Thursday, August 6, 2009

A Jumble of Mixed Feelings

Our little condo has a garage, for normal sized vehicles, so we don't park in it. I did get our enormous Durango in once, with the mirrors flipped in (rather than break them off which was an absolute possibility.) We just decided we don't really need to park in the garage for the next several seasons. So the garage has shelves lining its walls, with luggage and sewing projects and gifts for upcoming birthdays and holidays, and also two shelves of food - boxes of corn muffin mix, and saltines and soup and cookie mix and trash bags. Have I mentioned our kitchen is a tad bit small?

So we go to the garage on a regular basis, just never to park the car or drive it out. I'd noticed a few nights ago that there was water trickling in from the back corner of the garage and because this is Pennsylvania I just thought, 'oh they have a bit of a wet basement issue'. Pretty much everyone in Pennsylvania has a bit of water coming into their house at some spot or another. The hardware stores around here do a hefty business of selling dehumidifiers and sump pumps, and we learn to live with a bit of wet too.

I mentioned the little trickle to Don, and told him I guessed the recent rain had come in just a bit. Two nights later, after I'd run the dishwasher because we'd run out of dishes to eat on, he went down to the garage to take out the trash.

The little trickle had turned into a small creek, running from one corner to the other end. Apparently the hot water heater is going out. So we called our landlord, who is a realtor handling rentals for the young couple who owns this place. They bought it, had a baby and she went to grad school, then when she graduated and got a good job offer they knew it wasn't the best market for selling it, so they rented it to us instead.

Mixed feelings: calling our landlord, who happens to be in the Dominican Republic on his honeymoon; knowing this young couple has to fork over somewhere around $1,000 to have a new hot water heater installed; knowing we just rent this place and it's not going to cost us a single red dime.

5 comments:

Dawn said...

The trials and tribulations of renting - - -at least you caught it before it cost you $1,000's of dollars in destroyed goods. I hope you get it repaired quickly. Thanks to the rain around here, I think I'll be calling a roofer to check the chimney flasing and looking for someway to seal the bulkhead door.

Susanne said...

Did the landlord handling the rental not leave someone in charge while he was on honeymoon? Usually guys who handle rentals do have someone who takes care of stuff like this while they are gone.

I wouldn't worry about who owns the place, them being young or not, or how much it will cost them. That is the cost they take on being the owners. We used to own and rent out and that is something that is part of the business of owning a rental.

Unknown said...

See ... THAT'S what I'm talking about! It is so nice to not have to keep up a place. That is the biggest advantage to renting. But I know how you feel. Even so, if they were living there they'd have to replace it too. And this way they can put "new water heater" on the list when they try to sell :)

Barb said...

Occasionally, not very often, but occasionally, there are advantages to not being the owner. I feel bad for them, but good heavens, for ONCE it's not your problem.

Landlords know what the deal is. I can assure you you're paying enough rent to cover this little setback for them.

But...I hope you don't have to go without hot water for any length of time. I never said landlords are fast. :-)

Since you and I've talked about this, I happen to know that you have a wonderful landlord to deal with.

Gretchen said...

I'm sitting here thinking it's sweet that you care about your landlord's finances. Yes, it's not your prob. But one of the things that is so cool about you is your sense of compassion.

Hope it gets fixed, soon.