Thursday, March 10, 2011

Travel Log 3-10: Why Stress Can Kill Other People...

  I have a theory. Every once in a while the universe decides to screw with you. Things happen that are so beyond your control that there is effectively nothing you can do about it, and somehow everything you do just makes it worse so that eventually you just want to sit in or corner and whimper or scream and tear your hair out. And somewhere some one or something is most likely laughing their behind off.
      Well that is the kind of month I've been having. See we rent the house we live in, and about a month ago we noticed a leak in the boys room. It was small at first and we reported it to the owners and they proceeded to procrastinate about it. They came and looked at it a couple times. Tore open the wall and looked at it, then left it for a week. Then tore a hole in the cement foundation and left that for 2 weeks. Filed a homeowner's insurance claim and then had some guy come out and tear all the carpeting out and test for asbestos. Then left it for another 2 weeks. Now this weekend an actual plumber is supposed to come out and fix everything, but this is where it gets really stressful.
     See the insurance decided rather than just dealing with the leak they are going to re-pipe the entire house. That is going to mean tearing through up to 7 walls. 7 WALLS.
     Now this wouldn't normally worry me, but the owner is not the most organized or efficient of people. She didn't bother to ask the plumber any questions and was not aware they were repiping the entire house until I asked the plumber and told her. She was not aware that we would have to go and stay in a hotel for the weekend because there would be no way for us to stay in the house. She paid no attention when she was informed that there was asbestos in the walls and as such there would need to be a special company hired and scheduled to come in and open the walls up for the plumbers to lay the pipes. She also never asked what state the house would be in on Sunday when we were to return.
     So as it stands now, we have made and paid for  non refundable (because of how soon the reservation is)  a hotel room for the weekend for the work to take place and it may not even take place because she has not made any contact with a company to come in and tear into the walls so that the plumbers can even start. And if they somehow do get to do their work we are going to come home Sunday night to walls torn apart and left open because the owner has also made no arrangements to have them closed up or the carpet replaced, or generally ANYTHING to make the house actually livable for adults, let alone children.
     Through this all I have been patient, understanding, and as cooperative as possible because I just want this done and the place I live back to normal so we can just get back to a normalcy. I have been dealing with this because my hubby tends to overreact to things and, when he sees something that he feels is making his family uncomfortable gets very pointed about his feelings. So essentially I"m carrying the stress on my own, because not only do I have to stay as polite as possible with the owner so as to keep a decent relationship with them, I have to keep my husband from going through the roof every time something goes wrong. If we still had our savings I would have said lets move back when this ridiculousness started, but reality is that we can't really afford to move and have to find a way to make the best of the situation. I'm running out of best here and am generally ready to scream at someone. I can actually see my hair turning white...
      If this doesn't let up soon I'm going to snap and run through the house babbling and throwing things.

3 comments:

  1. Now this is a messy and unfortunate situation! I would have thought the homeowner should pay for the weekend at the hotel...the asbestos removal is quite a concern too. I hope you can find some good logical support/help in this situation. Sounds like your landlady is out of her league. I so wish you good luck with all this. Thinking of you and sending positive energies for a good resolution to this rather nightmarish event.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is just awful. You should snap, but in the direction of your landlady. You might consider threatening her with an attorney (she doesn't know you don't have one). Sometimes that works miracles!

    Good luck!

    ReplyDelete