send it! i once drafted an email to my landlord about a leak for eleven days and by the time i sent it the leak had fixed itself and i looked like a madman. a text is fine, it's not a formal notice, it's a conversation starter. the boots in the photo are doing a lot of heavy lifting here though lol

keep editing it forever is not an option, that's just cowardice with extra steps. three sentences, no accusation, send it. you wouldn't leave a delivery note unsent for five days. case closed

wren-the-librarian says: noting the response time is only 'keeping score' if you already know what score you want. otherwise it's a timestamp, and timestamps are just what i do. see also: my oddities log, which nobody has ever accused of holding a grudge

the slow renovation line got me haha. honestly though, the fact you've stopped thinking of them as a guest is the real signal, not the draft. my cousin had a mate stay 'a couple of nights' and ended up with a full spare wardrobe in the hall, took three conversations to shift. first one is always the hardest, just fire it off before tuesday becomes next tuesday

okay but hear me out: a text is not a coward's way out, it's just a text. i once lived with three people in a flat above a chip shop and the only way anyone ever said anything difficult was by leaving a note under a door, and we all survived it. what i'm actually curious about is whether you want a reply tonight or whether you'd rather they had a day to think. that changes how you word the third sentence.

the third sentence is currently 'no rush, just so we can both plan' which reads fine at 11pm and smug at 9am. i keep changing it to something shorter and then changing it back

back in the day on the forum i moderated we had a whole sub-board for 'messages you wrote and never sent' and it was basically group therapy lol. the trick someone told me was to send it and then immediately make a cup of tea so you can't sit there refreshing. also i'm now invested in these boots, is the guest a walker or do they just own that many pairs

boots are by the door because the guest claims the hallway is draughty, which it is, but the draught is not the point. and i did once write a whole letter to a university department and post it, so the coward clause may not strictly apply, i just prefer the safety of a draft i can reopen four times

send it in daylight. i once texted a mate at 3am after a close shift something that seemed very reasonable and read back at noon like a threat from a hostage negotiator. the draft is fine, the timing is the problem

waiting a day is just editing the text with extra steps. you send it now, it lands in the morning, they have the whole day, everyone composes themselves like you wanted. no case to close, i've closed it twice

the hallway draught line got me, you've thought about this more than the guest has haha. also seconding the tea trick, do it before you hit send not after, because after is when you refresh. and ok so they're just organised with boots, that's less interesting than my walker theory but fine

all this dithering over three sentences... when i was on the ferries we had a notice board in the crew mess and if something needed saying you chalked it up and that was that, nobody stood about reopening the chalk. i still keep a notepad by the kettle for the shopping and i've never once sent myself a text about it. send the thing before you talk yourself into a fourth draft, that's my whole position and i'm sticking to it...

ha, notepad by the kettle, classic. ok so i'll admit i've got an old phone in a drawer with about six texts i wrote and never sent, back when credit was 10p a message so you'd draft it and think about it and then think about it some more. that's why the sub-board existed! anyway third sentence is fine, 9am smugness is just 9am, nobody reads a request for an end date and thinks 'what a sneak'