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I love townhouses!

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
Did you watch the Murphy Brown show? Remember how there was perpetual work being done on her home? Well, we are living that, and HAVE BEEN for the past few weeks. Maintenance has been in a continual process of
repairing the dining room ceiling, which has been damaged by leaking toilets upstairs. Also, we just had "older than the hills"
kitchen/hallway/powder room floor replaced by linoleum. We had a new clothes ad dishwasher installed. Our fridge is about to be replaced. Our AC ceased functioning. A toilet now continuously runs and we have to jiggle the handle. Last night we got a visit from maintenance because the people next door are having a major water leak that seems to be emanating from our townhouse apartment. So our toliets were
turned off for the night and this morning. Believe it or not, we still have more issues! The oven isn't sealing well and it takes forever to bake a pizza. The drapery thing snapped an we can no longer open the slats with the strings. It has to be manually open and closed. The bifold doors keep coming out of their tracks and the little spring thingy gouges out a hole that allows the door come off its track. Then there's the circuit breaker situation when I am on the computer and the bathroom fan is on and someone is using the hair dryer and I'm just about finish off an hour's worth of PM......
We're having so much fun!
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Scott,
That sounds like a mess. I'm glad it's not me. I live in a condo and own it. Everything inside is my responsibility, so I would not have enough money for everything your going through.
Good luck getting everything fixed up.
 
Do you have a painter named Eldon by any chance? He could be there awhile...Good luck, and hang in there (like unfinished wallpaper).
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Hey, do you need any electrical work done? I'll work for cp's.
 
Ah yes. As owner of a 120 year old house, I'm intimately familiar with this phenomena!

Max
 
Caps everytime I see your avatar, I get the urge to grab my AK-47 and shoot it.

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Aw, so much work! That leaking toilet thing, man it can spot a ceiling up pretty good! We had that once. I'm so not looking forward to owning my own house and worrying about all that stuff! *lol* I hope things get better. =)
 
Oh Jim, I sympathise entirely. I live in a Victorian terrace, which is around 120 years old as well. The windows that will actually open won't stay open, and all need replacing. The glass is so thin that I am privy to every conversation in the street.

The lights in my study don't work in winter, only in summer when the wiring is warm enough to connect, and then it goes on only after a few minutes of warm-up. When I turn on the tap of the basin in the bathroom, the lovely smell of stale water and sewerage wafts up, as in those days the plumbing made no differentiation with the sewerage.

My dishwater went out a few months ago, shorting out the house and leaving a lovely electric-fire smell in its wake. It's a Miele, so I fear that the repair cost will rival the replacement cost.

Add to that the plaster in the living and dining room that is so old it's just crumbling from the wall, the doors that jam because the building has shifted due to the long drought, and the hot water service that blows-out in high winds (always at night to leave us with cold water in the morning).

Welcome to the world of the landed gentry!!

Hamish
 
Jim:

All I have to do is call maintenance! I've never had that many things go wrong at once though.

Our townehouse board has made a practice of "preventive" maintenance. Example: Two water intakes (or whatever they are called) have rusted causing basements to be flooded. Our townehouse is having ALL of them replaced rather than having continuous problems for residents.

Your situation sounds like a case of very poor maintenance and no preventative maintenance.

Maybe this is why we were named one of Hud's top coops a couple of years ago and our maintenance men have won awards with the management company.
 
  • #10
Ozzy, that was the idea. It's time for a new one, anyway, though, so consider the milk carton dead!

Capslock
 
  • #11
I should add that partof these problems have been long-standing, partially because we were afraid of being blamed for some of them, and because they have SO many apartments needing attention, that they don't get to them too promptly.

Thanks, Hamish for your empathy!

Our AC is back and we have a new fridge. That old fridge was a joke! It leaked and the little piece that covers the fan that circulates the air had one plastic part break off, so I've taken to watering it and freezing it back in place. Duct tape, silicone sealer, and crazy glue so not work Then I used a drinking container the approximate height to keep it in place. Had to so the same for the j-trap underneath the kitchen sink, to keep it in place.

My son just got hired by them to help with all the painting that needs to be done.

The ownership changed hands, recently and the tenant response has been much better. But they are now shelling out a lot more for all of us - plumbing, floors, appliances, painting....
 
  • #12
I liked the milk carton... He was so happy.
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I live in a 1924 house and yeah there are always problems but I prefer the old houses to the new any day. Even in expensive new homes I've seen things like plastic mullions and fake wood floors and stuff. Ugh!

I'd love to live in an old Victorian.
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  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ Aug. 24 2005,1:45)]My son just got hired by them to help with all the painting that needs to be done.
I guess that means your house is gonna get painted first then Jim
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  • #14
I took a look at him the other day. Not sure how he is doing with the other apartments, but he certainly looked like an abstract! Fortunately, ours was just painted, where the ceiling as damaged by the leaking toilets,
 
  • #15
In the last 3 months we've had to buy a new stove, fridge, and washing machine. It's one of the reasons I miss apartment life . It was nice not to worry about this stuff! It would have all been replaced,no expense to me.
 
  • #16
Yes, definitely, both owning and renting can be headaches, for different reasons, as well as having their own, respective advantages.
 
  • #17
Hey April, mighty fine appliances you have I might add! Shame you got hit for three major appliances in such short succession.

Hey gooner!  Welcome to you! So nice to see you here.

I've rented before. I had cats at the time and was on a limited budget and had so many problems getting anything fixed in my apartment that I ultimately threw in the towel and finally moved back home with my parents.  The apartment management sent a repair man up to fix my refrigerator three times and all times I lost all of my food in the freezer and in the frig because they never showed up in a timely fashion and I never thought to check whether it was working or not after they left. Then when they finally admitted I had a problem with the refrigerator, they gave me a dirty filthy frig with broken shelves and no flip for the butter compartment from a unit being upgraded and put a new frig in that unit for incoming tenants. There were other issues such as light switches that didn't work and toilets that ran constantly even though you wiggled the handle. Too many people in the pet building with barking dogs at all hours of the night and the pet buildings always seemed to be in the worst state of repair. Not much you can do when you have x number of dollars to spend on rent each month and are unwilling to part with a pet. I feel for people who rent. Landlords can be cheap.
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] Landlords can be cheap.
Ain't that the truth...I've been waiting 3 years for the landlord to replace the constantly dripping kitchen faucet, and a few months ago a guy who used to live here tried to break into my apt. He messed up the metal security? door and now anyone can break in if they wanted. The guy had some beef with the landlord and he is taking it out on us, the people who live in his old apt. I told the landlord about it and all he said is, oh.
I feel like I am flushing my $$$$ down the toilet, paying HIS mortgage.
A few years ago I was living in this other apt. that had fire damage and every time it would rain there would be a lake in the kitchen. I requested the wall be repaired, wrote letters, etc...We ended taking the landlord to court and got evicted grrrr. NEVER rent from a landlord who is an attorney. You will lose every time.
I can't wait until I can buy my own house, a real house, not a condo, no homeowner associations. As long as I live in California, I'll be paying exorbitant rent prices for the rest of my life. I want to move back to Detroit where I grew up and can afford to buy a nice house there and the mortgage payments are way cheaper than what I pay for rent here in San Diego.
 
  • #19
Laura,

All the appliances came with the house and were from the 60's...so they had long lives. It was their time to go to the Rainbow Bridge. They just happened to crap out on us one after the other. Dan was, and still is, in sticker shock. The biggest drag was losing a whole freezer and fridge worth of food.
 
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