resident managing

I need to gripe! Beware: This is NOT my most exciting post ever :)

Lisa, you may be the only one who understands :)

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to pee (y'know. just like I did at 3:30, and at 2:30, and at 1:30...) and then I couldn't get back to sleep. so I figured, let's get something done now that needs to get done today anyway! So I did a bunch of paperwork stuff, office work. And then my day just didn't stop.

Some of the things that bugged me today:

A guy called to tell me that somebody was putting Starbucks cups in his parking stall when he wasn't there, so that he had garbage under his car. When I asked him what he wanted me to do about it besides clean it (because trust me, I already know that somebody is leaving garbage around the building. I get to clean it up.) he said he just wanted me to know. Well, I'm glad he took the time to call me.

And then somebody else called me to say that they wanted underground parking after all. This is after I'd already sent in the month's auto-debit rent amounts, because this tenant had told me that they didn't want to pay for underground parking. So I went through their file and changed everything, called the head office and had them change the rent amount, and waited for the tenant to come and collect the key. And waited. And waited. And then finally, they called to tell me that they'd changed their mind again. grrrr.

I also have a tenant who was evicted last week. He was supposed to be out by Aug 4, but then head office called to tell me that he'd decided to go to court, and that he probably wouldn't be out before September. This is after I'd already leased the suite to a woman from church, a woman with a 2-week old baby. So I called her to tell her that the apartment wouldn't be available after all, so of course she went and looked for someplace else to live. Well, today this evicted tenant called to ask me when his move-out walk-through was going to be? Because he had changed his mind about staying. I really kinda hate this guy. Because I'd already gone through all of the work to find another tenant for his apartment, somebody I was really excited about moving in, and then because he messed around, now I have to do it all over again. really frustrating.

Okay. That's my rant :) those were the big things that made this tired prego-momma cranky today, and now I'm feeling the need to remind myself of why I really like this job (I do, honest, just not today :))

Alright, here goes:

1. I like knowing all of the people in the building :) I haven't met everybody yet, but I'm getting there, and even though I've always said "hi" to people in passing, now people actually say "hi" back to me :)

2. I really enjoy working from home. After spending a few years driving to peoples' homes to teach music lessons, and then another year driving to a studio away from home, I really just like being able to go from my kitchen to my office in about 5 steps.

3. The anal mommy-hormones are at their peak right now (well, they're pretty high at least. maybe I'll get worse :)) and so I'm really enjoying having cleaning and organizing projects!

4. There are a few tenants who have recognized the effort that I've made, and their kind words totally make up for all of the crabby tenants.

5. I find it satisfying to get stuff done and organized; I've created databases for tenant information, organized files and stuff. Boring to talk about, to blog about, but it's satisfying to get done :)

6. Because my work is no longer during "after school hours", I'm actually home to cook dinner. Last week was vegetarian lasagna, and this week so far I've made an enchilada casserole and a yummy salad :) slowly but surely, I'm getting this cooking thing down :)

7. Okay. let's face it. I like having the biggest apartment in the building :) We have a real dining room table now! It's taken us almost 4 years of marriage, but our dinners are no longer held around the coffee table on a regular basis :)

8. I feel like I've accomplished a lot. Things like re-organizing parking, cleaning the 2 parkades, cutting the percentage of tenants who are not on auto-debit in half... yes, I stay at home all day, but I'm certainly not being lazy :) AND all of this while I'm 5-6 months pregnant :)

9. It's kinda cool to be part of deciding who gets to live here. The power is going to my head :D (j/k!)

10. The silliest thing, but this job comes with a heavy-duty shredder. I've discovered I really like shredding things. OH my goodness, lame, I know, but it's fun in a disturbing way :)

Okay. I'm out. but I'm feeling better about what I'm doing, despite the ickiness of today :)

Y'know, if you read all of this, you should respond :) I'm really curious to know who actually made it through this post!