June 9, 2006

crossing my legs and letting the plumber get on with it

Posted by dogpossum on June 9, 2006 12:54 PM in the category domesticity

The plummer has been here since 9am (which was rough after my late night), all the water is off and my bladder is screaming. But I daren't interrupt him - he's replacing all the taps in my bathroom and kitchen (which is exciting, especially if you know our taps).
It's not too bad, really - I learnt a lot about our landlord. Apparently he's a hairdresser who owns lots of houses and a factory and a shop(s ?). He's also a tightarse.

All this is kind of upsetting, seeing as how it took months and months for him to do little, inconsquential things like:
- fix the leak in the roof that steadily trickled water down our wall and ceiling and left a very pretty water stain
- fix the wiring in the bathroom so that we actually had a light in there. And an extraction fan that wouldn't set the house on fire
- fix the toilet that leaked from the outflow pipe. Yes. Imagine that wonderfulness
It's a little bit shitty that someone with so many assets fucks his tenants around. But as the (Italian) plumber said, "people who have money chase it."

There are other things that need fixing around our house, but we don't think about them unless we have to. For instance, the wiring in our house is a bit of a home job. Our first night in the house a plug point caught on fire. The electrician was afraid to work on it, and when he came to install a trip switch (the safety switch that clicks the power off automaticaly when something blows - it stops a gajillion vaults flowing through you when you do something silly) he said he couldn't as the wiring was so crap. In fact, it's illegal wiring.
We blessed our landlord when our power failed a summer or two ago and we had no power for 24 hours in two periods. Just long enough for all our frozen food in the fridge to defrost, and for us to die in the heat.

Yeah, renting rocks, but heck. We can leave any day. Not that we want to - our house is actually quite great for the price, and in the best location. And I've been renting for over 10 years now, and never lived in any house as long as this - 2 or 3 years now. So I'm just crossing my legs and letting the plumber get on with it.

Posted by dogpossum on June 9, 2006 12:54 PM in the category domesticity