November 12, 1999

Dear Margrit,

Enclosed are the invoices for telephone, electricity and real estate tax bills that I have recently paid for the Konnarock property.  You will note that the long distance telephone charges numbered 1 through 30 were made by me, and of course some of the electrical charges were for days when Margaret and I occupied the house.  I have all my life considered this kind of minute accounting a silly and demeaning waste of time, and I am in no mood to alter my opinion. As always, I am pleased to pay these bills in their entirety, but will not be offended by whatever contribution, if any, you wish to make.

I admit that in the past I have been too overbearing in purporting to assume all responsibility for the management of the house.  So far as I am concerned, while you are occupying it, you should treat it as if it were yours, and you must accept the fact that you have a responsibility to Klemens and me to protect it from fire and vandalism,  and, when you go away, to leave the house in the state in which you received it, ordinary wear and tear excepted; and to restore or replace it, if it is damaged or destroyed in consequence of your negligence.

In this context, I want to remind you that you have the option of purchasing homeowners insurance which will reimburse you for losses by fire and vandalism, provided that you have a list of personal property, i.e. of carpets, furniture, silver, paintings, and clothing, and that you have an authoritative appraisal of the value of all items for which you ask to be reimbursed. The insurance agent won't tell you this when you buy the insurance, but without such documentation, the company will refuse to pay you for the loss. I calculate the area of the house to be approximately 3000 square feet. I estimate building costs at about $150.00 per square foot. To have the house rebuilt by a general contractor would cost somewhere between $300,000 and $450,000 dollars, and that should be the face value of any homeowners policy.  (The value of your trust is at present about $325,000 and would probably not be sufficient to pay for replacing the house.)

Because homeowners insurance is very expensive, and because hitherto the risk has been largely under my control, I have chosen not to purchase such insurance.  For you, however, it may be emotionally necessary to take risks which I consider very unwise, and for you purchasing such insurance may make sense.  I refer specifically to your need to garage your old red Volkswagen underneath the bedroom. In our family, we have had the experience of two aged automobiles catching fire spontaneously.  Partly because of the fire hazard I kept Papas old Dodge outside for years after his death.  That car in fact once burst into flames when Herman tried to start it.  There was a fire extinguisher near by with which he put out the flames.  Do you know where the fire extinguisher is?  Would you be able to get out of your old Volkswagen if it caught fire in the garage?  Lauras car was destroyed by fire while Klemens was driving it down Storrow Drive in Boston.  By the time the fire engines got there, it was charred beyond repair.  Your old red Volkswagen is in such poor mechanical condition that it is likely sooner or later to start leaking gasoline either onto the floor of the garage or onto the engine itself.  In either case, the gasoline might well ignite when the car was started.  I often imagine how I will feel, when you telephone to tell me that the house has burned down. "Accidents do happen," you have told me, and I can accept that, but it gives me the creeps to consider the fate of the driver trapped in the front seat under such circumstances, unable to escape from the burning garage, - since my arthritic right hip makes it very difficult for me to get out of that car even when it is not on fire.  I don't want to have to move it out of the garage again.  I don't want to have to move it back into the garage to placate your eccentricities.  I hope you will get rid of of your old red Volkswagen soon, or find some other garage for it so as to relieve me of the need to drive it when next I come to Konnarock.

I ask of you nothing more that when you go away, you leave the house and grounds as you found them, free of (automotive) junk, or at least leave them in such state that Margaret and I can clean them up. This precludes your parking in the driveway an unregistered, non-functioning car belonging to Lindy Sheets, to yourself, or to anyone else, as you did when Margaret and I were last there. Even if I had a key, it is quite possible, that such a car would not start, would require the assistance or at minimum the consent of the owner to be repaired, would block the driveway, and or the access to the garage. Please do not put me in the position of needing to have such a car towed in order to get it out of the way.

I have no other requests.

Dein Jochen