Renting

It's a dream of mine to own a house in Lake Placid, though it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. So in the meantime we rent.

We've always rented houses on the smaller lake here, called Mirror Lake. The village of Lake Placid, like a majority of the lake towns here, is not on the lake it's named for. Saranac Lake sits on the shores of Lake Flower, Tupper Lake isn't on a lake at all. And Lake Placid is on Mirror Lake.

It's odd spending 2 weeks in someone else's house. Many of the rental houses here are truly set up for the task. There's a full array of sturdy stuff for the renters and all the good stuff is squirreled away in a couple of locked rooms and closets.

The house we're staying at is clearly not primarily a rental property. The owner's stuff is everywhere, there's no touristy information to be found, and nothing's locked up. We've found at least 5 junk drawers full of assorted stuff. This makes it kind of homey and kind of curious too. How do you have a kitchen without measuring spoons? Why are there over 100 sandwich plates and 8 bowls? Why 3 kitchen cabinets full of glasses? Why are there large open boxes or trash bags in 3 different places, and for that matter, why are there 3 garbage pails in the kitchen? I wonder if every time they have something in their regular home that they don't want or need anymore they just deposit it here.

And then there's the eternal question. Why are all the doors so squeaky? I can't remember the last time I rented a place and didn't have to run right to the store to get WD-40. Every single door in this house squeaked loudly when we arrived. I'm proud to say that none of them do now.