Thinking I have a wonderful landlord. I had sent him an email recently inquiring if the furnace & A/C are due for routine maintenance (I've been here 5-1/2 years). He called today to discuss that, and said he may look into replacing them considering their ages. I told him that some neighbors have informed me that this house may be within reach of a nearby gas line so he can consider that while deciding about replacing the furnace. He told me not to fill the oil tank just yet (I've been monitoring the price of heating oil so I can fill up over the summer before the prices start rising - they've dropped 30 cents a gallon so far this year).
During our talk he wondered, without trying to get personal info from me, if the rent was too high for me. I think he was going to offer to lower it for me if I had said yes. I told him that I am living basically paycheck to paycheck, which is why I sometimes ask him to hold the rent check till after my next paycheck (get paid every two weeks), but I'm doing ok.
He told me he'd like me to stay here as long as possible so he wants to help if he can. I also told him that I was having 2nd thoughts about buying the house (which we haven't discussed since he found renters for his other house). No problem.
It helps, of course, that he was a work friend of my husband. And that I'm not a demanding tenent.