What is it all about

To get things rolling:

For nine years, I have owned and operated a rooming house in my home, an 1890's Victorian farmhouse in rural Northern New England. Through family ties, I ended up alone in a large farmhouse in my twenties. Going into it, I had the intention of occupying the entire house and renting living space to individuals in my own household. I grew up in a large extended family. In college, I lived in a large self governed cooperative household off campus. Summers from the time I was fifteen, I worked jobs that meant living onsite in common housing. I was used to living in shared housing arrangements, comfortable tackling renovation and maintenance tasks and confident I could find safe people to share my household with. Youth does have the illusion of invincibility. My definition of a rooming house is a housing opportunity where the residents rent a bedroom in a furnished household with some access to common areas of the house (baths, living room, dining area, etc). A rooming house generally does not include meals, but it might include access to a kitchen. The rooming house can be an attractive alternative for it's social nature, frugality, enhanced opportunities, or comfort for both parties.

I try to provide an inexpensive, comfortable, flexible living arrangement where the details are taken care of. In addition to a furnished bedroom, my residents also enjoy access to my equipped kitchen, laundry, wireless broadband connection, furnished common areas of the house and our library. I take care of all the maintenance, utilities, provide furnishings, common items in the in the kitchen like condiments, eggs, milk, flour, butter and sugar. I try to present a home like environment that someone can move into with their personal effects and be comfortable.

Over the years, I have found that I fill many roles, household manager, maintenance guy, accountant, cleaning staff, career councilor, network engineer, computer tech, therapist, social engineer, etc. In general, I enjoy it an find it personally fulfilling. But it is a lot of physical and clerical work, the financial rewards are long term and many people could not justify the sacrifices. I am giving up a great deal of privacy and taking on responsibility for providing housing to other members of the public. I have to adjust my own routines and needs for the benefit of the household, often un-recognized by others. But I get to meet a lot of people on my own terms. And I get the satisfaction of giving some of them access to an opportunity that is a stepping stone to a better life for them.

I put a lot of thought into engineering the household. I try to anticipate the needs of my residents, but occasionally need to react to their activities. To do this, I have found I needed to develop marketing, people skills, knowledge of local and state regulation, accounting, housekeeping, maintenance, construction, property management, psycho-therapy, career counseling, network engineering, computer maintenance, etc.

I have found that the work of running the rooming house is divided into several areas.
Physical maintenance: All the tasks required to keep the building from falling in on it's self. Everything from keeping paint on the exterior to keeping the interior clean to minimize wear and tear. Keeping the household full: Finding good advertising outlets, writing and monitoring advertising for openings, interviewing potential residents, calling references. Maintaining relationships with current residents: Keeping contact with current residents to make sure their expectations are met and monitoring their compliance with our housing contract. Following up with any issues that are identified to ensure they are resolved. Maintain household accounts: Keeping track of various household expenses, rents collected, payment of taxes, etc. Ensuring the household is obtaining the resources to remain an ongoing concern.

In an ongoing effort, I try to keep touch with all these areas. Although the household could probably consume all the energy I could put into it, I find I can keep things going with about one day a weeks efforts plus occasional weekends spent on major renovation projects. In general, I need to keep a routine of housekeeping tasks and pay bills weekly. I follow up with my various advertisements on the internet daily and interview new potentials as they arise. There is always something that could be done, the challenge is not allowing anything fall too far behind. For the past nine years, I have managed to keep it going in addition to my regular job.

In this blog, I'll try to give introductions to these areas, lessons I have learned, resources I have found and the interesting stories that I have lived through to gather it all.