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Year-Round Rental WantedOctober 20, 2006 Long, long ago, in an East Coast city far, far away, I read a newspaper feature about how renters on Cape Cod had to move twice a year because landlords wanted to maximize their intake from the summer people. I was appalled. Then I moved to Martha's Vineyard. I moved eight times in three years. This was nothing: one woman I knew had moved 18 times in 10 years -- with two kids. Half the people I knew moved twice a year, or had until recently. Quite a few people who owned houses rented them out for one, two, or three summer months: it was the only way they could pay their mortgages. They moved in with relatives for the duration; some even went off-island. It's sobering how fast the appalling can become normal. My first spring I obsessed about moving for more than two months -- and I was one of the lucky ones, who had a place to move to. My second spring I packed and moved in two days. My third summer I bought my first-ever motor vehicle: a pickup truck. Tesah Toyota charmed my life: after I bought her, I didn't move again till the spring of '92, and that rental lasted almost 10 years. Stability breeds complacency. I started doing things that only homeowners do -- homeowners, and renters with chutzpah. I'm mostly WASP by breeding, and chutzpah is recessive in the WASP gene pool. That means both your parents have to be carriers or you don't have a chance. Neither of my parents had any chutzpah whatsoever. I adopted a puppy. I started a novel. I bought a horse. I became a full-time freelancer. Then my rental was sold, to one of those hyper city people who've so fouled their own nest they need a place to rest and recoup and, in the process, foul someone else's nest. As it happened, that nest was mine. While the rest of the country was preoccupied with 9/11, I was moving -- twice. A supposedly year-round situation turned out not to be: in late April my landlady gave notice I had to move by July 1. Working islanders will grasp immediately the direness of the situation: Find a year-round rental in May. When landlords and -ladies are kicking out the winter renters and jacking up the rents. When you're single, self-supporting, and of modest means. When the few, very few, affordable options you hear of all specify NO PETS. Desperation breeds chutzpah. I did some research. Eviction proceedings take three to four months. District court judges very rarely evict anyone in summer. We shall not, we shall not be moved . . . I told the Muses: If you want me to write about Martha's Vineyard, you have to find me a place to live. I told my landlady that if I didn't find a suitable place, I wasn't moving. She accused me of trying to ruin her life. I FOUND A YEAR-ROUND RENTAL IN JUNE. It's a long story, an island story, but the short version is that Rhodry and I moved into this place on the 30th of June. That was more than four years ago. Now my time here is up. The house is going to be sold, but not immediately. It's fall -- a much better time than May to be seeking a year-round rental. I depend on the Muses. And you. If you're on the island or have island connections -- all leads welcome. If you're not, please visualize something along these lines:
Thanks in advance. I'll keep y'all posted.
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