Tuesday, July 31, 2007

When it rains...


A couple of months ago, we had a heavy rainstorm. The next morning, I found that our back wall was literally crumbling away. I contacted the maintenance department (we live in privatized base housing). Several people came by to look at it over the next several weeks (yes, I said "weeks" not "days"), including 2 different sub-contractors. After over 3 weeks of this, I was pretty fed up and physically went to the leasing office. While I was there, they were trying to reach me because the contractor was at my house to do the repairs. No one had bothered to tell me they were coming! So the repairs were made and completed just in time for in-laws to visit. They finished the work in the afternoon. My in-laws arrived at dinner-time. Let's not cut it too close, guys. This wouldn't have been a sticking point except the guest room is right across the hall from the door in the picture!


By the way, the first picture is the baseboard on the wall that needed replacing. See that huge hole in it? I was told they would fix that by filling it with caulk. I replied that wasn't going to do it for me and that the baseboard needed replacing. I said this to at least 2 men. I got another baseboard.


So contractors fixed our back wall near the back door (inside and out) as well as the roof a couple of weeks ago. Well, it rained yesterday. Hard. There was a waterfall where our backdoor is supposed to be. See the picture.


Then the windowsill was completely wet. I took pictures to document it all. Then I printed the pictures and took them down to the leasing office this morning. The ladies there were pretty aghast at the sight. Especially since they knew this was an ongoing problem. One of them remembered me from the last time I was in there about the wall. So, around noon, 2 of the ladies from the leasing office, the work order manager, the area maintenance supervisor, and the contractor all converged on our house to see and discuss.

Later, a maintenance man brought a dehumidifier that is now plugged in and draining into the downstairs shower. It is currently blocking the back door. Hopefully, it will only be here for a couple of days. He also fixed the powder room toilet (again). And looked at the cracked stair (again) and will be ordering a replacement. When that gets here, he'll replace the stair and caulk the others. Is caulk the new duct tape?!

The contractor is supposed to call me tomorrow to let me know when they will be back to do yet more work on the roof and back wall area (on the outside this time). If I don't get that call, I can assure you that I will be making some phone calls of my own! Hell hath no fury as a milspouse in an unsat house with small children and a deployed husband.

I joke that the house is falling down around my ears but sometimes I wonder if the joke isn't on me! But then, hubs is deployed, so, OF COURSE, all this is happening. See all the fun he's missing?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yikes! I feel sorry for housing if this doesn't get fixed correctly this time!

I hope all goes well. Deployment gremlins strike again, right?

Butterfly Wife said...

That stinks! I think Stephanie got it right: Deployment gremlins. Yikes.

Meredith said...

You go, girl! Tell those housing people how it's done. Hubby'll be so proud.

You can list me on your blogroll. I don't mind. I haven't been writing much and even my mom has given up reading. (she doesn't understand how that internet thing works sometimes... LOL) I may add something tonight, but I'm soooo tired.

Linda said...

I am living that nightmare too, only in non-military off post housing. We've lived here a year, renewed our lease...it rained like CRAZY all spring, but not a single problem. Then Saturday morning, it rained hard. My hubby was down in our basement (which is the lower half of our duplex and contains an office/craft/play room, and my daughter's bedroom and bathroom). He felt that the carpet was wet. So we started moving stuff, and discovered that behind our computer desk, under our file cabinets, behind the entertainment center...soaked. There's a crack in the foundation.

So...the management came (nice thing about non-military, they come when you call...not two weeks later!) and sucked up the water, gave us a dehumidifier, and told us they'd be out this week to see how it is going and to to come up with a solution to fix the crack. Well, today, Thursday, they hadn't come yet...and it rained...HARD. And your waterfall came seeping through my cracked foundation. And now they are telling us it's going to be quite a job to repair, since the A/C unit is located right at the same area as the crack...oh, and by the way, it's BUSY season for them, since everyone's coming back to town for college and they're turning over a lot of units that need to be ready by next week.

I'm SORRY????? We LIVE here...we've PAID rent for a year...other people can be inconvenienced for a few days while you come fix the MESS in the wall. this means NO A/C during the predicted 105° temperatures next week, but I don't CARE...I'm tired of my office being centered in a 11 x 11 room, with no access to anything (my keyboard's on my lap, the mouse is on the TV - thank God for wireless!)

So I totally feel your pain...