All About Me

I got into the business of providing public accomodation when a variety of factors came together to make it possible. I needed a place to provide it, a market to provide it to and the confidence that I could carry it off.

Through family, I ended up owning a large Victorian farm house in northern New England. When I aquired it, the house had two kitchens, three bathrooms and nine bedrooms. It had a long history in the area (built in 1893), but was much more house than I needed personally. I knew going into it that I planned to occupy the whole house and rent rooms in my home rather than subdivide it.

Growing up, I lived in a large household. I had four brothers and sisters and my grand parents lived with us in their later years. My parents' work involved people who basically apprenticed and they sometimes lived with us to make it work. My parents also took in a young woman from the community to give her a chance to finish highschool when her parents needed to follow work elsewhere. From the time I was fifteen until I was twenty three, I worked in summer camps which meant living onsite with a new set of strangers every year. In college, I lived in a large (40 guys), self governed cooperative household. These experiences installed an acceptance of living with a variety of people, even non family members. It also meant that everyday life was an excercise in cooperation and balancing resource needs. "Strangers" living in our household and becoming non strangers has led me to make positive assumptions about people until they show me otherwise. This has given me the confidence that I can find people who I can safely and enjoyably share my home with. I always had an interest in systems and how they work. This led me to a career as Mechanical Engineer and has exposed me to a wide variety of electrical and mechanical controls, prinicples of construction. This has given me the confidence to tackle most home owner level repair and renovation / home improvement tasks.

I didn't have a lot of direction in the begining, I just figured that I would put an add in the local paper and find someone who wanted a room. Over the years, I have found there is a market and a mix that I prefer. In general, I find that people who are temporary are the easiest to work with. When I know how long someone will stay, there is a light at the end of the tunnel if not all their habits are perfect. Temporary people generally have a household somewhere else, and they will spend some of their time in that other household. A temporary person tends to use much less of the household resources as opposed to someone who is semi perminent. On the other hand, someone who is semi-perminent is a known quantity, has learned the rules and systems that allow the household to function. Someone who has been around awhile has time to build up a level of trust. I do like temporary, but the few longterm people I have had were also good to me.

I have to admit, it was easier when I was younger, though. As I age, I find I have higher expectations for pople. I also have more invested in my home and more at risk. My fiancee and I are starting a family and that has meant significant changes. For the first time in my adult life, I have a dog to look after, and soon we will have a child. And having my fiancee move in has added a new dimension to the dynamics I manage to keep the household afloat. But I still enjoy it and think it is a viable way to keep my wonderful big old house.