January (From Hereford Times)

January

12:05pm Monday 15th January 2007

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Why is it January and February seem to go on forever? I am tired of grey skies, rain, mud, rain, cold. . .did I mention rain? It doesn't help that I had 3 phone calls from the states yesterday telling me that it was 82 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Adding insult to injury is what that is!!!

We have a home in Florida that we let out to other holiday makers. We're asked constantly if we ever have trouble with renters and our answer is 99.9% of the time no. They pay promptly, leave the house in good shape and seem to enjoy our home when they are there. The only trouble we've had at all was from someone we knew, the man who painted our home here in Belmont. He said he wanted to rent the house for 2 weeks at Christmas, paid us a deposit then refused to answer our calls or reply to reminders that the balance was due. I won't say his name here but it was quite a disappointment to us and a loss of two weeks rental because he kept us waiting for payment so that that we were unable to rent it to someone else. Thus the 'new rule'; don't let the house out to anyone we know. Strangers are more reliable. Sad but true. Nothing in life is free, we built the house as an investment, we pay property taxes, management fees, lawn care, electric, water, cable television, telephone and internet. So far we are operating at a loss which we expected the first year. Too bad people only see that we have a nice holiday home and not that it costs us to run it.

This sounds like a complaint, it's not really. Building that house was a labour of love and we'd both do it again in a heart beat (just as soon as we win the lotto). It was lovely to have a clean slate to pick out decor, cabinets, furniture, etc.

Roll on spring!!!