Took time on Sunday to figure out what needed to be done on the Cottage before the new tenant moves in.

With most of the current tenants massive amount of “stuff” moved out, the cottage look very spacious. But could see it needed some thing attended to before the next tenant moved in. Two tenants ago, when the 5+ year couple moved out, I had to do lots and lots of work. Thank goodness I had help from a friend and got it back into shape with many cracks in the walls and windows repaired. So it was in much better shape than it was 3 years ago.

Sunday morning I started print and gather the items I needed to take to my Tax Accountant. I decided to put the Excel spreadsheets on a Thumb drive as I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t need to makes some changes. I hand not perfectly handled my LLC funds relating to where they were deposited, but labeled them as Income properly. I wrote up a series of questions for her so I could be sure I handled the funds for that business better this year.

My new Tenant and his Mom came to check out the cottage. They liked it even more seeing how much space there was and how light it was with the curtains off the big windows. I had gathered some cans of beige paint from the basement to offer to cover the deep, dark purple that was on many of the walls. They had a different idea. They have a formula for a white that they really like. They just want to get that paint and paint the whole space in white. I won’t argue with that! I have offered to take off $100 of the first month’s rent for him, so am going to see if they ask for me to pay for the paint or not. Either way, I am happy with them doing the painting.

They measured everything. Looking at getting curtains for the windows and where his furniture would fit, where the bedroom would work for him, etc.

I need to get two sets of locks as one of the doors deadbolt is falling out and not sure if all the locks have keys that go to them. A comparatively easy thing to fix. The told me that his Dad could help me haul some junky cabinets left by past tenants in the yard to the dump. He has a big truck. And last year things just got away from me with the flooding and other challenges and there is some junk in my yards that should be removed.

I told him that the gas and charcoal grills and the picnic tables could be used by him and moved into his yard if he had a party or friends over. He especially liked the idea of having a picnic table in his yard.

They mentioned that his Spring Break was the last week of March, and that would be a time he could easily work on the cottage at that time. I said I would text the present tenant and see if I gave her back $100 in rent, if she could finish moving out this coming week. She was almost out, just has carpets and some other cleaning to do, but hadn’t given me a time she could be finished with the move out process.

And they both reminded me that his Dad was very handy and would make some other improvements that would make it a more comfortable place for this young man to live there. What a joy to meet people that were so pleased with this little cottage and looking forward to visiting and living there.

Then my plumber friend came over and we discussed the solution for keeping the cold water line from freezing in the future. It won’t be cheap, but it will mean that the back of the kitchen cabinet can be closed off and won’t need a heater in there in the winter. So probably will save money in the future, and definitely be easier to handle when deep freezes happen and threaten to freeze that water line. The hot water line burst last year during a deep freeze. That was costly on a number of levels. And it had to be run inside the building, which is what will happen with the cold water line from a certain point where it can easily be brought up from under the cottage to inside.

This whole process will be much easier for him to do with no one living there, needing to turn off the water and crawl in the crawl space. Not a fun concept, but he is up for it.

Then we looked at the fact that there has never been an electric outlet in the bathroom. He had a couple of suggestions, I countered with a couple that seemed simpler to me. And he wants to bring one of the outlets in the kitchen up to code. We will see where that goes. But the plumbing must be done first.

When I texted the current tenant with my suggestion, she succinctly texted back “I can do that.” So when I see some progress, will let the new tenant know when she will be totally moved out and they can come work there.

After this series of cottage inspections, I decided to tackle my filing cabinet and get rid of some really old papers, and organize my most important documents in a way they could be easily accessed should I ever have to evacuate again.

Not a fun thing to do, but it did get my office one step closer to being more organized. And that feels good.

Ended the day getting information and photos emailed to our marketing persons for the Commonwheel’s 40th Anniversary Gallery show. I tell better stories than write succinct information only press releases, so hope they can use what I sent to create a series of Press Releases with some great photos to get the press interested in a story or two focused on this landmark year for Commonwheel.

And I did keep getting caught up in photos of the past in the scrapbooks, but some of the stories helped me to write a bit more about our past accomplishments. Reflections on a group of young and adventurous artists who filled our Gallery with art and then there were the “naughty” puppets who performed in the basement for the short lived time it was called “The Side Door Theater” and performing artists created unique shows for children and adults to enjoy.