This Old House

We rent an old house, it was probably built in the 30's or 40's. The fact that it is old is not a problem, per se. I lived in a house that was over a hundred years old when I lived in Cambridge. It was a beautiful house, very well maintained and updated when needed. The problem with this old house is that it has not been well maintained and not updated at all.

My landlord and his wife have own this house for 30+ years. They raised their family here until moving to larger more modern house a few miles away. The landlord views this house with intense nostalgia, thinks that its non modern amenities are a plus and is very cheap. Whenever something needs to be fix he does it as minimally and cheaply as possible and even when we forewarn him of problems he does nothing until he has to. For example, the roof. Last summer we noticed a crack in the ceiling of our bedroom that it had started to hang down a little near the wall. Brigham (who has worked construction and knew that the cracks location was under a problem he had noticed in the roof and eves) called the landlord and explained the problem. The landlord replaced the roof but only on that side of the house and did nothing to repair the gap between the roof and eves that was the cause of the problem in the first place. (Just so you know, the entire roof and the eves need to be replaced, there are multiple places with gaps).

Another example, is the front door. Almost from the time we moved in (we have been here three and half years) we had told them the front door was cracked and very drafty. They did nothing. The day after Christmas, I noticed that the front room was freezing. I thought nothing of it as I was trying to get the kids fed and in the car so we could start our long drive down to San Diego. When I opened the door I discovered that the wood and glass had separated resulting in about an inch gap. No wonder the front room was freezing!! We patched it up the best we could before we left, called the landlord who said he would have it replaced before we returned from San Diego in about week. When we returned the front door had not been touched. When we called he said he was waiting for a carpenter to come out to see if it could be repaired!! The wood was rotted through and the glass bowled out!! He came over later that day and duck taped it! The carpenter/handyman who came out (he has been doing repairs for the landlord for years) just rolled his eyes and was immediately on the phone with the landlord telling him the door needed to be replaced immediately and then called him several times to ask him if he had made a decision yet on the door. The door was finally replaced in MARCH!

We have also had frequently problems with the plumbing. The plumber (the father of the carpenter) comes over about every six months for some problem or another, leaking faucets, backed up drains, broken faucets. Every time he comes he comments and mutters how the landlord needs to update the plumbing, that he can't just keep doing patch jobs. This old house still has lead pipes, they should have been replaced over 20 years ago. The plumber tells them that frequently, he has been their plumber for about 20 years. He told them that there will come a day when he cannot just do a patch job but will need to replace the pipes. That day came today.

Last night (Thursday night) Brigham gave the kids a bath and the water drained just fine. Two hours later when I took a shower, the water would not drain at all and the bathroom sink started draining into the tub as well. It took 2 hours for all the water to drain with some backwash from the sewer. The pipes are designed in such a way that the plumber cannot use a snake to get the problem and the trap is so old that it would not reseal if opened. So now I am not able to use the bathtub or shower until the pipes are replaced, which will hopefully be Saturday, that is, if the parts the plumber ordered come in.

So I spent this morning moving our things out of the basement into our backyard and front room. Brigham would have helped but he was taking a final and at the time the plumber said he just had to go pick up some parts and would have it fixed today otherwise I would not have been running up down stairs hauling heavy objects while pregnant. And when the plumber arrived with some parts (around 2pm), he told me it would take about 3 hours so I left with the kids (since the backyard and front room were full of stuff they had no place to play). Later when he realized he had to order some parts, he did not call me to inform that he could not start until tomorrow. So when I got back at 5pm, my house a disaster, the tub not fixed and no way to take a shower or give my dirty kids a bath, I was not happy. We ended up bathing the kids in the kitchen sink (which is not really a kitchen but a utility sink that has no disposal) and hoping the tub is fixed by tomorrow so Brigham and I can actually take a shower. The only good thing about this is that is forcing Brigham and me to clean out the basement which has been on our 'to do' list for months.

We do plan on moving and really, really, really want to move but we are not able to until August do to myriad reasons.