So just last week I posted that my son had decided he wanted to move back home. Drumroll please…. he changed his mind. He has decided to stay at his dad’s. You know what? I’m not even surprised. I am, of course, deeply disappointed; I love him, I miss him, and I want him back home. But he’s 14, and changes his mind more often than he changes his underwear (which I don’t think he’d change if I didn’t remind him…. BOYS!).

So, as I mentioned in my post last week, we will be looking to take on a roommate to make up for our loss in income. We are in the initial planning phase right now – we live close to the biggest university in our province (within 2 miles). We would ideally like a college student, and we’re going to be away for a full week in May, so we plan to post our advertisement the first week of June. Move in date can be any time after that, although if we get a college student it would probably be August.

I’m going to post a whole post on the process, the questions, the “Roommate Agreement” (first commenter who gets the reference gets a link on my Friday weekly link roundup!) later this week, but for now, we have some housekeeping issues to take care of. Some of them have price tags.

1. We need to be able to allow the tenant to lock their door to ensure privacy (although we will keep a copy of the key) – this means installing a new door knob. Expected cost: ~$25
2. The blinds in the room are not the best; we will need to replace them with a better curtain. We have a good curtain rod though. Expected cost: ~$20
3. There are some minor repairs needed around the house (not all tenant related, but hey, might as well get them done). Expected cost: ~$10
4. We will need another dresser – my youngest son actually needs a larger one, so we would shuffle things around to put an older one in the rental room. We looked at some nice ones yesterday, although there is no rush so we can keep looking for a sale. Expected cost: ~$150-$200
5. I will need to clear our shelves in the pantry and one of our fridges to make room for the tenant’s goods. No cost here.
6. I also want to clear off and declutter some of my bookcases and put one in the rental room. No cost there either.
7. We have been debating a couple of bedroom options, including buying a bunk bed frame for my youngest son’s room, buying a futon, and simply moving beds around and not buying anything. We have enough beds (3 single bed mattresses, plus one double set). We will move 1 single bed into the rental room, in order to keep the double bed for when my parents’ come to visit. A new frame or futon would have an associated cost of about $200. Any other option has no cost.