well, the housing drama took a new turn today, dangerously close to the "soap opera back for another season" category :) We spent the day working on building a loft-bed for our room, to make more space in our bedroom for michael's studio, freeing up the living room for a renter come March 1. I should say Michael did, while I ran around making curtains, bread, dinner, talking to friends, and freecycling madly (I LOVE it and am now more addicted than to craigslist ... it's a yahoo group for giving and getting free stuff locally ... Several crates worth of stuff leaving my apt in one afternoon, going to people who were excited about it!) and generally being my hyperly productive weekend self.
The drama part? Well, we've been meaning to call the neighbor upstairs, who also rents out her front room, to find out the going rate in the area, as well as ideas on contracts, etc. So right after we argue about which one of us will call her (lots fell to michael as she prefers men in general) the phone rings and it's her. As Michael was in the middle of bed construction, I answered, and proceeded to be talked to death :) For those of you who know anything about my upstairs neighbor, she's a single music teacher (lessons in her rented-out living room), hypertalkative, dramatic, intense, and a belly dancer on the side. Not bad as a neighbor actually, but hard to take in more than small doses for me. The minute I mentioned the renting question, she was off like a shot painting me a glorious and colorful picture of whe SHE should rent out our living room for her music lessons, having had her eye on it for months but figuring we'd never rent .. etc, ad nauseum. She went into many details about how she and michael could share the space and he could even teach guitar to some of her students as she has more than she can handle at the moment.
Question is, can I handle her in my apartment 5 days a week? Huge upside is no sharing of kitchen/bath with anyone, and no one sleeping here. Shared space on weekends and some days as needed. She probably could bring in some business for Michael in terms of art lessons, she's taught kids here for years and knows the schools and parents. And she's willing to pay what we said was the minimum we wanted for the room ... and that's without having to share the rest of the apartment.
Looking a gift horse in the mouth? Not when I already know the horse :) Devil I know better than the devil I don't? Maybe ...
Michael's testing the relationship at the moment by running drills, circular saws, and reciprocating saws after 11 pm in a wood-floored and not so well sound proofed apartment :) We shall see where this wind takes us!