Oops.

Apologies for a few days of no posts...our kitchen is done, we spent the weekend unpacking, running our dishwasher like 85 times and doing other projects. Lots of pictures to come.

Had one of those "Oh we are the OWNERS and no one is there to help us" moments this morning. Neal and I went on a walk early this morning, where I realized I'd grabbed the wrong key. No landlords to call. Just us. Shit.

Luckily, Emily, Neal's little sister is staying with us for a bit, so lots of knocking, yelling and throwing rocks at the guest room window woke her up. Sorry, Em!

Boom! Pow! Fireworks!

 Hi internet friends! Neal here, the co-owner of the duplex (and loving husband??). Since it's my first post, I figured I deserved fireworks! Actually, the firworks are from the bi-weekly display at Dodger stadium. They're amazing. Wanna know the best part? We can see them from our backyard. They're the perfect thing to use as a center piece to a relaxing evening with some friends. So two weeks ago we had our first get together at our new place. We watched fireworks, ate smores and talked shit about other people while sitting around our new firepit (the firepit might deserve it's own post). The night was amazing and we swore an oath that we'd have people over for every fireworks display.

Last Friday was a fireworks night, so having sworn an oath, we did exactly what you'd expect  ...We went out to dinner with some friends. Boo! Luckily, the Dodger game went late and we arrived home halfway through the fireworks. We ran up to the terrace off of our bedroom to watch the rest... but while we were watching, we heard something weird. People talking. (So weird, right? No wait, stick with the story, you'll see!) The thing was, every which way we looked, all our neighbors were either out for the night or they were asleep-- yet still, there were voices. Where were they coming from? Jodi thought they were coming from above us. But come on, above us? When the grand finale finished, we brushed off the idea of people hovering high in the trees talking, went inside, and got ready for bed...

That's when we heard the distinct sound of feet on our roof. Right above our stairwell. And we realized... our tenants were on the roof watching the fireworks.

Now I don't like to ruin the fun for everybody (okay, yes I do), but in this instance, what with their safety and the health of our roof on the line, we had to take a stand.

We were freaked. We had to do something quick, but we couldn't appear angry. I mean, come on, they thought we were cool when we met them, and any anger would ruin all our hipster points. But they can't get away with this!! We also had no FOR SURE proof, so we couldn't accuse them directly. I can't decide if we were making it a big deal, or if it actually was a big deal. Anyway, we certainly weren't going to confront them in person. We sent an email no less than 2 minutes after they went inside.

Here's what we wrote:

Hello tenants,
We heard a lot of noise on our roof tonight. We just want to make clear that going on the roof is not allowed. Not only is it unsafe, but it's also above our bedroom.
Thanks,
Jodi and Neal

I'd like to think it struck the right balance between stern and caring. Regardless, it was pretty effective. The next morning we received a genuine apology, and so far we haven't heard any other noises from the roof. Lesson? On our next lease, we'll make sure to specify what is and what isn't allowed on the roof. (Answers: nothing and everything.)

Wanna see something gross?

So remember our plumbing adventure this weekend? Well, we got that rotten pipe replaced yesterday and I can't help but share the grossness with you. It's not all subway tile and paint colors folks.

Gross:

Grosser:

And the pièce de résistance...

How could water even flow through that thing!?

 

Who lives here?

This is our garage. No one lives in our garage.

 BUT according to the City of Los Angeles, this is a separate unit in our multi-unit house so not only do we pay a separate electricity bill (that's ok) but we pay for separate GARBAGE AND RECYCLING PICK UP. What?
Obviously, we shouldn't have to pay the $31/month to have the GARAGE'S garbage picked up...but the city needs to make sure it's not a residence so in three weeks they will send a guy to take pictures as proof, then we have to chase them down to change our account, THEN they will stop charging us and apparently reimburse the payments we've made. Let's hope.

The surprises never end!

Our first "emergency"...

Saturday early afternoon, one of our tenants knocked on our door. A pipe in the garage was leaking all over her car. Neal and I went down to investigate and, sure thing, one of the sewer branch pipe that heads towards the street was dripping from the end cap.

LANDLORDS MOBILIZE!! We called AP Plumbing - the guys we would always call at our old place (who would bill our landlord) - and Tony was able to come by a couple hours later.

 

After taking off the end cap and letting all the water drain out,  Tony discovered a blockage in the pipe. Using an incredibly scary rooter machine, Tony and his guy basically raped our pipe, got out whatever gunk was blocking it and put a new end cap on it. Problem solved...until we have to replace that pipe sometimes in the next month or so to keep it from happening again.

It wasn't a particularly cheap fix, but he did it on a weekend, pretty much right away. We got to tell our tenants that the problem was fixed within only a couple hours. GO LANDLORDS!

However, only hours later, while doing our first load of laundry in our half done kitchen, the washing machine went bananas. Rattled and walked itself out of the nook, and somehow wedged itself between the brand new fridge and the freshly painted wall, while shaking the entire house like an earthquake. Oh man, this will not do. Imagine running downstairs to see a double stacked washer/dryer shaking like a paint mixer on your brand new wood floors. Freaky.

 
Neal did some research and we think there's some bolt they put on for transportation that wasn't removed during install...if it's not that, this could be a big problem. Stay tuned.

Our new neighbor...

This is Alister - he is one of our new tenants. Already loves the window sills and has been keeping watch over our driveway.

Let's hope...

...we don't need to make a guest appearance on this new TV show:

Leased!

We did it! We found renters for the other half of the duplex! Well...WE didn't exactly. Here's the deal.

In the midst of moving, renovating, working to pay for moving and renovating, we got overwhelmed. When the place didn't rent after 5 days of our Craigslist and Westside rental listings, we got frustrated and impatient. Yes, I know that is a little silly, it was only 5 days, but when this rental is covering more than half our mortgage - first payment due June 1 - we started to freak.

So we could at least put some of the stress behind us, we hired, on the recommendation of a friend with a duplex nearby, THE RENTAL GIRL. In exchange for half of the first month's rent, the lovely Zaya handled the listings, showings, tenant screenings, paperwork and check collecting. We didn't need to worry about it.

 About a week after she signed on, we got an email with an information packet about our potential tenants. Personal info, references, credit scores and financial information. We're really running a small business - so all that stuff matters. No dead-beats please. These guys seemed great, and after meeting them in person, we felt like they would take good care of our place.

Who are they? Three 27-year olds, who went to college together in New York, who all work in creative fields - an ad-writer, a TV production assistant, a guy who manages fashion designers. Two boys and one girl - we for some reason decided a combo would be cleaner than three boys or three girls. Oh, and a cat. (They had to pay an extra $300 security deposit for him.) They are definitely fun, definitely wanted to live in our neighborhood for it's "hipness" and seemed very relieved that "you guys are cool" since we are living so close. (I have never felt older in my life after hearing that!)

They signed their lease on Thursday and I cashed the rent and security deposit checks on Friday. Tried to make it feel as ceremonious as possible. By myself, at the Vermont Avenue Chase Branch. Our FIRST PAYMENTS AS LANDLORDS. It's pretty cool. Even if no one there noticed how cool it was.

So far so good - they got the keys Saturday morning and will start moving stuff over this week. And after we send our workers in today for a couple finishing touches they forgot, we can put that place and all it's fixes behind us...

...until something breaks of course.

Apartment for Rent...

Last weekend, we listed the rental unit on Craigslist and Westside Rentals (a local LA apartment hunting site) and are waiting on bites. We had a few people come by last weekend, while the place was a bit of a disaster zone with workers. Now it's nearly ready to go, we've been replacing lights, drawer pulls, cleaning, and tomorrow, new carpet goes in.

WHERE ARE OUR TENANTS? This is getting really stressful, really nervewracking and we will both feel soooo much better when someone is living happily inside and we can just focus on making our half a cozy home. (Wood floors starting going in today! yay!)

WHY DOESN'T ANYONE WANT TO LIVE WITH US!??? WE ARE CALM NORMAL NICE PEOPLE...TOTALLY CALM. REALLY REALLY CALM! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH...

Is it too much to ask...

...for ATTRACTIVE flush mount lights for under $50?? Why must they all look like boobs or spaceships??

I want to replace the cheapy gross ones in the downstairs of the rental unit. Need 4. Don't want to spend much money. Ugh.

Why we bought where we did...

Here's an interesting blog post about people like us (though with more money than us) buying multi-unit properties in our neighborhood of Echo Park. I think we picked a good neck of the woods. (Via The Eastsider)

The work begins...

We took ownership of the duplex yesterday!

And after walking our contractor and his guys through it last night, work began today. Because we need to rent the front apartment ASAP they are tackling that first. Fresh paint, new AC/Heat Units, new carpet, garbage disposal, etc.

We'll do some "Before and Afters" eventually but I can't wait to see how just a brighter coat of white paint changes the whole thing.

I know painting is easy and the DIY Blog World is probably going to hate that we're hiring guys to do it, but we both have day jobs. And need to get this place rented. AND don't really want to paint this railing ourselves. We have plenty of time for DIY.

More pics of everything this weekend...when we DUM DUM DUUUUH...will be showing the place to potential tenants! eek!