Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Not fun . . .

Fair warning . . . I'm gonna whine.

Sunday morning I woke to a frozen toilet feeder line in my back bathroom. I put a heater on it in the basement crawl space and it broke free in about 2 hours and there was no damage. Lucky . . . or so I thought.

I spent the whole day patiently waiting for the BIG game and watching all the pre-pre-pre game fluff. I was enjoying myself . . . until I sat down on the toilet and the seat cracked (no fat jokes) pinching my thigh. Not very fun. I decided to run to Lowe's and get a new seat before the game. I headed out the front door and I heard this horrific crack. The door jam inside the wall snapped and I could not shut my door in sub-zero weather. After about 20 minutes of messing with it I got it closed and I have someone coming out to measure this week so I can get a new one installed. Not fun!

I sit down with pizza and a warm snuggly house to watch the game. About an hour into the game I decide I should run next door and check the apartment and make sure everything is still dripping since it so miserably cold and I don't want anything else to freeze. As soon as I walk in the back door I hear rushing water. I had a pipe break in the basement and it was spewing water. I had to turn water off to the whole house. I spent the remainder of the superbowl trying to get a plumber out to no avail. We went without water until the next day.

The plumber came out and put new shut-offs on those lines and turned the rest of the house back on. He cannot fix the lines in the half bath on the other side until it gets warmer. that's okay because my new renters aren't moving in until later in the month. The kicker is . . . they had us turn on the faucets to drain the lines, so when the water went back on Robert forgot the renter's side was on. The upstairs sink was on and it is a slow drainer so it was raining in the dining room. The water was on for about 1 hour before he realized it. Now I have a wonderful mess in the dining room to work on.

Lastly, my renters moved out this weekend, so I have repairs to make as well as painting and hauling away all their old junk. They left crazy amounts of crap and trash and junk, old tvs, old microwaves, nasty curtains and various stuff. The basement is a disaster and every wall in the house has crayons or marker drawings, along with about 500 nail holes. (ok maybe an exxageration). They didn't even vaccuum, I dumped my vaccuum 3 times before I was finished sweeping the mess. You should've seen the laundry room and the mess they left from behind the washer and dryer. I about puked. And by the way, don't think that you're gonna get all your deposit if I have to clean your nastiness out of the fridge. In my whole life I have never left an apartment that was not clean and neat. I have scrubbed the fridge, the toilet and the tub. I want my deposit, and I was raised to respect other people's things. Makes me irritated and crazy angry!

Have a great day!

3 comments:

John Good said...

It must be something about Sundays. . .LAST Sunday, at 8:30 at night (my normal rack time is 10), my youngest daughter came out of her playroom and said "Daddy, the ceiling is raining".

The dishwasher drain-hose had cracked in the kitchen above. Lucky she noticed, I wouldn't have had a clue until likely the next day! Thank God I opted for drop ceilings in the basement! I only had to replace four tiles and dry out some carpeting. . .

Patty said...

I always thought it would be a GREAT financial thing to have a duplex and then let the renters make the house payment. That was until I heard WAY to many horror stories like yours. Now I believe it would be easier to deliver pizzas for extra cash.

Like yourself, I was the perfect renter (but then, when am I not perfect?), and can't believe people can leave some of the messes that they do, so I guess that is the problem...thinking others would practice the golden rule. I am sorry you have such a mess to clean up. How about figuring something out so for every piece of trash/mark/vacume bag dumping you remove you get a point and those points can be cashed in for something really cool that you have been wanting. Kind of like paying kids for As (which I don't do, but if it is for you we can make an exception).

Laura said...

When I left my appointment in Detroit there was no way we were getting our deposit back because my brother was in arrears on the rent. That place still looked as good when I left as it did the day that I moved in, except for wear and tear of 7 years in the same place. I can't imagine leaving a mess for someone else to clean up.