve lost track!
I hope you have a great week!!
Your flower shots are superb Shelley! It must be a great feeling having the unit rented again and to visit your father after so long. #Sundaystills
Hi Debbie – thank you! Yes, it feels great to have it rented again. My heart is so happy to have seen my dad in person again. The phone calls just don’t fill that heart space as well.
I enjoyed your post about Tumbarumba – so many fascinating things to see there!! Your yard is beautiful 🥰
I would have waited a while then posted it took 100 million million seconds to get a renter in 😂 Thanks for saving the spider. That’s a great Last Photo Shelley. Thanks for joining in 🙂
LOL – I was too impatient to wait that long!! 🤣 You’re welcome for saving the spider – as he dashed away I did think of you knowing you like to save them!
I was happy when I saw that was the last photo on my card 🥰 Thanks for the warm welcome to join in!
Its wonderful you still have family to connect with that is somewhat close. Mine is 1K away in the south.
Hi Anita – yes, it’s nice to have family so close. I should take advantage of that more often. I hope you get to see your family soon. 🤗
I think you can say definitively that: “WHEN there is a pandemic, it takes 1156 days.” Facts are on your side! Still, sorry you’ve gone through this odd rental time in history. Your photos of flowers are lovely and cheerful as usual.
LOL – you’ve got an excellent point there Ally! It has been a weird and challenging time when it comes to rentals.
Thank you – I’m so happy that some of my flowers survived so I could take photos of them. I have some more for next week’s post – I hope you stop by again to check them out! Thank you for your visit – I hope all is well with you 🥰😍🤗
Enjoyed your post. We’ve also toyed with rentals, but just not sure. we’ve also toyed with doing a tiny house on our property as an airbnb.
Thank you, Kirstin – I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Rentals are a commitment that’s for sure. If we knew what we know now after all these years it would’ve been easier and less stressful. We had to learn a lot about DIY too. Good luck if you decide to jump into the venture!! Airbnbs seem to be a fun thing to do.
Well Shelley, I hope when the next renter leaves that your rental doesn’t languish and accumulate moss and spider webs … perhaps someone will be looking to settle in before the holidays approach. That was a doozy of a spider that you showed us … made me shudder just looking at it. Your web with dew is spectacular and made that big spider’s handiwork all the more impressive! I’m sure you’re happy some flowers escaped the ravages of the scoundrels especially that gorgeous Morning Glory. My favorite Summer flower would be roses, but it took me a while to get in the groove with growing them. I first planted tea roses, beautiful to look at for sure, but they don’t produce many blooms and there is one nice bloom and wind or rain destroys it. So I ripped out all the bushes and went to more hardy shrub roses which thrive in the sun and bloom all Summer. I was sorry I tried climbing roses because I bought three with an umbrella trellis to create a memorial garden, but they were fragile and hopelessly riddled with black spot and refused to climb, so I ripped all three out and threw the trellis and the roses out in the trash after spending a lot of money to treat them. My $1.00 coral-colored “Dream Cloud” shrub rose I bought at the end of the Summer has never failed me.
Thank you, Linda – I hope your wishes about the rental unit come true!
I’m happy with the flowers that have survived. The scoundrels still bug them, but not as much when they found some green grass to enjoy.
I planted roses initially when we first started a garden in front of the house. The first winter the rabbits ate them (not sure how they survived with the thorns!). Then the next summer the dang Asian Beetles ate every bud/flower. So they didn’t survive and I never tried again. I’m impressed you stuck with the desire to find a rose that survives, nicely done!
Well if you ever go the roses route again, try shrub roses Shelley – they are easy to take care of. When we had the first Polar Vortex event (2013-2014), all my “Home Run Shrub Roses” were brown in the Spring. I was upset as they had been hardy. So the roots were big as they were planted awhile ago, so I decided that I’d have the handyman pull them out when he did his Spring chores (gutter, tuckpointing, etc.). In the meantime, I cut them to one foot from the ground to make it easier for him. Before Jim got there, they began to get green so I used alot of rose food on them and they returned. They had been brown, seemingly dead. Granted, they don’t look as nice as before, but they rallied back, as did my Holly bush which I thought had also died. The tea roses were not worth the effort and I was told later that the “Stairway to Heaven” climbing rose I chose was not a hardy rose and I should have picked a hardier variety. How in the world did the scoundrels feast on roses? I saw two bunnies at the Park this morning – haven’t seen many this year and worried it was due to hawks.
Thank you for the tips on roses. I’ve taken notes to remember! I have no idea how the rabbits ate the roses, but they did. When the pickings for green grassy food is slim I guess trees and bushes are the next best thing. The thorns must’ve hurt!?
The hawks have been flying around here too… 🤔
Talk about a scratchy throat afterward though! 🙂
Indeed!!!
I would love renting from you. lol. You would be a fun landlord, Shelley. Anyway fantastic interpretation on the prompt: work in Progress. Alleluia that the spider went off on its own. No doubt that Maine Coon will take care of it in time. Those are the coolest cats. Your flowers are lovely and I loved the photo of you, your dad and brother. Time sure passes by, doesn’t it? I enjoyed the read.
Aw, thanks, Donna – I’d enjoy renting to you, I’m positive you’d take great care of the place and probably improve it too!
I so enjoyed your take on the prompt too – I’m impressed that you’re able to put together a post while traveling. I enjoyed reading it and seeing glimpses of your travels so far!! Happy trails to you as you carry on!! 🥰
Thanks Shelley. Wish I had time for more, but I have enjoyed our time together.
😍🥰
My brother just rented one of his 4 units this week. I do the online posting about it, my sister helps him clean it. He’s in Alabama, I’m in Michigan. That’s my excuse for not helping clean and I’m sticking to it. We try to get them turned around in a month, sometimes it takes two. 3 years seems like a really long time to not have rental income from it, but if you ended up with the perfect renter, then it’s worth it. LOVE the morning glories!
Wow…that’s teamwork…we should hire your team to keep our places rented 🤔😉 A month turnaround would be a dream. 3 years was a really long time, hopefully that won’t happen again. So far the renter has been a nice addition. The renter in the upstairs apartment is hoping that she is too as he has enjoyed not having anyone there to make noises or mess up his routines. 😊
I’m glad you enjoyed the morning glories – I’ve been very tickled to see them and the zinnias this year.
PS – I love your randomness post for Saturday – that picture of Penny is SO adorable!
Well chosen projects in progress, Shelley! You write very entertainingly too! I am glad the spider got away – don’t like them but would never hurt one. Our summerhouse has been rented several times (and spiders and mice not counted in), but smokers are forbidden to smoke in the house. Hope your rentals will be nice – they have a cat, so they should be!
Thank you, Ann-Christine, I’m glad to read you enjoyed the post.
That’s so nice that you have a place to welcome renters for the summer. I’m with you on the no smoking for sure.
We typically have a no pet rule (LOTS of horror stories as to why), but this renter does seem very nice and she was looking for a place that would take both her and her cat. We love cats ourselves so we rented to her! 🤗😉🤞🏻
Thanks again for hosting the fun challenge this week!! 🥰
Loved the way you shared your experience.
Fab clicks for ‘work in progress’ theme.
Flowers my fav.
Thank you, Shelley.
Thank you so much, I appreciate your feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the summer flowers – they’re a favorite of mine too!
GREAT photos. You don’t want to rush these things!
Thank you, John! Yes, some things we just can’t rush – it’s definitely important to remember things too, like you shared in your post!
Hi Shelly, Lovely photographs. I liked the one of the bee and Blackeyed Susan the best. Congratulations on the rentals. It seems like a lot of work managing the property. It’s easier in India as we hand it over to a property manager who handles the deep cleaning once the tenants leave. We had an issue too with two of our properties during covid. One remained empty and the other, the tenant absconded, leaving his things behind and did not pay rent. Thankfully, it’s sorted out now.
P.S. I forgot your blog name and had to go back to Dan’s post to find you. 🙂
Hi Smitha!! Thanks for finding your way back here. I’m glad you enjoyed the photos too.
Thanks for the congrats on the rentals. We often think it would be nice to have a property management company to handle our rentals and just reap the benefits of when things are going well. I’m glad things got sorted out for your rentals too. It’s sad when renters aren’t stellar and cause issues.
I hope this year goes well for you!