For The First Time in More Than Four Years, Something Outside My Control Went RIGHT.

My Airbnb staff quit last week without warning. I've never been so relieved.

The newly remodeled Londo Lodge kitchen is one of many luxurious amenities I am excited to share with guests from around the world. Photo by Sara Tramp.

Have you ever had something happen that at first seemed like a total disaster but ended up being one of the best things to ever happen to you? It’s been a long time for me since something like that happened, but I was just blessed with something like that and I could not be happier about it. Now, to summarize, here’s a few things that have happened in the past few years:

• A series of snow storms kept me trapped in my house without power (and thus without heat, water, or a way to get out) for twenty days the first year I bought my house.

• The well water system failed and needed to be rebuilt to the tune of $12,000.

• The permit process with my county to rent out my house on Airbnb took eighteen months and cost $15,000, finally getting approved in December 2022, the height of dead season for rentals and right before I was due to start a contractually obligated kitchen renovation.

• A kitchen renovation I was hoping to spend $40,000 on because it was mostly sponsored ballooned to way over $100,000.

• The contractor for said kitchen renovation ditched the job, yet took his whole fee (basically he got sucked onto another higher paying closer to where he lived).

• I ended up having to beg my carpenter/contractor friend Justin to help me finish the kitchen, but ended up doing it mostly alone. That led to six months of isolation, depression, a fifty pound weight gain, and clumps of my hair falling out because I was so stressed out I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing.

• The heating system failed the first time I tried to use it, thought it passed the inspection with flying colors. It cost $1000 to fix.

• Two years later, the heating system failed and needed to be replaced. This happened while an Airbnb guest was in the house and had to be evacuated due to noxious gas smell and, obviously, lack of heat.

• My Samsung Frame TV, which cost $2000 plus another $200 for the maple frame - it’s really stupid to me they don’t just let you choose the color instead of making you pay extra for the frame - decided to die. I was dumb and didn’t buy the extended warrantee and all the repair shops I called (which barely exist anymore) told me the problem was not fixable. It’s now electronic waste after less than two years.

• A series of unprecedented wind storms left so much debris in my yard I had to hire a crew to remove it to the tune of almost $3000.

• Part of the roof collapsed under the weight of snow and needed repair.

Sorry for the laundry list of homeowner woes, but I’m writing these down just to emphasize how these have changed my outlook and brain to expect basically anything that could go wrong to go wrong.

I was standing at my Yosemite lodge’s kitchen sink yesterday and I thought to myself, “Wait, the water heater hasn’t failed yet. FUCK.” Based on the past few years, I’m guessing I’ll have to replace that sooner rather than later, though I’m hoping not too soon because I’m currently reeling from how expensive the kitchen was.

At this point, nearly all the systems at Londo Lodge have been replaced. Which is to be expected, it’s a thirty year old house. But I hope I’m getting to the end of this never ending stream of things going wrong because it’s had a really negative effect on my level of positivity - I’m basically a big ol womp womp now and I would love to return to being more positive in my outlook. Despite all this, I have never once regretted buying the house. I feel very lucky to own a home.

I have, however, become resigned to the fact that I’m just in a period of bad luck and know that if something can go wrong, it most definitely will. So this past week when yet another thing went wrong, I wasn’t surprised at all.

I made a quick trip to Londo Lodge to install a new TV (to replace the aforementioned broken Samsung Frame TV), Monday night to Wednesday morning. My mom and sister came with me. I also completely reorganized the living room so there would be more seating in there to make it more comfortable for Airbnb guests and for my family when we spend time up there. Installing the TV was labor intensive and involved de-installing an entire gallery wall, a giant, heavy vintage console, and moving two gorgeous yet very heavy sofas. Side note: if you can afford it, buy this stunning sofa from Maiden Home. It’s not the most practical, because it really only seats one person (or one grandma and one grandchild) comfortably, but it’s one of my favorite things in my house and the cushion covers come off easily for dry cleaning.

Anyway, all of this is to say I didn’t have much time while I was up there and the plan was to reset the house. So I didn’t have time to drive to town (about 30 minutes away) to grab supplies. So when I found out we were out of a lot of supplies for the next guest, I texted the property manager and asked her why they were not on site. Minutes later, I went to use the coffee maker and it was covered in coffee stains. So I texted the manager again and let her know that I needed it to be cleaner than that - I have extremely high standards for my guests and I would be really grossed out if I showed up to a filthy coffee maker. In post-Covid times, I really need things to be clean in my house because I want people to be comfortable and happy there. And real talk, my Airbnb is the most expensive one in town so it needs to better than the other ones (which it is in my opinion, I’ve worked very hard to make it so).

The first response I got was from the housekeeper, telling me she quit and “other housekeepers don’t clean the floor, toilet and they don’t change out sheets.” Um… What do other housekeepers do then??? My response: “K.”

Then the manager, who happens to be the housekeeper’s mom, also quit. My response to that was “OK.” I wasn’t gonna have a back and forth with these women because, the moment they quit, I realized we’d never really liked each other. I had been walking around on eggshells for the years I’d known them, scared if I asked for anything they’d think of me as some sort of spoiled tyrant.