Saturday, February 5, 2011

Future Landlords

I am way more interested in photographing snowflakes.
Did I say our old landlord had already sold our  house? Not so fast.  The paperwork was finally turned in, but filled out incorrectly so it's February 5th and we don't know who to send our rent check to.   Zoinks!  We stopped by our neighbors' house (future landlords, nice people) and got to talk about what a nut the old landlord is, and I got to hold a baby for a while.  I was surprised at how little I minded being plastered with baby spit, or having my nostril yanked.  I think the only reason babies like me is my glasses (also covered in baby spit).

While we were talking to her, the husband was over at our house shoveling the walk from our door to our driveway.  We'd just gotten back from the coffeeshop and had to immediately jump and help (he had brought over an extra shovel).  We hadn't shoveled anything for a few reasons: one, we don't own a snow shovel because this NEVER happens; two, because it keeps snowing and I am not Sisyphus; four, we were getting around fine on the snow, which isn't slippery; and four, if you shovel your own sidewalk, it seems dickish not to keep going and do a whole block.  So, we couldn't tell if he just really likes doing yardwork so much that he crept into our yard, or he was passive-aggressively saying that if we're his tennants, we'd better get on that.  I was leaning towards the first explanation, but it gave J a Manly-Man Responsibility Complex.  He was worried about having our landlords right across the street, "and this is why," he said, referring to the marathon snow-rearranging.

I mean, we don't own a snow shovel, and I really doubt they will require us to go and purchase one when it may not snow like this for another decade.  There's more snow in the forecast, and I'm hoping it will cover up the icy sidewalks that were previously covered in nice, non-slippery snow.

It's kind of cute that J thinks he needs to "man-up" on yardwork when he thinks the landlord is judging him.  So silly.

3 comments:

  1. In states where it snows as a matter of course, there's usually a clause in the lease about whose responsibility it is to shovel the side walk, especially since the city will fine homeowners who don't shovel their sidewalks! After one winter renting in a place where shoveling was my responsibility, I decided I would never do that again. Does your lease have a provision about mowing and other yard work? I would think shoveling would follow that.

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  2. Nothing is shoveled, because no one has a snow shovel, and it's mostly renters and apartments. I'm not against shoveling, I just think it was weird that instead of just knocking on our door and letting us know he was doing it, or offering to let us borrow his shovel, he just came onto our property (that he does not technically own yet) and started shoveling.

    As for a lease, we never had one, and I don't yet know what is going to be included once these people actually own the house. I'm not really worried, it was just a funny thing yesterday.

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  3. Goodness, from the perspective of people living in regularly-snowy place, this post must make me sound like a bad citizen.

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