Cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-changes!

After more than five years living in our street level flat, K is moving down the street. She found a small house to rent and will share it with a long term friend of hers. There is little doubt that she is fed up with being surrounded by our energy, noise, etc. We believe we are thoughtful neighbors, rarely having late nights, loud noises, etc. But this house was not built like an apartment building and every day noises travel downwards. My washing machine drives her crazy, for instance. Apparently she had mentioned before that we seem to slam our back door and it rattles her dishes. (The door used to be hard to close and we all tend to be firm with it to be sure; otherwise it blows open.) Et cetera, etc, etc.

All kinds of issues come up with this, not the least of which is younger son's small business ventures which entail visitors arriving for short visits and test drives down on the lower deck. And the music he produces and or listens to many hours daily. He's actually very respectful of time limits and noise issues. But there are random people coming and going around here often. K is amazingly good about all of this and she gets along beautifully with both our sons.

But -

It will not be easy to find a simpatico new tenant. Andrew has shown the unit (still inhabited) to someone he works with and her husband. I don't think they were that interested. Personally, I feel it's too small for most couples. Ostensibly it could be billed as two bedrooms if the big room functioned as living room/ dining/ kitchen.

An ideal tenant would be one person with a job which occupies much of their time. Even better would be someone who listens to their own music or TV and isn't noise sensitive to ours. Again, I think we are relatively quiet but the house actually shakes when people come down the stairs, we use our washer and dryer fairly often (at decent times), we do entertain some.

Andrew's style as landlord is decidedly different from mine (and K's). He values being strictly business, I value being friends with my neighbors. K had problems with this and essentially stopped interacting with him a while ago. She and I get along fine and I actually think her moving down the street will improve our friendship some. She's a child psychologist which has been very useful around here with the changing family dynamics.

She moved in just as we were moving to the Bahamas. Older son was expected to be finishing high school with an adult living here. That did not go as planned. I ended up backing and forthing and eventually younger son also came back. Then Andrew returned. Then we remodeled the basement to regain a bedroom. Now the street level unit is completely surrounded by our family. She no longer feels comfortable using the hot tub or lower deck because our bedroom is right there. I have tried to assure her that's not an issue with us, because it truly isn't.

In many ways, the unit is more like an in-law than the legal separate flat that it is.

This is gonna be a sticky wicket. Ironically, Andrew doesn't seem at all fazed.