For those of you who haven’t been paying attention: I live in an apartment. Because I live in an apartment I feel that in many ways I have the best and easiest arrangement on the planet. Plumbing problem? Call the manager and they fix it for free. AC dies in the middle of summer? Call the manager and they fix it for free. Furnace won’t turn on? Call the manager and they fix it for free.
There are times, however, that it takes them a little while to get around to fixing your problem and herein lies today’s story. I call it: Adventures in Bathtub Maintenance.
Three years ago when I moved into the apartment there was nothing wrong with my bathtub. It is a standard issue fiberglass job with matching panels to cover the walls, not thrilling but it works. However, after a few weeks I noticed a crack in the bottom of the tub. Now, having lived through a cracked tub and its replacement at my parent’s house this not only didn’t surprise me, it didn’t even faze me. I called the manager and they assured me that they would fix the problem.
And they did…sort of. They decided that the best way to fix the crack through the fiberglass was to resurface the tub. This is essentially a layer of paint sprayed over the existing surface of the tub. Needless to say this didn’t actually fix the now gaping crack in the fiberglass. (And honest to god I don’t know why they thought this would work.)
Once the crack returned, about three days later, I called again and was again reassured that they would take care of the problem. (Oh! And here is where I would just like to mention that the reason that the H.O.P.S.F. (first roommate) and I got an apartment in this complex was because that the place we were originally going to rent from REFUSED to fix the cracked and leaking bathtub that was rotting through the floor in what would have been our unit…which put them in breach of contract and meant that we could get out of our lease.) Several days later I came home to a gigantic mess in my bathroom…because they had RE-resurfaced the tub but hadn’t bothered to remove any of my things from the bathroom. One emergency trip to the Wal-Marts later I managed to replace the $150 worth of damaged personal items. (You know…things like the towels that were hanging on the rack that they saturated with paint for no apparent reason…)
This July began my third year in residence in my current apartment. When I wandered into the front office to pay my rent for August (last week) I was greeted with the news that the maintenance guys were coming out to replace my tub this week. I attempted to appear delighted at this news. I spent Sunday evening taking everything out of my bathroom and stacking it neatly in my bedroom. This exercise entertained both LibraryDiva and her cats to no end.
They arrived yesterday and while I would have posted pictures I simply couldn’t bring myself to take any of the carnage that was once a serviceable, clean bathroom. I’m hopeful that they will finish this project today and my world can return to tidy, ordered normalcy.
In other fun Diva-stan news, I realized last night that our land line isn’t working. So I called the phone company on my cell and the redneck who took my call sent out a test signal, determined that the problem is ‘in house,’ and arranged for a technician to come take a look at things. I have been guaranteed a ‘service visit’ by no later than 7:00 pm SATURDAY. Oh, and it will cost me a minimum of $85…which is more than I pay for phone service and high speed wi-fi every month.
And just to make things even stranger I have to tell you about the cable. For some reason the cable in my bedroom has never worked correctly. Channels 2 – 7 just don’t function as they should. There are fuzzy images, jumping pictures, static, and a buzzing white noise that drowns out the sound. This is a chronic problem. There is nothing I can do about it. It doesn’t happen on either of the other televisions in the apartment.
Last night I turned the television on, flipped to Channel 2 for Grey’s Anatomy and the picture was fantastic. Clear, crisp, sharp, perfectly focused with audible sound. LibraryDiva and I just stared in amazement.
My possessed work printer is still twisting paper in strange ways…
Oh! And the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games is tonight…
This makes me very happy!
There are times, however, that it takes them a little while to get around to fixing your problem and herein lies today’s story. I call it: Adventures in Bathtub Maintenance.
Three years ago when I moved into the apartment there was nothing wrong with my bathtub. It is a standard issue fiberglass job with matching panels to cover the walls, not thrilling but it works. However, after a few weeks I noticed a crack in the bottom of the tub. Now, having lived through a cracked tub and its replacement at my parent’s house this not only didn’t surprise me, it didn’t even faze me. I called the manager and they assured me that they would fix the problem.
And they did…sort of. They decided that the best way to fix the crack through the fiberglass was to resurface the tub. This is essentially a layer of paint sprayed over the existing surface of the tub. Needless to say this didn’t actually fix the now gaping crack in the fiberglass. (And honest to god I don’t know why they thought this would work.)
Once the crack returned, about three days later, I called again and was again reassured that they would take care of the problem. (Oh! And here is where I would just like to mention that the reason that the H.O.P.S.F. (first roommate) and I got an apartment in this complex was because that the place we were originally going to rent from REFUSED to fix the cracked and leaking bathtub that was rotting through the floor in what would have been our unit…which put them in breach of contract and meant that we could get out of our lease.) Several days later I came home to a gigantic mess in my bathroom…because they had RE-resurfaced the tub but hadn’t bothered to remove any of my things from the bathroom. One emergency trip to the Wal-Marts later I managed to replace the $150 worth of damaged personal items. (You know…things like the towels that were hanging on the rack that they saturated with paint for no apparent reason…)
This July began my third year in residence in my current apartment. When I wandered into the front office to pay my rent for August (last week) I was greeted with the news that the maintenance guys were coming out to replace my tub this week. I attempted to appear delighted at this news. I spent Sunday evening taking everything out of my bathroom and stacking it neatly in my bedroom. This exercise entertained both LibraryDiva and her cats to no end.
They arrived yesterday and while I would have posted pictures I simply couldn’t bring myself to take any of the carnage that was once a serviceable, clean bathroom. I’m hopeful that they will finish this project today and my world can return to tidy, ordered normalcy.
In other fun Diva-stan news, I realized last night that our land line isn’t working. So I called the phone company on my cell and the redneck who took my call sent out a test signal, determined that the problem is ‘in house,’ and arranged for a technician to come take a look at things. I have been guaranteed a ‘service visit’ by no later than 7:00 pm SATURDAY. Oh, and it will cost me a minimum of $85…which is more than I pay for phone service and high speed wi-fi every month.
And just to make things even stranger I have to tell you about the cable. For some reason the cable in my bedroom has never worked correctly. Channels 2 – 7 just don’t function as they should. There are fuzzy images, jumping pictures, static, and a buzzing white noise that drowns out the sound. This is a chronic problem. There is nothing I can do about it. It doesn’t happen on either of the other televisions in the apartment.
Last night I turned the television on, flipped to Channel 2 for Grey’s Anatomy and the picture was fantastic. Clear, crisp, sharp, perfectly focused with audible sound. LibraryDiva and I just stared in amazement.
My possessed work printer is still twisting paper in strange ways…
Oh! And the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games is tonight…
This makes me very happy!
No comments:
Post a Comment