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In other news, I'm working tomorrow (on a show for which I cannot yet comment), and Stephen is working tomorrow, and we have a new houseguest arriving! What the what?
The previous houseguest evicted himself at the beginning of the month, so the futon is available once again. The new houseguest was looking for anyone who could offer advice or suggestions, so we've gotten a solid offer of lots of cooking for a week or so of crashing here. We'll see where this takes us.
WHEE!!!!!
Have you ever had houseguests? Did you make verbal agreements with them, or did you just fly by the seat of your pants through it all? How did it all work out for you?
What do you mean by a "houseguest"? Like, a friend of yours that's visiting or staying with you for a while, or more like a renter? As in, someone you don't know. And how long are they staying? If it's just a visitor who's a friend of yours, you can lay some simple rules. If this is a friend who is staying long term, then rules should probably be given right away. And if it's more like a renter type of person then definitely lots of rules should apply. If that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAlways only friends, as we only have a 1-bedroom apartment, with a futon for a bed for the "guest". We had a verbal agreement with the last one, and he didn't live up to his end of it. That friendship is burnt, sad to say.
DeleteYeah, if I were to do that I would just lay the rules down right off the bat. "Here's the way it is, these are the rules, if you break them we have to let you go. If this isn't something you can handle, maybe it's best for you to find somewhere else as we don't want it to ruin our friendship like it did with so and so." That way they were warned, they know you mean business because you booted your other friend out, and it gives them the opportunity to actually think twice about the situation.
DeleteWe have an extra room in our house, but that's more for when my parents stay over because they're watching the kids late or something (we live just outside the city). We don't normally have relatives or friends stay with us, not yet anyway. Not sure if I could handle other people in my house...I'm not extroverted so I'd probably end up one morning with a shotgun on my laptop asking them "so, how long are you planning on staying?". :D
on my lap...not my laptop...wtf...I work with computers too much.
Deleteo_O
I think our situation is somewhat "unique" (in the world) in that there are mostly non-native Los Angelenos who decide to call it home, so when first arriving, you/we absolutely have to rely on the kindness of friends in order to not blow your/our entire moving budget on housing before you/we see what it's like. MANY people move into LA on a "temporary" basis, so MANY people who have established themselves become "temporary" lodging for their friends. I don't anticipate problems with the new houseguest; we were just naíve enough with the previous guy to take him at his word, and not question the validity of anything. He was certainly a nice enough fellow; he just has somehow managed to squeak through his adult life without paying for housing. I don't know anyone else who doesn't pay for housing (for more than a week or so). We allowed ourselves to put up with his B/S for too long. There's no need to make things ugly with the new guy based on the old guy.
DeleteAnd I appreciate the clarification, but because I'm so late getting back here, I didn't even get to chuckle over the visual of a shotgun on your screen being "scary". ;)