Seeking Ideas

[shadesong]

Okay, so, soon-I-hope I will have an empty room in my house.

And I have that hole in my budget - which I'm looking into ways of making up, but still.

The thing is, I do not want a stranger living in my house. No, not even a friend-of-a-friend. I'm typing this in a tank top and underpants and I wanna be able to continue this lifestyle. Especially in the summer. Damn.

Plus

a) this is actually my workplace, too, and I think you can't force renters to leave the house for several hours per day, and
b) I don't know that I'll feel safe with anyone I don't know well living two doors down from me, given what happened.

So I'm looking for ways to utilize and monetize that space and maybe the soon-to-be-empty garage space. Ideas? Does anyone need an occasional room for something? Workshop with negotiable hours?

Comments

[cos]

If you could handle someone you don't know staying occasionally for a couple of days, you could do airbnb or something similar, and just limit which days the room is available - as soon as anyone books, you could block off a bunch of days around that time so you don't get consecutive guests. I just searched airbnb and found a few rooms in Watertown ranging from $40/night - $90/night, so for just a few nights a month you could make almost what a full month's rent would be from a regular renter.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

...there have been many cases of people being raped, violently assaulted in other ways, and robbed by AirBnB "guests". Pretty much the least safe thing I could do with that room!

[lightcastle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, both it and couchsurfer have been having some serious problems with this.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

i was about to say this...
however...
as an option... you have a garage and i presume a driveway or something... you COULD rent out overnight parking to people who need to be in town, drive somewhere, or an RV.. they get no house access, garage only

not sure how that works, but i know some folks who drove in to Boston and parked at a friends, then went to the hotel for a convention because valet or non vcalet parking was horrid