The last time we paid rent was September 2010 for the house we lived at in Roseville California. Since then our accommodations haven’t cost us anything. Instead we’ve stayed a night or several with family, friends, Couch Surfers or have had house sitting jobs. Two nights someone did put us up in a hotel since they’d arranged a couple of business meetings for us.
For the first time in seven months we’re paying for a place to stay. We decided to spend six weeks in Wisconsin to be able to visit Joel’s mom and help her out. However the building she lives in only allows visitors for up to two weeks. That meant finding another place to stay for four weeks.
We tried to find Couch Surfers in the area to see if there might be someone we could stay with for a bit – nothing. We tried to find a house sitting job nearby – nothing. We asked friends and family in the area if they knew of anyone who might be willing to put us up at a low cost or in exchange for services we could provide. We checked everywhere for a place we could possibly rent for just one month.
Finally Aaron of King Edward Inn Apartments suggested The Pullman Motel. We talked with Chris there and explained that we were looking for an affordable option to rent for four weeks. We certainly couldn’t afford nightly motel rates for 30 days or even a weekly rate. Chris told us of a monthly rate option that was reasonable and so we had a place to stay.
The Pullman Motel is very nice. Initially we’re in a room with two double beds, a small fridge, a microwave and coffee maker. Best of all it’s got internet access and is only minutes away from Joel’s mom. In a week we’ll move into the larger bungalow once it’s available.
It will be a while before we need to pay for lodging again. When we leave here it will be to house sit for several weeks in New Mexico. We do think later this year we’ll probably find a small place to rent in Rice Lake as our home base to return to between other house sitting jobs as we travel. We’re hoping we may get to house sit again in British Columbia in August! :)
Was talking to the British Columbian neighbours trying to convince them that this would be a good plan when they go away but they have someone who usually does their home & cat care … but I’ll keep suggesting.
It looks like our initial “oooh, maybe” has given way to reality and bank accounts. We might get a week or two closer to home but no spectacular cross-Atlantic travel for us. And, one of the options includes house-swapping with friends in the Okanagan. In spite of my best intentions we don’t seem to be in your flow this summer. But, it ain’t summer, yet.
Well, we’ll just see what happens. Us nomads are used to going with the flow and being very flexible.
Do see if you can swing thru Bemidji, MN sometime – Rail River Folk School (.org) is currently doing their open mike night every First Friday – even though it’s not on their poor, abandoned website calendar ;( and might be interested in an artist-in-residence sort of thing … or classes on almost anything you’d care to teach about! (Banjo, VA-ing, home-schooling, living in the Now, whatever…) My friend Hunter is part of an informal Writer’s Guild based there, too.
And author Jack Weatherford (Native Roots, Indian Givers, The Mongol Queens, among others) is a professor at the University there.
I’m off to get rid of more ‘stuff’….