House Rules

Sunday, March 03, 2002 This is a privately owned vacation home.  Some day this will be our retirement home.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  In order to ensure your comfort, as well as that of future guests, we have a few house rules.  Please follow them, have a great time and be sure to come back! PROPERTY MANAGER: Michael Hawkins is our property manager, we will provide you with his contact information before your rental date.  Michael is our property manager and will assist you while you are there, he is not a rental agent, and does not get involved with rental details. Key pick up and drop off should be arranged with Michael.  HOUSEKEEPING: this is a housekeeping rental.  We do house cleaning between renters, but this is for major things like washing windows and walls, deep cleaning bathrooms and the like.  We expect our renters to keep the house clean while they are in it and to leave it clean when they leave.  We get a lot of questions about this, and we know different people have different standards of cleanliness, but if you keep the house as you would your own and leave it broom clean we will be happy.  We don't expect renters to scrub floors unless they spill something on the other hand we do expect not to find excessive filth or dirty conditions.  Please take out all the trash and garbage before you leave.  We try to keep the house equipped with cleaning supplies, a vacuum, brooms etc.  If you want to make arrangements for cleaning while you are there, or extra cleaning when you leave you can discuss this with Michael.  Our property manager periodically checks on things, we understand clutter and are not asking that the house be tidy, but if we find the house to be excessively dirty or damaged we will ask you to leave immediately and to forfeit the deposit.  If you need more maid service than we offer let us know and we can help you make arrangements.  One important part of housekeeping is the garbage, this is a rural area and we get only once a week garbage service, on Wednesday.  You will have two large garbage cans and you can put additional bags out.  Any additional bags need to only be put out garbage day morning to keep raccoons and dogs out of them.  You need to manage your garbage carefully and when you leave on Saturday you must leave no more than one can full and no garbage beside the can.  For  most people this means taking care to be sure you take out all the garbage you have on garbage day so that you won't need more space before you leave.  If you leave more garbage than that the next renter will have a problem finding a place for their garbage.  Please don't leave any trash or garbage in the house.  If you leave excessive garbage we have to charge you so we can pay someone $50 to make a special trip to the dump. PETS: are not allowed unless prior arrangements have been made.  There is an additional pet charge.  We know the neighbors on both sides who watch the house for us, and the property manager looks closely for hair, so we will know.  If we have given prior permission for you to take a pet please be responsible.  There is no fence so please watch your dog to keep it away from their house.   If you walk to the west past the jetties to the bird refuge dogs are not allowed, if you keep your dog on a leash and stay on the beach below the high tide line you will probably be ok, but don't let a dog loose west of the jetties.  Violations of the pet rules are grounds for us to ask you to leave immediately.  We don't know what the leash law is but we have been told that when walking a dog on the beach you either have to have the dog under your control or on a leash.  This seems to be what most people do. No SMOKING is allowed in the house, please smoke on the screen porch or outside.  Please don't throw butts on the ground. Fires on the beach are banned by county ordinance; we are not sure, but we think this is for the Turtles; fires in the colder months seem to be tolerated.  If you do build a fire please do it below the high tide line to insure that the coals are washed away. TURTLES AND LIGHTS: May through October only we have turtles that nest on the beach, this past summer one nested just about 75 feet east of the house.  Lights disturb nesting turtles so PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE LIGHTS ON OUTSIDE, ON THE SCREENED PORCH OR IN ANY ROOM FACING THE GULF.  The lights will tend to disorient the adults, who lay eggs at night, and worse if the eggs hatch at night the young will go towards the lights and not the water, this could kill an entire batch of young.  Use the lights when you need them, but please make it fast, and don't leave them on.  Don't be surprised if someone knocks on the door and asks you to turn lights out.  This is illegal; you can get fined up to $500 for leaving lights on!  We like our turtles, and we want to rent to people who do also.  In the summer of 2001 a loggerhead turtle laid it eggs right in front of our house and thanks to renters being careful with the lights the hatch was successful and a couple of hundred baby turtles made it into the water! PROBLEMS:  If anything goes wrong or breaks please call the property manager.  You should know however that this is a "rustic" house, calling about major problems (like no AC in summer) should get a quick response, but minor maintenance won't always.  We do however appreciate it if you would let us know about less urgent problems you think we need to look at. SAND:  There is a lot of it.  If you wash your feet before going into the house you'll find that the floor stays cleaner. We usually fill a bucket and put it at the foot of the stairs to wash feet in. PARTIES:  No loud or destructive parties are allowed.  This is a quiet neighborhood please help us keep it that way.  Violation of the loud party ban will result in immediate eviction.  We hate to even mention drugs, but we have to.  No illegal drugs of any kind are allowed on the property at any time.  If we find them we will call the police and have you arrested; and we will immediately evict everyone from the house.  We sure hope this doesn't apply to you, if it does please don't rent from us. FURNITURE:  We don't suggest moving furniture around, but if you please lift don't drag and return the beds and large pieces to the original location before you leave. BARBECUES:  We just put in an outdoor park type barbecue, nothing fancy just an open charcoal box with a grill, like you see in parks and campgrounds.  It's galvanized and we hope it will survive our salt water for a few years.  You will need charcoal and lighter fluid to use it.  Please don't put aluminum foil on the bottom.  Please dispose of ash and old coals by putting them in a bucket and dumping them on the beach below the high tide line.  This environmentally ok, it is just ash and becomes a part of the beach.  Putting the ash in a garbage can is dangerous, hot coals can last a long time.  Please do not leave ash or coals in the grill and please do not dispose of them on the ground. YOUR FEET:  Wear shoes!  There are lots of hazards to the feet in the yard, on the decks and gazebo, and on the beach. The boardwalk and gazebo are old and look a bit rickety but should hold you.  One problem we have been fighting is rising nails, particularly in the boardwalk. The nail heads tend to work their way up to where you could stub a toe or something on them.  We do try and keep them driven down but it is amazing how fast one can come up.  In the yard you will find plenty of sand spurs, stinging nettle and even cactus.  In the yard we also have construction debris from remodeling that we have tried to cleanup but you will occasionally find things that could stab the foot.  We also have fire ants.  Watch the feet, wear shoes! GROUNDS FOR EXPULSION:  Violation of certain of these rules are grounds for immediate expulsion and loss of all rent and deposits.  If we find more people staying in the house than you contracted for; if you have a loud party or disturb the neighbors; if you have an unauthorized pet; if the house becomes excessively dirty; or if due to carelessness or negligence you damage the house, furnishings, or property. you will be asked to leave immediately and your deposit will be forfeited.  This is something we have never done, but last year had a renter we probably should have done it to.  Another thing we hate to mention, but we had a incident recently so we have to, illegal drugs are illegal, if we discover them on the property we will evict you immediately, we will call the police and will have you arrested.  If you use drugs do not rent from us.  We are hoping that by making our policy clear we will never have to enforce it. Home