The new dilemma

Most of you know that Jeff and I have decided to buy a new house. When? Sometime this year, hopefully. Where? Somewhere still in the Ogden/Layton area. I'd LOVE to stay in our ward, but since all of the houses in this ward have pretty much the same issues that our current house has, I don't think it will happen. Anyway, we have been fixing up our current home with the hopes of selling it soon.

And then, I talked to Whitnie Stark.

She and her husband own two homes and rent one of them out. And they love it. She says the tax advantages are amazing, and the extra income is nice, too.

So Jeff and I are now considering renting our house out instead of selling it. My main concern is finding good renters. You know, the non-smoking, no-pet-peeing-on-the-rug kind of renter. One who will pay the rent on time and stay here for a long, long time. My other big concern is having the house sit empty while we pay two mortgages.

Hmm. Anyone have any thoughts?

*****
Our latest home-improvement project has been painting the living room. We weren't planning to do anything in there, because we didn't really think it needed anything. But then I decided to fill in the various nail and screw holes in the walls. I did that, and we realized that yes, indeed, we would need to paint. The Tervorts (from whom we bought the house) had repainted the living room just before we bought the house, and when I looked at it in certain light, I could see that they had painted it white, over a previously white room. No big deal, right? Except that the two whites were NOT the same color, and they hadn't really covered the bottom layer very well. In fact, there were at least three shades of white on the ceiling. ANNOYING!!

So after I patched and sanded, Jeff painted yesterday. The ceiling is now all one shade of white, and the walls are a very, very light tan/beige color, just a couple shades darker than the ceiling. It looks so much nicer. I also replaced all of the switches and outlets and the covers, because the Tervorts - instead of removing the covers to paint - had painted over them. EVEN MORE ANNOYING!!!

So anyway, the room is now painted, and I am going to vacuum it thoroughly today and move the furniture back in.

Dad and Gary (and Burke? I can't remember if you were here), you will be impressed - Jeff moved that piano away from the wall all by himself. It wore him out so bad, though, that he has yet to move it back.