Chapter 18

The first of the year found me kind of busy. People were dying left and right of course. I didn’t clean up after them all, but I did three in January. Their kids usually took care of any valuables, and the city trash man picked up what they managed to get out to the curb. So there really wasn’t much cleanup left for me. Since I no longer needed it to clean money, I lost interest.

I spent a lot of the dark money on renovating the motel. I did it one room at a time. It wasn’t truly a renovation. It was more a painting, installing a new commercial grade carpet, new drapes, and bathroom fixtures. Oh yes new furniture into a few of the rooms. The old furniture went to the 2nd Chance store on consignment. It just took up space there until it was replaced by something else. At that time it went to the landfill. I hated to junk a usable piece of furniture. At least not until someone who needed it had a chance to buy it.

Even though I tried to do one room at a time, I had a lot of empty rooms and some things were cheaper if done in higher volume. For instance carpet. I bought enough for five rooms at a time. My carpet installer stored the extra carpet in the last of my five rooms. We aimed to complete the first five rooms inside of five weeks.

Tony and I cleared out a room and I carried everything to the 2nd chance store, or landfill. Then Tony began work. Since everything left was also going into the land fill he washed the walls and spray painted everything while the carpet was still in place. Then he went into the bathroom and removed the fixtures. He installed new fixtures and created a shower stall. He installed hand rails in a couple of places and a short, but strong, three foot high wall. It was placed between the toilet and the sink areas creating a second lift point. It made the bathroom handicapped and geriatric friendly. Tony even built a fold down seat in the shower cabinet.

Tony also hung kitchen cabinets along the rear wall of the unit. For appliances we installed a microwave oven and a built in counter top two burner unit. Then a free standing apartment sized refrigerator completed the furnishings for the kitchen. We actually used a janitor sink as a kitchen sink. I decided on that since there was no tub in the bathroom.

Tony built a long, open four shelf unit. It ran from the front wall of the unit, all the way to the kitchen area. That wall of open shelves came with a hanging area for clothes. He sprayed the shelves with the same paint we had used on the wall. Only after all that was done, did I have the carpet installed. It was a lot of work especially with me and Tony being the master builders. That small fact meant, we had no master builders. Tony and I designed things in that first apartment as we went along.

We decided that it would be the show apartment. So I sent June Bug to pick out the furniture. Her brief was that the furniture had to be strong and should appeal to our older customers. She was allowed two hours to do the shopping. She started in the 2nd chance store.

“Pick out the best things there,” I insisted.

She called me to report, “This stuff is awful.”

“Then go to Glenfield’s to look. Keep in mind there isn’t much room in the unit for big furniture. It was thirty minutes later when she had made her choices. Then she had me join her with the money and my pickup truck.

“You need to pick out a mattress and foundation,” June suggested.

“Not here,” I demanded quietly. The things we put in the apartment were meant to be highly functional. I accepted June’s choices for the most part. I did choose a taller chair for the small kitchen counter, which Tony and I had installed at the end of the sidewall shelving unit. It was meant to be used as an area for a single person to dine.

When it was configured as a sofa, the head board and foot board of the bed, could be used as arm rests. The one comfortable chair had a strong frame and the height was adjustable. It was a heavily padded office type chair in design.

“Now Bug, if and when we have a full house, you can live in the model, but don’t expect that to happen for at least a couple of years. Before we did any advertising I insisted we finish the first five apartments.

When I had a landscape or cleanup job, June was Tony’s gopher. Since she was already working in the office, he could just call her on the cell phone to come hold a board for him. My interest during that period of time was totally in maintaining my business and completing the motel conversion project.

Tony was a recovering alcoholic whose wagon seat was extremely slippery. In other words he was prone to a weekend bender once in while. His new wife forced him to sober up on Sunday night.

We worked some Saturdays when Tony wanted to work, but very, very seldom did we work on Sundays. I had no idea what his activities were on Sundays, but I didn’t mind a day off.

We used the same floor plan for all the downstairs units. Half of the first floor units were renovated and empty at one time. The second floor units were still rented by the night. I hoped that by summer that would have changed. However I had things that needed doing, so I ran the first advertising for handicapped and geriatric renters.

The first five units were leased at $600 a month, which included everything except the electric bills. I kept the price affordable to an older person on Social Security. What I wanted were people who would not be a problem to me or the other tenants.

The first unit was rented to a new widow with no family living in the area. She needed a place with no responsibilities. She mostly sat and watched TV. She was able to take care of herself indoors, but struggled with anything outside the apartment. June rose to the challenge. She helped the older lady with things she needed. The old lady paid her what she could afford and June took it gratefully.

I made a deal with Trina. I agreed to a free pickup of furniture bought by my tenants. Of the first three tenants, two of them had their own furniture and brought some of it with them. After they agreed to rent the apartment from June, I offered to move their furniture to the apartment for a flat fifty dollars.