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So as I sit here listening to my scruffy old plumber stomping up and down my stairs, slamming the front door repeatedly, and making all sorts of other ungodly noises with saws and drills, all while constantly muttering to himself, it occurs to me... it doesn't matter if you rent or own, either way you're screwed.
This past weekend my friend called to ask if she could stay with me for a couple of nights because her heater had gone out. Her landlord decided that since she will be selling the house as soon as my friend moves out this coming spring she doesn't want to pay for a new heating unit (which 3 different HVAC repairmen have now said it is in dire need of replacing). Instead, she wants the repairman to simply replace the part that's broken (which, as it turns out, is only about $1000 less than buying a new unit -- and obviously adds no value to the house like a new unit would). So after nearly a week without heat, my friend is still sleeping on my couch waiting for this difficult-to-find part to come in and the repairman to replace it. Their best guess is it will be done by Monday.
Well her crashing at my place turned out to be something of a blessing, because on Tuesday my dad came over to help me fix my leaky faucet in my shower. I'll spare you the details, but basically it took a LOT of force to get the shower handle off in order to replace the o-rings and stop the leak because whoever had put the handle on in the first place had done it incorrectly. Well what we didn't know at the time was that when my dad was applying so much force to get the handle off, he was also twisting the two small copper pipes that connect the handle to the shower valve, creating cracks in the pipe. After we reassembled everything and turned the water back on, everything looked just fine so I left for work. Well about an hour later my friend, who has just arrived at my house, calls me. "Ummm, there's water leaking from your kitchen ceiling and is soaking the floor." Awesome. So I head home, cut off the main water line, and call the plumber. He discovers the twisted pipes and says he doesn't have time to fix it that night (as it's already around 8pm) so he'll come back tomorrow. He shows up the next day (an hour and a half late, of course) and shows me the price of the parts for the repair.
He senses my sticker shock, so tells me I can go to Lowes and buy the part myself for a fraction of the price and he'll come back the next day to finish the job. Ok. By now it's Thursday and I'm waiting around with my brand new part for him to show up and install it. Finally, late Thursday afternoon I call the company to find out where he is. Apparently he's not scheduled to come out until Friday between 8 and 10am. Gee, thanks for telling me. Friday 10am comes and goes, no plumber. I call back. "Oh, it says here we were waiting to hear back from you." Ummmmm.... no. I have been sitting at my house now for a DAY AND A HALF waiting for him to show up, so trust me, it's not me you're waiting on. Ok, he'll be there this afternoon. So now here I sit, my plumber finally here making a horrible racket, crossing my fingers that he'll be out of here soon. Oh, and did I also mention that I just got back from the local hardware store because THE PLUMBER didn't have the right parts so he had ME go run to the hardware store while he kept working? Aren't you a plumber?? Shouldn't you have these things with you??? I swear he better give me a serious discount...
So moral of the story is, whether you're dealing with penny-pinching landlords who take over a week to fix your heater, or noisy plumbers who don't show up on time and forget half their materials, renting AND owning both suck. Also, never let your dad fix your leaky faucet
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This past weekend my friend called to ask if she could stay with me for a couple of nights because her heater had gone out. Her landlord decided that since she will be selling the house as soon as my friend moves out this coming spring she doesn't want to pay for a new heating unit (which 3 different HVAC repairmen have now said it is in dire need of replacing). Instead, she wants the repairman to simply replace the part that's broken (which, as it turns out, is only about $1000 less than buying a new unit -- and obviously adds no value to the house like a new unit would). So after nearly a week without heat, my friend is still sleeping on my couch waiting for this difficult-to-find part to come in and the repairman to replace it. Their best guess is it will be done by Monday.
Well her crashing at my place turned out to be something of a blessing, because on Tuesday my dad came over to help me fix my leaky faucet in my shower. I'll spare you the details, but basically it took a LOT of force to get the shower handle off in order to replace the o-rings and stop the leak because whoever had put the handle on in the first place had done it incorrectly. Well what we didn't know at the time was that when my dad was applying so much force to get the handle off, he was also twisting the two small copper pipes that connect the handle to the shower valve, creating cracks in the pipe. After we reassembled everything and turned the water back on, everything looked just fine so I left for work. Well about an hour later my friend, who has just arrived at my house, calls me. "Ummm, there's water leaking from your kitchen ceiling and is soaking the floor." Awesome. So I head home, cut off the main water line, and call the plumber. He discovers the twisted pipes and says he doesn't have time to fix it that night (as it's already around 8pm) so he'll come back tomorrow. He shows up the next day (an hour and a half late, of course) and shows me the price of the parts for the repair.
He senses my sticker shock, so tells me I can go to Lowes and buy the part myself for a fraction of the price and he'll come back the next day to finish the job. Ok. By now it's Thursday and I'm waiting around with my brand new part for him to show up and install it. Finally, late Thursday afternoon I call the company to find out where he is. Apparently he's not scheduled to come out until Friday between 8 and 10am. Gee, thanks for telling me. Friday 10am comes and goes, no plumber. I call back. "Oh, it says here we were waiting to hear back from you." Ummmmm.... no. I have been sitting at my house now for a DAY AND A HALF waiting for him to show up, so trust me, it's not me you're waiting on. Ok, he'll be there this afternoon. So now here I sit, my plumber finally here making a horrible racket, crossing my fingers that he'll be out of here soon. Oh, and did I also mention that I just got back from the local hardware store because THE PLUMBER didn't have the right parts so he had ME go run to the hardware store while he kept working? Aren't you a plumber?? Shouldn't you have these things with you??? I swear he better give me a serious discount...So moral of the story is, whether you're dealing with penny-pinching landlords who take over a week to fix your heater, or noisy plumbers who don't show up on time and forget half their materials, renting AND owning both suck. Also, never let your dad fix your leaky faucet
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hope this is the end of your home owning troubles!
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