So I've got a roommate...

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#1

…or possibly an indentured servant?

I’ve never had a roommate before, except for a few weeks in college when a high school friend decided to try her hand at being an art student. Didn’t work out and I went back to living single in the dorms (hurray paperwork blunders!)

Since I moved out of my parents’ place when I was 24 I have been living blissfully single for the past 3 years in my 3-bedroom, 1-bath house. I often do silly stuff like taking a shower at 3 AM, walking around naked or washing my clothes at odd hours because these were things I could not do when living with my parents - or anyone else with a normal schedule, I guess.

About 2 weeks ago I went to a baseball game with a friend and his friend. I knew the FOAF had been laid off from his job and learned he was living in a storage unit not too far from here. After the game we came back to my house and I mentioned to the FOAF that if he needed the phone in an emergency or needed a quick shower he was welcome to stop by.

He said “can I sleep on your couch tonight?” and I said ok…

After some thought that same night, I realized that I would be working insane hours for a month. Basically my schedule was “whenever you are awake, you will work.” And, there was a ton of yardwork that needed to be done around here that I was not going to get to any time soon.

So, I made a proposal to this dude…I made a list of all the yardwork that needed to be done and he could stay around for 2 weeks (AND sleep in the guest room) if he worked on the list. He thought that was a swell trade.

It’s been kind of weird for me having a roommate. I’ve definitely had to ease into it. Dude has a fairly small footprint so that’s not too bad. He told me it was a pleasure to stay here and it was easy to keep clean, compared to some of the shitholes he’s lived in before.

I haven’t had to deal with him much, since I am working so much (I work at home). He’s not going as quickly with the yard work as I’d hoped, but it’s getting done. Seems to do one or two things every other day. I hate yardwork so much that I’m willing to let him go easy just as long as I don’t have to do it.

He also does the dishes, which is nice. I usually can’t be arsed to do those.

I am pretty sure he’ll be here longer than 2 weeks, because I don’t see him doing too much job hunting. He’s also not having the best luck getting his unemployment check. I’m not going to delve into that tho because he’s a grown man and can deal with it himself. Or his friends can help him.

I took him out with me the other night and introduced him as “this is Dan. he stays with me.” heh

Quite odd indeed to have what is basically an indentured servant around. If he wants to stay longer I can have him do more work. There’s always something.

Pretty soon I’ll be done with my marathon work month and I’ll be spending less time in the office. Me and Dan might actually have to converse. He’s pretty chatty when he gets going, and I have a hard time telling people to STFU. So I guess I’ll be spending a lot of time trying to avoid getting into conversations with him.

When I told my Republican friend that I had a guy staying with me out of pity for his situation, he said “It must be hard to be a Democrat.” HA!

Anyway, that was mindless and pointless. But I need to kill time so as to avoid having to talk to my “roommate.” Yeeeah…

#2

Mm…well, good luck when it comes time to throw him out.

“In, easy easy. Out, no no.”

#3

I live with a roommate in her house. She travels quite a bit with her job and to see friends. She has 3 cats who are like her children. I pay a minimal amount of rent - it includes all utilities and internet/cable to live in her 3-bedroom 2 1/2 bath house - she doesn’t have to pay for boarding of her cats or a pet sitting service.

Occasionally I keep her plants alive - it’s just not my strong suit.

We get along fine mostly because even though we both are chatty - we only chat about 20 minutes or so each day before going to our own separate spaces. And, like I said, she travels a lot.

I also spend most weekends over at my boyfriend’s house and sometimes one or two nights during the week.

However, her travelling will quiet down around mid-October and then that should be interesting. I’ve been working 2 part-time jobs but hopefully will have found one full-time job by then.

Good luck with the roommate thing - I understand the naked 2 AM thing - I’m kind of like that myself when she’s not home and it’s a bit hard to adjust to clothes and all when she’s here.

#4

Yeah I usually sleep naked and the first night he was here, even tho I slept with the door closed, I had on a full pajama set. It took me a week or so to feel certain that he wasn’t going to come in my room. He has absolutely no reason to, and he’s probably more “scared” of me than I am of him but it’s still awkward.

Plus, I had a “male friend” over one night and I had to specifically ask him to take off. That was odd. I mean, it’s my house and all and I had every right to tell him to get lost but I still felt weird about it. heh

#5

Heheh, I know that, being used to be alone, I’d find it very odd to have someone sharing with me, but your guy sounds all right, really. I suppose it will be tricky when you have less work and more time to keep tripping over him, but he seems okay so far. Good luck with it all. :)(

Dan will have to start looking for a new plan, though. New job, new living arrangement.

#6

First of all, I am not a lawyer, etc., etc.
Second of all: good on ya for wanting to help someone in need.

But WTF? You’ve essentially entered into an agreement with this person that exchanges goods and services for rent. Him doing the yard work and other chores can be construed to mean this is how he pays rent.

There are all kind of red flags here: living in a storage unit; you don’t really know him; can’t figure out how to get his unemployment check; not working at a pace you feel is adequate; not really looking for work… egads!

I hope this works out ok for all involved, it usually does, but just a few months ago there was a thread on this board about the nightmare a Doper was having getting her non-paying, theiving roomates out of the apartment.

Don’t mean to be a downer, and again I hope it works out ok, but if you envision this person staying on for more than a month I’d get some sort of lease/rental agreement properly drawn up on paper and make your intentions known.