Life Transplanet

I had a phone call recently.  It’s the type of call that is not “the norm”. I knew Cassie had emailed House Hunters International about the possibility of being on their show after she had heard from the Kruses that they were looking for couples who had bought a place in Puerto Rico. But I didn’t really think they would be so eager to talk with us so quickly! This is kind of how it went:

Melissa: Hi, this is Melissa from House Hunters International!
BK: Hi, this is Britton.  How are you?
Melissa: Good…We are interested in doing your story! Can you tell me a little more about it?
BK:( I told her all about our story, the property, why Puerto Rico…so on and so forth)
Melissa: That sounds great! Well, the next step before we line things up is to get a casting video from you.  I can send you some information about what we are looking for in it.
BK: No problem.  We can do that and have one to you in the next few days!

So these past few days Cassie and I (with help from Cassie’s mom the camera-woman -thanks Char!) made a short casting video.  In the video they just want to see how we live currently and why we want to move. They basically want to see how we look “on camera”.  Hopefully we come across well!

It would be cool to be on the show as it is one we definitely like to watch and I think we would be a bit different than their regular shows.  Most of what I’ve seen on there are people who have quite a bit of money to spend.  Cassie and I are very budget-oriented and one of our (my) criteria was that the place be “affordable”.  To me that meant not getting a mortgage. Also we were ok with having a fixer-upper, unlike most people that we’ve seen on the show.

We want to move down there in the next few years, not continue to work and pay for the thing over the next 15-30.  So, we save the majority of our income, we both drive normal little paid-off econobox cars, and we have invested in rentals in the hopes that one day we could use that income to live off of (see Fruitfulista for more on how we do this!)

I’d hope they would present us as the ‘fixer upper/saver/self-sustainability people’ and maybe tell the story of how we ended up with the property. One thing we were surprised about is that nearly all, if not all of the shows are re-enactments, so according to Melissa the producer/casting person in New York, we were perfect for their show!

So, here’s our casting video- wish us luck!…What do you think?

At one of our rentals, the backyard was just pure dirt. We had been wanting to put in a yard but thought we would wait until about a year after since we had done so much work to it. Well, this was the one that was abandoned prior to the end of the lease term, so when we got new tenants in, we let them know we would like to put in a grass yard in the back, but only if they would be willing to water it (since they pay water).  After they settled into the routine of living in the house, they got back to us that they would like the lawn and would be willing to water extra for the first month or so.

So we got to work. We ordered the compost to amend the soil and tried to line up a rototiller from my brother who does landscaping. Then we ordered the sod. Sod is much more expensive than grass seed, but it creates an insta-lawn. One moment it is dirt, and the next it’s a yard. Kind of like putting down carpet or something. So Britton worked from home on Friday and once his work day was over he was over shoveling compost into the yard.

A big pile of composted cow poo

Once the compost was transfered to the yard, it was time to till it in. That’s where the roto-tiller came in. We hauled it over but once we figured out how to start it, the tires locked up and it wouldn’t move at all. That meant: hand shoveling to till it. So the three of us -Britton, me and Martin our tenant were all out there until dark tilling the backyard.

When the roto-tiller broke

Then Saturday morning Britton worked by himself installing the sod. When he came home he was worn out! But I came over to see the outcome and it looks great!

Here are some before and after pictures:

Dirt Yard Before

After: Backyard with grass

Before: Britton is raking the tilled compost to flatten it before laying the sod

AFTER

AFTER!

We just hope that our tenants keep it well watered for the first week/month. At least we put it down in September when the weather is not quite as intense. The tenants seemed very happy with the results as did we, which is great for everyone!

Yep, somewhere between the abandoned rental, the crazy tenants that we released from the contract, scheduling showings, 2x 40+ hours of work including evenings and  weekends, an on-call shift, a broken car, a sick Schnoodle, a hungry cat eating canned tuna, six growing chickens who won’t sleep in the same coop, three wasps nests (and one super swollen stung ear), an overgrown yard and weed infested garden, a fridge devoid of food and laundry two weeks gone from being cleaned…somewhere in there we had an anniversary! Our 6th anniversary to be exact. But we had way too many other things to think about than how incredible those 6 years -or the 5 before that have been.

On our wedding day 6 years ago

I guess we are people who don’t just stand still. Even on our wedding day we were hauling things around and fixing stuff. I was almost late to my own wedding! So it’s only fitting. Last year we were painting a rental house, and this year we were back there again preparing it for new tenants. Lately it’s been a little overwhelming but we keep reminding ourselves that whatever drama we are experiencing is because we wanted whatever it is that is causing it. Remember that! We bring all that we have -better or worse- into our lives. If it gets too much we can always let it go, but until then…we’ll enjoy the chaos.

Things are already looking up. We think we’ve found new tenants for one of the properties and the other one is just about ready to be posted for rent. It’s also important to put our stress into perspective. Last year I was just about to lose my dad. So losing a few weeks rent, working hard, long hours and looking for new tenants is nothing by comparison. Life is about learning lessons and sharing lots of love. I think we’re getting our fair share of both

I know this isn’t the norm for rentals all the time, but apparently the rental market is super hot right now. We had another tenant give us his notice that he is moving out of state for a job and would be vacating the house at the end of the month.

I posted an ad for the place figuring we’d have a month to find a good tenant. We had such a huge amount of interest with great candidates/applicants that the vacancy was filled the first day! We already have a signed lease and all the paperwork done!

The house when we bought it

Not only did we again improve the lease language, but we even increased the rent and still had a huge turn-out of interest. Makes me think we probably could have asked for more, but we are happy with what we got. It’s times like these that make you think being a landlord is a breeze.  But it’s the other times when something breaks or you have difficulty collecting that you want to pull your hair out. It’s a balancing act for sure. I know that renting out property is not for everyone, but for me, I really enjoy it. Especially when things go so well.

The living room after we painted and had the wood floors redone

I really like houses in general -I like walking through them, imagining living in them, seeing their potential. Homes are so intimate and yet necessary. They are so much more than just ”a roof over your head”. Where we live is where life is! I find it kind of cool that we provide a home for people- one of the most basic necessities in life.

Plus there is the ability to help the worn out, tossed out houses (like foreclosures) shine into warm, beautiful homes again. When we fill a vacancy- a vacant place- we fill a void with a soul again. And I like the makeover part just as much -even if it drives Britton crazy.  I am really excited about our Puerto Rico property for these very reasons. I’d love to turn the old dead throwaway property into something wonderful, vibrant, and useful again. I am ready to  fill that vacant space with life -our life, transplanet!

Please take a second and vote in this poll! It will be interesting to see what you all think we should do. Britton and I have lots of discussions about this (like should this be a five year plan or two year), but we’d like you to weigh in on it as well. If there is another choice that you would recommend that isn’t found on this, you can either comment on the poll or in our blog comments! I have also created a new page about our place in Rincon, Puerto Rico if you need to remember what we are talking about. You can find it here (also on the side bar where it says “Our Place in Rincon Puerto Rico) . Thanks!

For this poll you can choose more than one answer since it is basically dealing with two different questions: 1) what should we do with the wooden house and 2) should we start a guesthouse business?