Volpone
Zombie Hunter
Fucking renters. Their brains are just wired up odd.
When I first got back in the vacant property among the things I noticed:
-Huge amounts of dust and crud on the ceiling fan blades.
-Huge trails of dust clinging to all the vents and ducting.
-An unopened furnace filter leaning against the wall in one of the bedrooms
-The smoke detector on the bathroom sink.
So of course when I finally got in there to get to work on getting the place ready to list, sure enough they hadn't changed the furnace filter in God knows how long. There's also a secondary little intake vent on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. I had showed up one day with one to install and the husband said he'd take care of it, since the dogs were in that room. Of course he never did and that vent had no filter at all on it. So who knows how much they've shortened the life of my brand new $4,000 HVAC.
At least 2 doorknobs were about ready to fall off. All they required was taking a screwdriver and tightening the screws that hold them together. Why doesn't it occur to renters to do simple things like this.
I think I've already talked about the fireplace. Had to have the chimney rebuilt. Even so, the fireplace wasn't really usable. Told them that. The glass screen is painted black and doesn't have any handles (that way when I got it). And there's no grate for logs in the hearth. Nonetheless they somehow had decided to use the fireplace. Luckily I (hopefully) put a stop to that before they did any permanent damage to all my new expensive brickwork.
The first 6 months they were there, they didn't realize their toilet was running--couldn't figure out the huge water bills. There were other little things. And I'm sure I'll find others as I work on the place.
Gutters were all clogged with leaves, causing standing water next to the foundation in a few places.
I mean, they aren't bad people. And they always paid rent on time. But they just didn't know the first thing about maintaining a house. Even though I explicitly told them things they needed to do and much of it was also in the lease.
Well, I should get going. Much to do.
Oh, but one last general peeve: Americans and bigger-is-better. A house built in the 1950s is horrible for the average American. These days even a king-sized bed isn't big enough, we needed to come up with a California King. 65" TVs. Massive sectionals. Makes a place very cluttered and claustrophobic.
If you ever are in Long Beach and get to do a tour of the Queen Mary ocean liner, the staterooms are all smaller than a usual hotel room. So the designers put in 3/4 sized furniture to make the rooms appear normal. It's all big enough to be functional but it creates an illusion of a more spacious room. You wouldn't think it would work but it does. On a related note my first house had 7' ceilings. Worked for me because I'm under 5'10". When I was furnishing the guest room I couldn't find a floor lamp like I wanted so I bought a cheap Wal*Mart lamp and modified it to what I wanted. It was fairly imposing in that room but when I moved to a house with 8' ceilings, it looked dinky.
Now I really should go.
When I first got back in the vacant property among the things I noticed:
-Huge amounts of dust and crud on the ceiling fan blades.
-Huge trails of dust clinging to all the vents and ducting.
-An unopened furnace filter leaning against the wall in one of the bedrooms
-The smoke detector on the bathroom sink.
So of course when I finally got in there to get to work on getting the place ready to list, sure enough they hadn't changed the furnace filter in God knows how long. There's also a secondary little intake vent on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. I had showed up one day with one to install and the husband said he'd take care of it, since the dogs were in that room. Of course he never did and that vent had no filter at all on it. So who knows how much they've shortened the life of my brand new $4,000 HVAC.
At least 2 doorknobs were about ready to fall off. All they required was taking a screwdriver and tightening the screws that hold them together. Why doesn't it occur to renters to do simple things like this.
I think I've already talked about the fireplace. Had to have the chimney rebuilt. Even so, the fireplace wasn't really usable. Told them that. The glass screen is painted black and doesn't have any handles (that way when I got it). And there's no grate for logs in the hearth. Nonetheless they somehow had decided to use the fireplace. Luckily I (hopefully) put a stop to that before they did any permanent damage to all my new expensive brickwork.
The first 6 months they were there, they didn't realize their toilet was running--couldn't figure out the huge water bills. There were other little things. And I'm sure I'll find others as I work on the place.
Gutters were all clogged with leaves, causing standing water next to the foundation in a few places.
I mean, they aren't bad people. And they always paid rent on time. But they just didn't know the first thing about maintaining a house. Even though I explicitly told them things they needed to do and much of it was also in the lease.
Well, I should get going. Much to do.
Oh, but one last general peeve: Americans and bigger-is-better. A house built in the 1950s is horrible for the average American. These days even a king-sized bed isn't big enough, we needed to come up with a California King. 65" TVs. Massive sectionals. Makes a place very cluttered and claustrophobic.
If you ever are in Long Beach and get to do a tour of the Queen Mary ocean liner, the staterooms are all smaller than a usual hotel room. So the designers put in 3/4 sized furniture to make the rooms appear normal. It's all big enough to be functional but it creates an illusion of a more spacious room. You wouldn't think it would work but it does. On a related note my first house had 7' ceilings. Worked for me because I'm under 5'10". When I was furnishing the guest room I couldn't find a floor lamp like I wanted so I bought a cheap Wal*Mart lamp and modified it to what I wanted. It was fairly imposing in that room but when I moved to a house with 8' ceilings, it looked dinky.
Now I really should go.