I'M BACK, Y'ALL!
Motherfucker.
Gosh, I don't think I've even logged in here for the last 6 months, and my last update to this thread was back in July. All kinds of new and exciting things have been happening since then. I'll skip that stuff, though, and bring you up to speed on Jack:
So the last time I updated, Jack had picked up a side job to replace his lost unemployment check, and was looking at a potential promotion at the movie theater. Long story short, promotion never went through, and after our friend with the production company dealt with Jack's shitty work ethic for a couple weeks, he stopped getting hired for those gigs.
Meanwhile, I got a whole slew of new responsibilities at work, one of which includes managing a handful people who work on a "per-job" basis. They aren't employees, it's small, outsourced work that we just don't want to handle in-house due to the sheer volume of it. Pays $10-$15 per job, they do the work at home and send it back to me, the people I give the heaviest loads to are maxing out at maybe $400 a month. Not enough to live on, but not bad side income if you have a little free time and the right skill set. Jack happened to have tons of free time and a background in that skill set. I figured that since he wouldn't technically be an employee, the work was low priority, and he'd only be reporting to me... Screw it. I'd just gotten rid of two workers that weren't very good, needed the slack picked up, so gave him a shot.
Surprise, surprise, this isn't where the story goes south. It actually worked pretty well. Jack was desperate for cash, good at the work, and had a faster turnaround time than most of my other people. I was trying to chew through a mountain-sized backlog that my predecessor hadn't managed well, so plenty of work to throw at Jack whenever he asked for more. It wasn't huge money, but it was perfect work for a lazy stoner and enough to bridge his financial gap. Life was good for a few months.
We're sitting there at the beginning of 2017, things are pretty much chugging along smoothly. I'm looking at houses in the area, because I've been weighing the whole live-in landlord thing for a few years. Gotta boost the income and get back on track for FIRE, right? Jack's been fairly stable for ~6 months, occasionally it takes him a few weeks to pay me for his half of the electric bill or something, but nothing worth getting upset over.
"Damn, PencilThinStash, this is pretty boring," you're probably thinking. "I came here to see you rant about Jack, and so far you're not giving me anything." Hang on a little, I'm getting there.
I find a 3 bedroom fixer-upper with decent bones, less than half a mile from work. Old, awkward little house (1937), but loads of potential if I'm willing to put in the work. Buy it for $88k. 20% down on a 15 year mortgage, good rate, held back a good chunk of cash for repairs and such. Had about 2 months left on the apartment lease, plenty of time to throw myself into starting renovations before I had to move in. Jack agreed to move in too and pay me the $450/month he was paying at the apartment - Like I said, he's been fairly stable for a few months and rent's always gotten paid. Considering my monthly mortgage payment is only $503? Score! (Obviously there are things like property taxes and homeowner's insurance on top of that $503.)
So I got to work. Tearing down unnecessary walls, pulling up ugly tile to reveal hardwood, refinishing said hardwood (it's GORGEOUS now), painting, standing in an inch of basement water for two hours one night fixing the sump pump that decided to quit on me... You get the idea. Simultaneously started directing a children's musical theater production, because I'm an idiot and think I handle Alexander Hamilton levels of superhuman productivity. Not really important to the story other than to say I spent two months running myself into the ground, working harder than I ever have before in my life. I'm usually pretty laid back, but my stress level didn't drop below a 7/10 once during that period.
As this process is starting, Jack approaches me, talking about how he wants to work on the house with me, since he'll be living there too. Cool, it's a monstrous undertaking and I could use a little help. "Yeah, dude, you can just pay me minimum wage, like $8.50 an hour, and I'll even spend full days working on it while you're at the office."
Um, what?
I'm not going to pay you to work on upgrades that will directly benefit your own living space. And just because I'm happy to pay the guy $15 on a low-priority, practically no-deadline, per-job basis at work doesn't mean I trust him to work hourly out of my own pocket. Especially without supervision. He's still a lazy stoner, and I know that if I could knock out a particular job in 5 hours, I'd walk in at the end of the workday to see it only halfway finished, with him saying, "Hey, I worked on it for 8 hours!" That battle ain't worth my time. I gave a noncommittal "Yeah, maybe..." then sort of shot down the one or two offers he made after that.
Sidenote, in case I sound like a dick here, I never EXPECTED him to do any work on the house in the first place. He brought up the idea. I'm the one who took this load on my shoulders, it's my responsibility. I've had a handful of other (amazing) friends volunteer to help with projects, and while everybody knows the unspoken "provide pizza & beer" rule, nobody has ever asked me for direct fucking hourly reimbursement of their time.
Then there was Easter weekend, when my parents came into town with my brother and his girlfriend, and the four of them were GODDAMN SUPERHEROES with the amount of labor they poured into that house for me. Words can't express how fucking awesome they are. The whole weekend, Jack kept saying he'd be over to help alongside them, but then never show all day until we were breaking for dinner and then he'd show up for the free meal. "Oh, yeah, I tried texting PencilThinStash earlier, but he didn't respond and I wasn't sure where you guys were at." ......You mean between the hours of 9am and 7pm? When we said we'd be working at the house all day? You weren't sure where we were because my phone was off? But you knew where to come as soon as dinner rolled around and you were ready to mooch? Fuck off.
I wouldn't have even included that last paragraph in this whole story, except that my brother called me a few days later, laughing. Apparently he and Jack had stayed up talking one night after I'd gone to bed, and Jack was concerned that my family thinks he's lazy. "No, BrotherStash, I WANTED to be over there helping you guys on the house this weekend, but I know that PencilThinStash wants to tackle this thing himself. I'd totally be there, but I'm trying to respect that it's his project."
Holy hell, no, I just don't want to pay you for half-assed labor.
So everything to this point, while annoying, is really kind of dumb and not that big of a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I probably blew it out of proportion because, well, like I said earlier: renovations, theater commitments, starting to move into the house, full time job, volunteering at church... I overextended myself and started to snap from the strain. That's my fault for overestimating my own capabilities.
The real fun started when we actually moved in at the beginning of this month. I'd read a few books on being a landlord and drawn up a standard month-to-month agreement. Went over it with Jack point by point, made a few changes at his suggestion, then had it all ready to sign on the 1st. He'd just started a new job that paid $13/hour instead of the minimum wage he's been making for the last year, so we're in the clear, right?
So we both sign the agreement, which says he'll pay me on the first of the month. Standard "7 days to pay, otherwise $25 late fee, either of us can end the arrangement with 30 days notice" type of verbiage included. As he's handing it back to me, he says, "By the way, I'm not going to be able to pay you until the 25th this month."
Excuse me?
"Yeah, with this new job, I won't get my first paycheck until the 25th. I don't even have enough money to buy more food until then, that's why I've been so stressed over the last week."
WTF. What would he be doing if we were still at the apartment? I've gotten used to floating the guy a couple bucks here and there, but on top of what he already owed me, now it's close to $500. Thankfully I'm pretty liquid right now and it's not a massive financial strain, but come the fuck on. You know about this for over a week and don't tell me until the moment I ask you to pay? That's fucking sketchy.
Not 3 days later, I get a call from him that he got hit by a drunk driver. Thankfully he's alright, and the other guy's insurance has taken full responsibility, but there's a chance the car is totaled, and depending on how they determine value and payout... Well, that's up in the air for the time being. No point speculating.
I'm trying to be gracious, told him I'd waive the late fee for May/June. I get that paycheck schedules get screwy when you start a new job, I don't want to kick someone when they're down from a car accident... but this whole thing is clearly a shift from our roommates arrangement, and new boundaries are getting set as landlord/tenant. I just need to make sure I don't get screwed over in this thing as we're figuring out what the new normal is.
Anyways, sorry about the length for what probably wasn't the most exciting update. I'm sensing some drama on the horizon, though. Stay tuned.
In other news: the show is done, I'm all moved in, have time for a social life again, love the house, starting to see a pretty girl who seems pretty cool... Overall life's great. Except for this damn situation with Jack.