My landlady and her husband just left from fixing my toilet. Well, he fixed it and she and I gabbed. She was quite impressed by my report about the Road and was devastated to see the state of the ceiling in the bathroom. I’d told her that rain came in and caused the paint to start flaking, but the impact of this didn’t hit her till she saw the damage.

My relation with my dueña has been very good. We don’t have any sort of written agreement, but with a bit of give and take on both sides, this business relationship works. She trusts me that the rent will show up at some point and I trust that repairs will be done in a timely manner. She pays the gas and power bills to make sure service isn’t cut off and I don’t balk and reimburse her as soon as I can. And, of course, she got internet in and handles all inquiries related to that while I do my best to keep her house clean and neat and alert her of problems.

Unfortunately, the yardmate situation has been terrible. I like the house, the location, the price, and get along well with my landlady, but I’ll confess that there have been many times since the yardmate arrived in December that I have thought of moving because of her. She is also the reason I hesitated in committing to the idea of coming back to this house, with the fear that the yardmate had the same thought.

But I’ve heard through the grapevine that the yardmate is going to look for other accommodation if she comes back to Isla next year and this makes me very happy. I’ve decided not to say much more about the yardmate because I don’t want to sink to her level.

I want to come back to this house because it works for me, the kinks with the landlady are worked out, and I’ll know I’ll have good internet within a few days of arrival. It just doesn’t seem worth my time to look for a more architecturally interesting building, something cheaper, or even something quieter.

I’ve been a homeowner for more than half of my adult life and I have to say that there are real perks to being a tenant — like not having to fix your own leaky toilet. 😀