I am a landlord...

First, I am sorry I have been lax in posting recently, I was not even able to get a "stupid people" post out until this morning and I have yet to find the time to type up the post I have in my notebook. It was not that long anyway, hopefully by next week I will have more written up. My reason for not posting is because I have been busy but also because I have been trying to spend less time sitting in front of the computer screen. It is good because it gives me more time to do things like drive Nick crazy with my woeful guitar playing, :D but it is also somewhat bad, since I checked my email this morning and had 17 new messages! Anyway on to the post title!

I am now a landlord....I have had my apartment up for sale since mid-October. While several people have been very interested when they go for a loan because the mortgage industry is in a bit of a mess right now most buyers have not been able to get funding. Rather than let my apartment just sit empty and collect dust, I decided I might as well make some money with it. The good thing is the lady who is renting it wants to buy it, her credit is low but the bank has told her that if she rents and pays on time for 6-12 months she should qualify for a loan.

The only negative about renting is she wanted me to provide a washer/dryer and a refrigerator, the cost of which would be added to the purchase price when she buys the apartment as well as the rent being raised a bit. So with the truck and my dad we set out to get some appliances. The first stop was the Sears outlet where I picked up a stackable washer and dryer. There were no refrigerators there so we drove across the street to pick up one at Costco, then it was back to the apartment to put everything in it's place. Once we had everything unloaded into the apartment we discovered we had some issues. The first issue involved the refrigerator and the planks that were attached to the bottom with several bolts. We had no socket set, but a call to Garon who was over at disaster house working on the wiring fixed that. He had a socked wrench and one socket, which amazingly happened to be just the size we needed, funny how things happen like that.

The second issue happened to involve the refrigerator as well. This one was a little more serious, it would not fit in the kitchen door.....In seems in my apartment all the doorways are smaller than in a regular house. We tried to take the fridge door off but since we did not have the necessary tools it was my idea that we just go through the hole in the wall connecting the kitchen to the main living room:

I know that hole has a name but my mind can't think of it right now, so I will just call it the hole in the wall. :p Anyway getting the fridge through the hole into the kitchen was relatively easy, we just turned it sideways hoisted it up and pushed it through, though it did bump the hanging lamp several times.

But the refrigerator issues were minor compaired to the washer/dryer issue. In the apartment, the washer and dryer go into the half bath in this little nook. The nook was small but we figured the stackable washer and dryer would fit...What we did not think about was the smaller doorways in my apartment.....The half bath's door frame is 23".... 23 inches! The washer and dryer is 27, so it was four inches too big! My first thought was to check for a smaller washer and dryer but alas the smallest I have been able to find through special order is 24" still an inch too large....So today I return the 27" and next week I probably will have to order the 24" and just take the door frame off to get in in!!!! The moral of this post is this, if you every live in an apartment, measure before you buy any appliances!