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garoteHello _______.
I hope things are going well with you. There are some things about the house I think we should sync up on.
The first is, I've removed the cherry tree in the back yard and am in the process of removing the wood. The tree was "the wrong tree in the wrong place" according to the arborist I consulted a month or so ago: It was scraping against the neighbor's house and no matter how he pruned it back, it would continue to grow in the wrong direction. It would also never produce more than a few cherries, since the temperature has to drop below freezing to trigger them.
Removing the tree makes a gap in the sort of "privacy screen" of foliage in the back yard, and I'm not sure what to replace it with. My current idea is to just move the bird of paradise in the large pot over there, and let it grow while still confined to the pot. It might reach just the right size and stay there. What are your thoughts?
Next up: The fences. They were built without cement footings, and the recent wind and rain has damaged them quite a bit. The gaps make the backyard feel less secure, and I plan to correct that and hopefully re-use most of the materials, but getting a local handyman with space in their schedule has been very difficult. I may have to do it myself, with help from my contractor friend. In the meantime I'm just going to use a bit of rope to keep them upright. Bear with me!
Next: I have a PG&E inspector coming by with a contractor to do an inspection of the front yard and sidewalk, as part of the work to install separate utility connections for the duplex. They'll be coming by around 9:30am on Tuesday, May 9th. They won't need to come inside.
I have one more issue to raise with you, and it's a complicated one. I have observed recently that your son is smoking in the upstairs bedroom. My observations are not direct, but circumstantial: On 4/20 as I was coming through the front gate I smelled pot smoke, and looked up to see a small bong propped on the upstairs windowsill, and your son spraying air freshener around the room. This worried me, but I reasoned that since it was 4/20, perhaps it was a celebratory one-time act, and I could ignore it.
Since then when arriving home at night I have noticed evidence of smoking two more times, in the form of the distinctive smell and the bong propped on the windowsill.
At first my conclusion was that since he was at least trying to minimize the impact - with the open window - then perhaps I should stop worrying about it and let the deposit take care of any cleanup issues. That's what a deposit is for, after all. Then I realized that if he is smoking indoors, then either the smoke detector upstairs is damaged, or it has been disabled, and either way I need to address that for the sake of safety.
I thought about it for a while and realized there was one major question I didn't have the answer to: Was he doing it with your knowledge? If he was, I could just speak to you. If he wasn't, then my bringing it to your attention could be a violation of his privacy -- something I know I wouldn't have appreciated when I was a teenager. I do not want to be a channel for conflict in your household.
Then I realized that if I actually needed to use the deposit for damage related to smoking, I would have to make your son's activity plain to you at that point anyway. Plus I would then be complicit in allowing damage to occur over time - and a potential charge against your security deposit - that you would have surely wanted to avoid, if you'd known.
So I realized that the right thing to do was bring it up to you. I waited a little longer, hoping that a chance would come for me to run into your son outside, talk to him, and give him the option of telling you himself in advance of me telling you, but that opportunity hasn't come up. Since I assume you would not deliberately violate the lease, this smoking is probably a surprise, and for this surprise I apologize.
I'm sure we can figure out a way to proceed that works for all of us. One outcome I do not want, is for your son to decide to continue smoking but also attempt to conceal it further by closing the windows or using a more confined part of the house. I have no interest in judging him for marijuana use; my concern is over the location. I would much rather see him enjoying it on the back patio, than not see it and ambush you with repair costs later on. No one would be happy at that point!
I'll tell you in this letter what I intended to tell him, if I'd been able to speak with him privately: Some people use pot recreationally and some use it to deal with stress or insomnia issues. I don't judge either way. My primary concern is the safety issue, and my secondary concern is the potential for damage. A possible alternative to the bong is edibles. One of my friends is keen on chocolate covered CBD blueberries, for example. My old landlord Adam suggests using a vape pen, since that can emulate smoking but eliminates the fire hazard and smoke additives that can infuse walls (and eventually the sheetrock beneath them). There are other alternatives as well. If you find that you need the ritual of using the bong, I implore you to use the only space that is appropriate for smoking as outlined in the lease: The back patio. I'm sure that the oncoming summer weather will make it a pleasant place in the evening.
I'm sure this letter will prompt a household discussion or two. Let me know how you decide to proceed.
Sincerely,
_______
I hope things are going well with you. There are some things about the house I think we should sync up on.
The first is, I've removed the cherry tree in the back yard and am in the process of removing the wood. The tree was "the wrong tree in the wrong place" according to the arborist I consulted a month or so ago: It was scraping against the neighbor's house and no matter how he pruned it back, it would continue to grow in the wrong direction. It would also never produce more than a few cherries, since the temperature has to drop below freezing to trigger them.
Removing the tree makes a gap in the sort of "privacy screen" of foliage in the back yard, and I'm not sure what to replace it with. My current idea is to just move the bird of paradise in the large pot over there, and let it grow while still confined to the pot. It might reach just the right size and stay there. What are your thoughts?
Next up: The fences. They were built without cement footings, and the recent wind and rain has damaged them quite a bit. The gaps make the backyard feel less secure, and I plan to correct that and hopefully re-use most of the materials, but getting a local handyman with space in their schedule has been very difficult. I may have to do it myself, with help from my contractor friend. In the meantime I'm just going to use a bit of rope to keep them upright. Bear with me!
Next: I have a PG&E inspector coming by with a contractor to do an inspection of the front yard and sidewalk, as part of the work to install separate utility connections for the duplex. They'll be coming by around 9:30am on Tuesday, May 9th. They won't need to come inside.
I have one more issue to raise with you, and it's a complicated one. I have observed recently that your son is smoking in the upstairs bedroom. My observations are not direct, but circumstantial: On 4/20 as I was coming through the front gate I smelled pot smoke, and looked up to see a small bong propped on the upstairs windowsill, and your son spraying air freshener around the room. This worried me, but I reasoned that since it was 4/20, perhaps it was a celebratory one-time act, and I could ignore it.Since then when arriving home at night I have noticed evidence of smoking two more times, in the form of the distinctive smell and the bong propped on the windowsill.
At first my conclusion was that since he was at least trying to minimize the impact - with the open window - then perhaps I should stop worrying about it and let the deposit take care of any cleanup issues. That's what a deposit is for, after all. Then I realized that if he is smoking indoors, then either the smoke detector upstairs is damaged, or it has been disabled, and either way I need to address that for the sake of safety.
I thought about it for a while and realized there was one major question I didn't have the answer to: Was he doing it with your knowledge? If he was, I could just speak to you. If he wasn't, then my bringing it to your attention could be a violation of his privacy -- something I know I wouldn't have appreciated when I was a teenager. I do not want to be a channel for conflict in your household.
Then I realized that if I actually needed to use the deposit for damage related to smoking, I would have to make your son's activity plain to you at that point anyway. Plus I would then be complicit in allowing damage to occur over time - and a potential charge against your security deposit - that you would have surely wanted to avoid, if you'd known.
So I realized that the right thing to do was bring it up to you. I waited a little longer, hoping that a chance would come for me to run into your son outside, talk to him, and give him the option of telling you himself in advance of me telling you, but that opportunity hasn't come up. Since I assume you would not deliberately violate the lease, this smoking is probably a surprise, and for this surprise I apologize.
I'm sure we can figure out a way to proceed that works for all of us. One outcome I do not want, is for your son to decide to continue smoking but also attempt to conceal it further by closing the windows or using a more confined part of the house. I have no interest in judging him for marijuana use; my concern is over the location. I would much rather see him enjoying it on the back patio, than not see it and ambush you with repair costs later on. No one would be happy at that point!
I'll tell you in this letter what I intended to tell him, if I'd been able to speak with him privately: Some people use pot recreationally and some use it to deal with stress or insomnia issues. I don't judge either way. My primary concern is the safety issue, and my secondary concern is the potential for damage. A possible alternative to the bong is edibles. One of my friends is keen on chocolate covered CBD blueberries, for example. My old landlord Adam suggests using a vape pen, since that can emulate smoking but eliminates the fire hazard and smoke additives that can infuse walls (and eventually the sheetrock beneath them). There are other alternatives as well. If you find that you need the ritual of using the bong, I implore you to use the only space that is appropriate for smoking as outlined in the lease: The back patio. I'm sure that the oncoming summer weather will make it a pleasant place in the evening.
I'm sure this letter will prompt a household discussion or two. Let me know how you decide to proceed.
Sincerely,
_______
