GOODBYE SKELLINGTON?
I dropped off our rent check yesterday hoping to escape the office before being nabbed by the property manager. I was anticipating she might say something like, "since the owners are stopping by in June, you *will* repair that broken pane of glass in the kitchen door, won't you?" or something else of a critical, peevish, tension-inducing nature. Unfortunately the front desk was womanned by our property manager instead of the usual anonymous secretary. Fortunately she was on the phone so couldn't talk to me. Unfortunately she made eye contact with me, held up her index finger commandingly and whispered, "wait!"

In a nutshell, the owners want to move back here into their house in June or July before our lease is up at the end of September.

I told her that probably isn't going to happen.

We invested over $200 a month in exorbitant heating bills over the winter consoling ourselves that Skellington Manor would be beautiful in the summer. It would be worth suffering through the cold winter made more miserable by the fact that the owners know NOTHING about the climate here (they live in Chicago) so when they renovated the house they put in single pane windows instead of something more energy efficient. They removed the propane heating stove. And the electrical system can't handle having more than one portable heating unit turned on in the house at one time which limited us to baseboard heat for the most part.

So now the lilacs are in bloom . . . the trees are leafing out . . . Skellington Manor is blossoming into a secret garden space . . . and those fuckers want their motherfucking house back. We cursed them last night, fearing that if we stay through the end of the lease instead of moving earlier that they will be spying on us and coming over to fix things and intrude on us all summer. We fantasized ways of frightening them away, perhaps by painting Nico's chin and chest with blood to make her look like a ferocious throat-ripping monster of a dog.

If only they would have told us this two or three months ago we'd have have been excited. We'd looked longingly at a few smaller homes we'd seen up for rent and resented the inefficient spaciousness of Skellington Manor.

But now? Now the light is getting good for us to take advantage of the photogenic perfection of Skellington's many rooms and wild private yard. Now the sun is shining. We do not want to miss the fruit ripening on the trees, the beers on the back porch, the private summer seclusion. But we fear that will be wrecked anyway by them snooping around. Not to mention we do not want to go to the expense of moving again so soon with all the utility hookups and deposits.

We are looking on the many bright sides though. With the owners having said we can break the lease without penalty we can start looking and wait for the perfect replacement to Skellington instead of being forced into waiting until the last minute. I guess that's a good thing. But what could be more perfect than Skellington in the summer? Sigh.
posted by Trixie at 5/02/2003 10:57:00 AM -