Doing the Tenant Shuffle

Just when you thought things would have calmed down here with our awesome, completed garden, another curve ball came our way and has had us scrambling like chickens without heads for the past few weeks.  Our 3^rd floor tenant got offered a job overseas and asked to be let out of his lease early which we were more than happy to do as long as we could find a tenant to pick up right where he left off.  The tenant selection process got a bit hairy and there was much yelling and hair pulling regarding the realtors and some extremely unacceptable folks they kept pushing on us. But we finally found someone who seems solid and leases were signed not too long ago.  The only thing that was left was to assess the wear and tear done to the apartment over the last year and a half and spruce the place up a bit for the new tenant. 

As you might remember back in Spring of 2007 when the main renovation was winding to a close and our first contractor Tim was wrapping up the rental apartments, I broke my foot (due to some negligence by his crew in not properly covering a large hole in the basement—but why quibble?) so going up and down the stairs to inspect rental apartment progress was not something I was capable of doing as often as I would have liked.  Thus, a lot of the rental apartment fixtures got that same half-ass treatment we’ve discussed before.  The only difference is I hadn’t lived with them for the past year and half so they weren’t so fresh in my mind.  But we’ve got to see them all in the past few days…the non-green board lined windows covered in mold, the shoddy stainless steel sheets around the bathtub with rusty screws and leaks, the awful patching and flooring finishing job, the non-existent priming job that we paid for, poorly hinged doors, etc.  All pretty standard stuff that we’ve seen in our place as well except for one new and fantastic thing:  it turns out that Tim’s guys who installed the toilet up there made it line up flush with the sub floor but didn’t account for the tiling so the toilet did not form a good seal.  They simply caulked the crap out of it to try to compensate for the height difference.  So evidently it’s been slowly leaking for the past 18 months and caused all sorts of fun damage.  We had a plumber come out who suggested stacking two wax rings on top of one another which he did and which lasted exactly 24 hours before the leaks began.  It’s so nice to know that the poor work ethic is so universal.  So Eric did some research and purchased a cast iron flange which should help us form a tight seal—we plan on installing that tomorrow. 

We’ve already patched and painted what we could, along with scraping away tons of old caulk from around the shower.  The shower is going to be a real problem—we are sure there is a lot of water damage behind those stainless steel sheets—that was Tim’s suggestion and while it seemed like a good idea at the time it has caused us nothing but trouble.  But that’s his specialty, things that look good long enough for the checks to clear and for him to leave you high and dry.  We are planning on ripping them all down and redoing that whole shower area with tile the next time we have a change of tenant.  But we’ll do the best we can with it now.  We’re re-caulking all the seams, replacing the rusted out screws with new stainless one and scraping and paint the non-stainless shelving units that he installed there that have also completed rusted out.  It’s going to be down the wire to have everything ready for Saturday when our new tenant moves in, but hey, that is the way we roll—in chicken without head mode.

One cool thing—the tenants left us this elephant planter that we plan on using in the garden as an outdoor ashtray.  Cause while neither of us smoke we know a lot of people that do and during out redo-housewarming party last weekend people had no place to put their butts.  This should do nicely.  But Jules holds it in the highest of contempt. 

Comments

[Peter]

Is it wrong of me to say that every time I read about your utterly craptastic GC I thank the gods that I found the bestest contractor ever? He's not cheap, but I'd literally trust him with my life.

Peter
http://www.FlashlightWorthyBooks.com
Recommending books so good, they'll keep you up past your bedtime (and your mind of your crappy GC.)

[dana]

it's a little wrong, but we won't hold it against you :-)

Make sure to hold on to that contractor you have...I wish we had been so lucky...