Sunday, March 8, 2009

Final

I finished the gate portion of the fence today and have the fence actually hooked up. I removed the temporary fence and now it looks 100% better. A pain in the rear of unprecedented proportions - I just think of how bad other people have it right now and find myself glad for having to endure such "pains". I just have the line that runs along the bottom of the chain link - stretch it tight and dogs cannot simply push their way through the bottom of the fence.

I just sold the old sliding-glass-door doggy door for $25. I originally bought it for $60 if memory serves correctly. I could've gotten more out of it, but the flap is broken and those flaps are $40. So, I was happy to get rid of the thing and this guy that took it was very happy - at least by the look on his face - to have gotten it at such a cheap price. New? $140.00 One man's junk - another man's treasure.

Well not much else, I just had those things and am working on the next party. I have somewhere around 30 people confirmed coming - this time I asked for an RSVP - and many of them are bringing food. I am trying to find the email where that one person said they would give $300 "now" or $600 for "advanced notice". I have no clue what I did with it. I must have saved it somewhere and now I can't find it.
DARN. The party has sparked a lot of interest. Besides volumes of email, I put a Feedjit on the site I just gave out the URL to today - hundreds of hits locally and from all over the world, actually. Ummm, you can come from all over the world, but I ain't paying your airfare.

I felt SO uneasy about the person that was wanting to move here and rent my room, I started looking into it. That person gave their name and address. I found that person's name and address on a Dexonline.com search and called that person. I left a message - no answer.

This guy calls back 10 minutes later. The person that is replying to Craigslist room ads is a fraud. He's using this guy's physical address and then doing the certified check fraud scheme that's going around. As I said in my prior post, I felt uneasy about it for whatever reason. This man I talked to on the phone said he's received at least 15 phone calls from around the country. Okay, well, you have to actually find the guy's phone number, it isn't given to you on the reply from the scammer - of course. So, how many people actually believed the scammer's story and - got raped of funds?

Yeah, who knows. I'm very careful about this out-of-state renting business and will continue to remain so. It's a source of tenancy - yes - but even Craigslist warns everyone that people from out-of-state and out-of-country you should be very wary of. I won't even consider out-of-country and say so on my ads - yet they ALWAYS reply to my ads, and if you were to read one of these replies, you would know why I don't deal with them. It's SO obvious it's a scam, there's no reason to even respond to them.

Okay, I copied and pasted the email from out-of-country that I received to my latest ad. What do you see as the clues/obvious telling that this person is messing with you?

???????Hello,
I am a female, i am from Manchester,England .I want you to know first before anything that i am christian but i dont critisize other people's or religion .Here are little things i would like you to know about me. I'm 29 yrs and single.Never been married.I'm clean, quiet and respectful. I am a sensitive,intellectual,patient and caring person, have a good sense of amusing and am easy to get on with. I am a faithful and committed person,who is very considerate of other people's feelings. I don't drug, I don't smoke and i don't drink.. I enjoy going out with my friends to movies, plays, parks, hikes, anything to do with the ocean and horses but i'm cool living with people.... I also love to go on date but seldomly party. I swin for fun and sometimes play tennis.... I model for a clothing company here in England .i am on a programme supported by England Goverments in the states for All stars modelling comptition that will take place in united states .and I am searching for a place to stay.I will like to know more about the room and I would really want to secure the room before my arrival,I will like to know if it would be possible for me to pay for the room before my arrival,I will want to know the total amount of the room per month with the utilities included .All these vital information are very important for me to know before submision of my proposal to the Promoter . The following information will be needed to get the payment to you.
(1) Your full name as it will appear on the payment.
(2) Address.
(3) phone number.
Hope to hear from you...Bonnie????????

C'ya later.
ben

Sunday

Beautiful out.
In fact, a bit cool.
Just been sitting here looking at stories on the internet.
Apparently Obama wants to get friendly with Cuba.......

I've had a couple of replies to my latest CL ad for a roommate.
One is out of state - something didn't feel right about that one so I moved onto the next. This one? Who knows. I wrote them back and am awaiting a reply - I invited them to come over and tour the property. I've had several that had replied to the ad before this one - but too much time has passed. That ad was placed when I got the current roommate in.

I have altered my ad as well. Now, the rent is lower at $325 per month, but I am now asking for 1/3rd utilities. I think people may be wary about having to pay an unknown cost for utilities, though, so I may have to revert back to a flat fee per month. I am just trying this ad out to see if there's any kind of interest. I can always place another one. The room won't be empty until the 16th, and then I will have to see if I need to do anything in there - though that lady will have been in there less than a month and I just repainted the room, so unless the carpet is dirty, it should be good to go.

Still, there isn't a lot of replies to any kinds of ads I am placing lately. I don't know if that's because there aren't enough potential renters to go around - there were over 200 room rental ads placed in Phoenix room shares alone yesterday. I read a lot of them - there are people asking as much as $700 for a room in a house! lol. They have ritzy houses in fancy neighborhoods - I guess they can ask that much, I just wonder how much interest they get. My ads are extremely descriptive - I may be letting on too much. Then again, if someone gets in here and doesn't know the odds and quirks about this place, I don't think that fair to the potential renter. Dogs/2 other renters/teenagers. Probably doesn't appeal to a large number of people - but - if I can appeal to even just a few, that's enough for me. It's quite amazing how many ads a person is willing to go through to find the place they want. I had a person contact me last week about an ad I placed 3 weeks ago. That's thousands and thousands of ads that person had to go through to find mine.

Anyway - just enjoying the peace and quiet in here right now. I'm trying to motivate myself to go outside and finish the fencing, or at least as much of it as I can. It's just a pain, basically - but the finished result will look pretty good, I think. I also concocted an idea to keep the southern sun off my house in the summer. Instead of trying to save for a pricey awning, I can get 2x4's - 10 footers - and some lattice work. Put that right next to the house, and then stretch some material behind the lattice work to keep the direct sunlight off the house. It's one of the reasons my room gets warm in the summer - warmer than the rest of the rooms in the house - because of the summer sun baking the back of the house. I figure I can do that project for less than $100. Not only that, but I could start some vines growing on the lattice work and eventually it would look pretty good and would be a very good sunblock.

I'm just trying to think up ideas that will work that don't cost a lot of money. I'm definitely going to put at least one gazebo on the western side of the house - right in front of the sliding glass door. That will look far better than tacky, gaudy looking styrofoam isulation - though I still have this idea in the back of my head that I could wrap some fabric over the insulation and make it look good. So - I haven't totally given up on that idea yet.

Yes, at $13.00 per panel, and only needing 5 panels, the back of the house could be done for about $75.00.

Well, I have things to get done - normal Sunday stuff.
Have a great day!
ben

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