Our landlady just offered us our house. She's noticed that we've been doing a lot to spruce it up -- everything from repainting the mail box (we are stenciling it. I asked first -- DS wanted to do it after we visited the Hobbiton set in Matamata). we redid the garden, we've cleared out areas where there was just trash, we've cleaned out under the house (lots of trash). we've started repainting the three remaining rooms to be painted. We keep the house cleaner than any tenant she's ever had. And, we are proud of the space.
We told her we aren't in a position to buy, but we understand if she needs to sell. She said "oh no, I just thought, you know, you are a nice little family, and if you were looking to buy (since she'd seen us checking out several local open houses), you could always buy this cottage. YOu seem to really love it here, and I love having good neighbors (since she lives next door)." And said that the "door is open" if we are interested.
Yay!