Daily Insanity February 4, 2022

I had a flood in my place, and it was gutted except for the tubs I love soaking in my jet tub and would sneak in, even when my place was torn apart, to enjoy a big hot, jet tub experience … One of my most unguilty pleasures in this life… A hot bath … it is one of the things I am most grateful for in this world … seriously…

 

That all came to a screeching halt summer 2021

 

As I said the place was already gutted … but at least the tub was a refuge … until it wasn’t …

The jets stopped working, three times, and I had to find three different companies to fix that issue … the first company didn’t fix it properly and charged $150 … The second guy was a contractor working on other parts of my home and said he could fix the tub “no problem” he charged $75 and had me order the wrong part for $100, by the time we figured out it was the wrong part, I could not return it. The third guy was a jet tub whisperer and charged $250 cash for labor and $200 for parts … worth the money!

 

The electrical on the spa tub was shot, so they had to put in an air pump to overcome the issue, but it was torn apart for a couple weeks so that I couldn’t get in there …

 

September … I moved back in … I was using my spare bathroom tub because of the spa tub being torn apart … but it didn’t have hot water, it was lukewarm, so I could at least live with that … grateful that it wasn’t cold … the cartridge needed to be changed … but there was a part in the cartridge that was failing that wasn’t on the truck or in the local warehouse and had to be ordered during the whole world’s supply chain issue, so it took another couple weeks to get the part here, to get hot water into the spare bathroom … $200

 

The plumber that did this spare bathroom cartridge also did some caulking around the toilet… Right in front of me he took a sponge, flushed the toilet, dumped the sponge in the toilet to use to moisten the bottom of the toilet area, to put the caulking down…GROSS!! I thought I was going to throw up … Really?!

 

He also was helping fix the refrigerator line… Which he somehow managed to push open and water started going all over the floor again… The reason the house was gutted in the first place was because of a flood so it was a little traumatizing … his truck broke down so he didn’t have the normal parts he would have on his truck, so he kept having to run to Lowe’s and the supply house to get parts… He came out to look at everything the first time … I asked him if he wanted to write everything down… he said “no he would remember it”… But after most of the parts came in 10 days later, he couldn’t remember anything and had to come and look at it again… I reminded him that He had said he was going to remember it… He said, “do you know how many jobs I’ve done in the meantime?” I reminded him I asked him to write it down, but he looked at me funny … I decided to drop it because I wasn’t dealing with someone with a full deck … he charged me for the time it took to go run to get the parts that he was going to “remember” …

 

I was having him install an Insta hot… I could hear him actually reading the instructions in the kitchen to his two helpers who looked like they had just gotten out of high school …

 

It ended up being a very expensive visit for all that plumbing … $800 for labor … approx. $675 for parts ... I decided I didn’t want to use him after that

 

So, there was finally hot water to the spare bathroom and the jets finally got fixed

 

October … That’s when the hot water heater decided to go out … it was leaking from the bottom … replace that… I need a high recovery system because I have a hydroponic heating system, which means the heat runs off of the hot water, so you need a high recovery hot water heater that will make the water heat up faster so it will keep up with the demand of heat as well as hot water in the home … by the way… That is much more expensive than your normal water heater … $1700

 

November … but then there was no hot water to the master bathroom … lukewarm water again … so, I got the cartridge fixed in there… $200

 

I liked the tech that came to replace the water heater and the cartridge, but he let it slip that he told ‘everyone’ how much the jet tub means to me… Which I felt was a breach of privacy … what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas… Same thing with the homes that we visit as property managers, realtors or vendors of those properties … it’s the right thing to do… I’m telling you all about it now, but that is my prerogative, I don’t feel people I invite into my home should be talking about what I do here …

 

The plumber I had used for the hot water heater and the master bathroom cartridge I also had to fire because they had screwed up another property I managed … I tried to get on the phone to talk to the owner of the plumbing company, but she insisted that I write everything in an email… I had worked with them for five years and I thought we were on better terms than that… I decided to let them go after I spent $3000 on that property … when it wasn’t done properly, they came back and charged me for a service call … fired!!

 

But the lukewarm water in my home problem continued … intermittent hot water … I started noticing it throughout the condo…

 

What … the … Hell!

 

I called an HVAC/plumber guy out who kept trying to tell me it was a water capacity issue with my tub… I told him I’ve been living in the condo for 20 years … I assured him it was not a capacity issue … especially since I am a property manager and understand these things… But he kept repeating it was a capacity issue until I looked him in the eye and told him to stop saying that and that I was going to tell him for the last time it was not a capacity issue … he finally said he thought it was a check valve in the HVAC system but that he was too busy to work on it so he would have his family member come and take care of it who is also HVAC

 

This guy was too busy to handle our work orders, so I had to let him go

 

December … check valve replaced inside the hydroponic system, located in the wall inside my condo $200

 

Interior check valve guy and his son came into my home and when I described the problems, I was having he said maybe my home was ‘haunted’ and he thought that was funny … I didn’t find it funny at all… Maybe he should try living in a place without hot water for months on end and see how funny that is … maybe he is right… It is haunted with the memories of bad contractors… I need to purge my home of this bad contractor energy … his son was eavesdropping on a conversation I was having on the phone about my laptop… When I got off the phone, he decided to make comments about my conversation… I looked at him and told him to please put on booties so he wouldn’t mark up my beautiful, new white floor … I should’ve told him to stop eavesdropping and commenting on conversations that were none of his business… Maybe I will get there one day… But believe it or not, I would like to try to do that in a kind way… When I don’t know how to do that, I just keep my mouth shut anymore, for the most part that is … I have my days where I still let it all rip out my mouth like a longshoreman… working on that …

 

The problem persists… Intermittent lukewarm water throughout the home

 

January … I call back the check valve guy and he starts explaining to me that he wants to drain the hot water heater because he thinks it’s sediment… I tell him it’s brand new… But he still thinks that that could be an issue as the pressure from the new hot water heater could have scraped sediment off the pipes and it could be blocked somewhere … this makes no sense to me especially since I’ve had a water softener for 20 years … he keeps me on the phone for 10 minutes explaining what it could be, which drives me crazy, just come, find the problem, and fix it …

 

I decide I am done with these guys as well… There must be people out there who know what they’re doing, how to fix what their job title says they can fix, and will be respectful of me and my home …

 

The reason this problem was running on for so long and I wasn’t taking care of it in a timelier fashion, was that my brother was in the hospital for four and a half months, in three different hospitals, during this time for both psych and medical reasons, I was taking care of his situation as well as a very busy work environment … I am the only breadwinner in my home, so it was a priority to take care of my clients and my brother’s health, which left me exhausted, depressed and a bit discombobulated from talking to doctors, nurses, social workers, case workers, clients, owners, tenants, vendors, partners, assistants, etc… while I found the lukewarm water irritating, I felt there was more pressing matters regarding my family and my income that needed to be addressed… Not to mention I was discouraged and depressed that this beautiful, new rehabbed home that I was supposed to be enjoying, wasn’t working properly, so my energy levels were extremely low… It was a miracle that I was getting done whatever I was getting done … my home was more of a crash pad, as I kept discovering more items that were not done properly … it was hard to move in and feel safe here, both physically and emotionally …

 

Two more issues that I think are worth mentioning for this crazy story…

 

Issue one … there was now an odor coming out of the jets in my spa tub that had never been there before… I could smell it at night when I slept… I could smell it whenever I was in my room or the bathroom… I tried 4 different kinds of cleaners running through the jets… But when you don’t have hot water that compounds the problem … vinegar and powdered cascade dishwashing soap (recommended by the spa whisperer) seem to finally do the trick after a few months of frustration and odiferous smelly bathroom insanity.

 

Issue two … The electrical switch in my master bathroom had been changed during the rehab from a flip switch to a rocker switch because we had to move the counters up … this was the only kind of switch which would accommodate the space with the studs … The rocker switch included the light and the exhaust fan… So now every time I walked into the master bathroom to switch the light on, I switched the exhaust fan on… I have lived in this property for 20 years… The switch has been in the same place the whole time… I could not get used to it being in a different spot … when you go somewhere else, you learn where a light switch is, that’s different, because it’s new, so you figure out where it is right from the start… But this was an old habit, in a new spot… it was maddening … trying to turn the light on and turn that exhaust fan and then smelling that odor … this went on for months… It seriously pissed me off at times … so frustrating … adding pure insanity of the situation…

 

Check valve guy never called me back to come and fix the fact that he never fixed the problem in the first place… he didn’t want to hear that his part may have failed… He said that never happens… But it does happen… he kept on “blah blah blah blah blah”… Telling me I just need to go out and turn the isolation valve off every time I want to have a shower… I told him I don’t want to live like that… And that him telling me all that was hurting my head… to be honest, I kind of lost my shit on him and went a little mad, as in crazy mad but also as in angry mad… I’m sure he still scratching his head and wondering what my problem is!  You try having lukewarm baths and showers for five months, while paying a lot of money to get it fixed and it’s still not getting fixed and see how cranky you get … just sayin’ …

 

It felt like when the electrician put a strobe light in my kitchen for my under and over cabinet lighting… He put in the wrong switch and told me he had done me a favor because he installed a dimmable switch (which I did not ask for, besides the fact it was the wrong switch for the system) … And that when it strobed, he told me, I just had to turn it off and turn it back on again and that he did that in his home… that’s total insanity … that’s living insanely in my book… it’s unbelievable that these guys think it’s OK to live like that … it irritates me so much…

 

February … So, I called another one of my HVAC/Plumber guys …

 

They send a plumber who is not an HVAC guy, and he takes the panel off the wall heater, sees another panel and doesn’t know where everything is… I have to tell him to take the interior panel off… He sets the wing nuts to the side, on top of the thermostat and cannot find them when he wants to put the panel back… I tell him where they are… he did not put the panel back on properly, so the kill switch was not engaged and when I came home later that evening after being out for the day and evening, I had no heat in 30° temperature weather … so at this point I have no heat and no hot water…

 

Now, I have already spent $2300 on the hot water problem … and been through 8 plumbers and HVAC guys Who can’t seem to figure this out … some of these guys are with the same company… They come 2 by 2 at times… But we are talking about 5 different companies …

 

I have another lukewarm bath this morning…

 

Two new HVAC/plumber guys show up from the company that was here yesterday that left me with no heat … (if you’re counting the count is now up to 10 different plumbers/HVAC guys) … they really did not know what the problem was when they arrived so I had to explain it all to them again… they have to ask all the same questions again … this wear me the fuck out … having to explain this over and over and over again … just like I have to do with my brother’s situation, let me tell you, that is enough to drive you crazy, my friend … they are installing an exterior check valve near the water heater which they think will solve the problem … A couple of the ball valves back there looked a little corroded, so the total today is supposed to be approximately $770 for a new check valve and two new ball valves … let’s see if this works!

 

Five months $3100 on the hot water problem … Over $5000 for all the plumbing issues since I moved back in…

 

Jet tub $775

Plumber 1 $1675

Plumber 2 $1900

HVAC guy 1 n/c

HVAC guy 2 $200

Plumber 3 $770

 

I like to say, It took five and a half plumbers, five and a half months to fix the problem for five and a half thousand dollars ... Rrrrrrrrr ...... Crazy!! 

 

Does this all sound a little crazy to you? Because it all sounds a little bit crazy to me… I’m not sure why crazy follows me… In fact, it seems to live here … hmmmm … interesting … but that’s why am fluent in crazy

 

February 5, 2022 – I have a hot bath in the master bathroom jet tub! I am not fully convinced the problem is fixed yet, as the hot water did not seem to last as long as it did before this problem all began … we will see how it continues to perform … but the improvement is tremendously better … definitely hot water … not lukewarm … YEAH!

 

I’ll keep you updated on the hot water situation and maybe tell you more about the total rehab on my home that just occurred because of the flood… Buco Buco insanity involved in the whole situation … I was lucky to hold on to any sort of sanity throughout the process …

 

What’s the moral of the story? Persistence … not settling for less than you deserve … standing up for yourself … sometimes it’s best to move on from people who don’t know what they are doing, charge too much and/or you cannot reason with … and my very favorite lesson from all this, taught to me long ago by my Dad, EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE!! HA!!

 

More crazy to follow …