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Nov. 12th, 2008 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickNews updates for Dad, my week through Wednesday.
I managed to get some things done today -- fixed the tub at 219, cleaned out all the remaining carpet bits from there, cleaned off the porch, shut all the windows, got ahold of Leach on the roof front -- he says he'll be there next week sometime. I still need to rekey it (M. says we never got keys back from tenant) and stick a sign out front.
I also put a new door lock on 11 b/c the one that was there had sheared off somehow and the tenant was understandably upset about having a door that didn't stay closed, let alone lock. I dunno what happened to it. Probably it was the wind or something. It's always the wind with doors. That door has had a rough life (DeLozier) but I managed to stick it back together and reassemble it so that it works and the latch part doesn't wobble or anything. Interestingly, the replacement door knob fit on the big brass plates without any serious effort on my part. That was nice. In other door news, I removed, fixed, and rehung the door in the kitchen at 200 b/c the lower two hinges had screws that weren't catching on anything and the thing was not good. It's better now.
I paid the water bill for 200 and had the water company come out to officially turn the water back on today. That did not go so well because the ex-tenants, they had unhooked their washing machine, see. Normally when one unhooks the washing machine, one shuts the fucking water off. However, if the water has been shut off by the water authority b/c you ain't paid your bill, you do not have to shut off the water to remove your washing machine. So, the tenants didn't shut those valves off. When the water company showed up to turn the water back on, I discovered that the washing machine supply valves hadn't been turned off b/c the water was flooding the downstairs lady's apartment. Oops. (No lives were lost in the flooding. It was pretty minimal, just really embarrassing. My job offers no end of opportunities to look like a dipshit.)
I also rented 200 today, despite its wet floor and not-ready-yet status to somebody and his wife and their twelve year old and their (lives in a cage) ferret. They want it for the first of December, put money down and everything. There shouldn't be a problem getting it rentable by then. (They wanted Bedford b/c their kid goes to Bedford and they didn't want to change schools.)
Also this week, had to BUY a fuel oil container for non-english-speaking tenant at 321. *sigh* I expect he pretends to speak less than he does in order to get things. So I gave him the can and he bought fuel, from Sheetz, so paid high dollar for kerosene instead of the thirty cents a gallon cheaper -- BEFORE taking off the taxes -- for diesel fuel. (Sheetz doesn't have diesel but BP does.) Mike (I called and asked him) says that fuel oil and kerosene can be burned interchangeably without having to do anything with adjustments or nozzles or anything so I figure if the guy wants to spend more money than he has to, he can do so. It's not my problem. I was going to demonstrate bleeding the fuel line and lighting the furnace except he didn't run the last fuel out so that all I needed to do to start the fucking thing was dial up the thermostat upstairs and *wham* the furnace came on just dandy, no bleeding needed. Well, hell. So I explained how to bleed the fuel line, told him to call if he had problems, and allowed as how if he didn't run the fucking thing dry, he wouldn't need to know how to bleed it. At that point, he said he wanted another container for fuel b/c one five gallon container wasn't enough. I said he could go buy one at WalMart for fifteen bucks. He said that was too much money. I said that then he could make lots of trips to Sheetz. It is not my job to supply endless free diesel containers to tenants who are unwilling or unable to call fuel oil companies and get fuel oil delivered.
And Mrs I, in front there, called to have her furnace "turned on". It was already on. I hit the reset. It fired up. It heated up to 180 and the circulator turned on. The furnace shut off. I looked at the furnace. Water pressure 2 lbs. I added water to the system (This has to be done manually b/c the pressure regulating thing, it does not work. We have it shut off at the valve, there, and add it by hand as and when it seems prudent.) until it was 10 lbs, which is a lot more reasonable for hot water radiators than 2 lbs. I opened the expansion tank valve to see if there was anything would come out of it. No. It gulped air, which I let it do, some. With the water pressure up to a reasonable level, nothing was still going on. Heat was not moving around the pipes. I went upstairs and bled Mrs. I's radiators, which I swear had to have been fucking empty for how long that took. I went back into basement, added more water to the system as it was now at like 5 again. Still water is not moving around pipes like it should. I got a flashlight. I looked at the circulator thing, in where you can kind of see the springy thing that's supposed to spin round and round. The springy thing was not going round and round in a blur of motion like it should. The springy thing was in two pieces, which even I know is wrong. I called Mike (there are no shutoff valves on this circulator pump and it was after 5 PM by this time) and he allowed as how we could just replace the springy thing without needing shutoff valves. He did that while I watched. He played with the shaft, poured oil in the "for oiling" spot, cranked it around with a wrench some, and all of a sudden it turned loose and was all better. So, that's solved and we'll be getting a bill from Mike for that one b/c I was too stupid to know how to replace the springy thing on a circulator pump. Mike probably cost less than a new circulator pump, though, and it was educational.
We got letters out to the people at SST regarding the storage of items in the basement. I claimed we didn't feel comfortable renting it due to flooding issues. I'm giving them until 15-Dec to get their shit out of there and then I'll rekey the thing. Also in that letter, I included the bill o' sale from PDW (which says "all personal items in the first floor/store AND in the basement", thus neatly explaining why we hadn't thought the basement stuff belonged to anyone but us) but didn't include the "He who sells what isn't hisn must make it right or go to prison" thing because even though it's amusing as hell, it would probably just be seen as confrontational. The tenants would not be amused.
I've also been hauling out huge chunks of ash from M's yard. That's getting real old but I am also approaching the end of that project. All the huge ginormous pieces are now gone and I can just about lift everything that's left without having to split it first.
I managed to get some things done today -- fixed the tub at 219, cleaned out all the remaining carpet bits from there, cleaned off the porch, shut all the windows, got ahold of Leach on the roof front -- he says he'll be there next week sometime. I still need to rekey it (M. says we never got keys back from tenant) and stick a sign out front.
I also put a new door lock on 11 b/c the one that was there had sheared off somehow and the tenant was understandably upset about having a door that didn't stay closed, let alone lock. I dunno what happened to it. Probably it was the wind or something. It's always the wind with doors. That door has had a rough life (DeLozier) but I managed to stick it back together and reassemble it so that it works and the latch part doesn't wobble or anything. Interestingly, the replacement door knob fit on the big brass plates without any serious effort on my part. That was nice. In other door news, I removed, fixed, and rehung the door in the kitchen at 200 b/c the lower two hinges had screws that weren't catching on anything and the thing was not good. It's better now.
I paid the water bill for 200 and had the water company come out to officially turn the water back on today. That did not go so well because the ex-tenants, they had unhooked their washing machine, see. Normally when one unhooks the washing machine, one shuts the fucking water off. However, if the water has been shut off by the water authority b/c you ain't paid your bill, you do not have to shut off the water to remove your washing machine. So, the tenants didn't shut those valves off. When the water company showed up to turn the water back on, I discovered that the washing machine supply valves hadn't been turned off b/c the water was flooding the downstairs lady's apartment. Oops. (No lives were lost in the flooding. It was pretty minimal, just really embarrassing. My job offers no end of opportunities to look like a dipshit.)
I also rented 200 today, despite its wet floor and not-ready-yet status to somebody and his wife and their twelve year old and their (lives in a cage) ferret. They want it for the first of December, put money down and everything. There shouldn't be a problem getting it rentable by then. (They wanted Bedford b/c their kid goes to Bedford and they didn't want to change schools.)
Also this week, had to BUY a fuel oil container for non-english-speaking tenant at 321. *sigh* I expect he pretends to speak less than he does in order to get things. So I gave him the can and he bought fuel, from Sheetz, so paid high dollar for kerosene instead of the thirty cents a gallon cheaper -- BEFORE taking off the taxes -- for diesel fuel. (Sheetz doesn't have diesel but BP does.) Mike (I called and asked him) says that fuel oil and kerosene can be burned interchangeably without having to do anything with adjustments or nozzles or anything so I figure if the guy wants to spend more money than he has to, he can do so. It's not my problem. I was going to demonstrate bleeding the fuel line and lighting the furnace except he didn't run the last fuel out so that all I needed to do to start the fucking thing was dial up the thermostat upstairs and *wham* the furnace came on just dandy, no bleeding needed. Well, hell. So I explained how to bleed the fuel line, told him to call if he had problems, and allowed as how if he didn't run the fucking thing dry, he wouldn't need to know how to bleed it. At that point, he said he wanted another container for fuel b/c one five gallon container wasn't enough. I said he could go buy one at WalMart for fifteen bucks. He said that was too much money. I said that then he could make lots of trips to Sheetz. It is not my job to supply endless free diesel containers to tenants who are unwilling or unable to call fuel oil companies and get fuel oil delivered.
And Mrs I, in front there, called to have her furnace "turned on". It was already on. I hit the reset. It fired up. It heated up to 180 and the circulator turned on. The furnace shut off. I looked at the furnace. Water pressure 2 lbs. I added water to the system (This has to be done manually b/c the pressure regulating thing, it does not work. We have it shut off at the valve, there, and add it by hand as and when it seems prudent.) until it was 10 lbs, which is a lot more reasonable for hot water radiators than 2 lbs. I opened the expansion tank valve to see if there was anything would come out of it. No. It gulped air, which I let it do, some. With the water pressure up to a reasonable level, nothing was still going on. Heat was not moving around the pipes. I went upstairs and bled Mrs. I's radiators, which I swear had to have been fucking empty for how long that took. I went back into basement, added more water to the system as it was now at like 5 again. Still water is not moving around pipes like it should. I got a flashlight. I looked at the circulator thing, in where you can kind of see the springy thing that's supposed to spin round and round. The springy thing was not going round and round in a blur of motion like it should. The springy thing was in two pieces, which even I know is wrong. I called Mike (there are no shutoff valves on this circulator pump and it was after 5 PM by this time) and he allowed as how we could just replace the springy thing without needing shutoff valves. He did that while I watched. He played with the shaft, poured oil in the "for oiling" spot, cranked it around with a wrench some, and all of a sudden it turned loose and was all better. So, that's solved and we'll be getting a bill from Mike for that one b/c I was too stupid to know how to replace the springy thing on a circulator pump. Mike probably cost less than a new circulator pump, though, and it was educational.
We got letters out to the people at SST regarding the storage of items in the basement. I claimed we didn't feel comfortable renting it due to flooding issues. I'm giving them until 15-Dec to get their shit out of there and then I'll rekey the thing. Also in that letter, I included the bill o' sale from PDW (which says "all personal items in the first floor/store AND in the basement", thus neatly explaining why we hadn't thought the basement stuff belonged to anyone but us) but didn't include the "He who sells what isn't hisn must make it right or go to prison" thing because even though it's amusing as hell, it would probably just be seen as confrontational. The tenants would not be amused.
I've also been hauling out huge chunks of ash from M's yard. That's getting real old but I am also approaching the end of that project. All the huge ginormous pieces are now gone and I can just about lift everything that's left without having to split it first.
