Thursday, October 19, 2006

Cold (and potentially smelly) at the Bredford House…

So we’ve been having some problems with our boiler lately. It’s a style where from time to time you have to add water to it. We hadn’t added water since we moved in back in June and then a couple of weeks ago turned the heat on for the first time. Since then we’ve had to add water up to three times a day. There’s a sticker on the boiler saying that one shouldn’t have to fill it more than about once a month, so we called to have a tech come look at it.

On Tuesday Chris met with the tech who said it was a cracked boiler and he turned it off, saying he couldn’t allow us to turn it back on. It hasn’t been that cold, so the lack of heat isn’t too bad, but the boiler also controls our water heater. That’s right, no hot water since Tuesday.

Immediately after the tech left Chris had called our landlord and left her a message explaining the situation. Mid-day on Wednesday he heard back from her that she was checking to see if the boiler was under warranty. This morning he got a message from her saying that it wasn’t under warranty and that she didn’t feel comfortable ordering a new boiler over the phone. Since it would be a $5000 expenditure she wanted to meet with the tech to see the problems first hand. She also mentioned that she’d had the boiler serviced in the spring and that everything was fine.

I can understand her wanting to understand the problem more before ordering a new boiler, but she should have done that yesterday! Also, it may have been fine when serviced, but obviously something happened. This has gotten ridiculous.

When Chris went home for lunch at 12:30 he saw the truck from the oil company outside, so we know they were meeting at that time. It is now 3:00 and neither of us have heard back from the landlord. I just tried calling the oil company to see if they could tell me the status, but the tech hasn’t returned yet, so the guy I talked to didn’t have any info to give me. He did say that he was aware that we were without heat and hot water and were trying to find a niche to fit us in. I asked it that might be tomorrow, Saturday, or Monday, and he said he couldn’t answer that until he heard back from the tech about what happened when they met this morning.

This is so frustrating. I feel absolutely disgusting because sponge baths just don’t cut it and I really don’t feel like taking a shower in cold water. There are some showers here at work, so although the concept of showering at work really weirds me out, I think I’m about at that point.

We’re debating getting the board of health involved but don’t want to create huge problems. After all, we like the apartment; it’s a good rent, etc. We don’t want to upset the landlord too much so that she won’t renew our lease.

So yeah, no real point to this post, just venting a bit. Thanks for listening!

EDITED TO SAY... Saturday at 7:00 am they will be coming to replace the boiler. Glad to finally be getting it fixed, but sad that I won't be able to sleep in. That's 4 days without hot water!

3 comments:

ChristyR said...

yeah that would piss me off and sometimes I think people just don't work hard for another person anymore. No one wants to make it easier on other people. If I knew someone was out of hot water for more than a day I feel like I would act immediately. Do you know how many trips that would be with a pot to take a warm bath?? I feel for you. I hope it gets resolved soon cos cold showers are no fun and I understand you feeling funny at the thought of showering at work. GL!

Tami said...

we had huge landlord problems. so much that we actually turned on our oven to stay warm. i am glad she is fixing it and there are state rules about this stuff.

~Mel said...

Oh man - 4 days without hot water. I'd be miserable! Even though it's not close, you could have come over to Brigham Hill and showered at night (which at that point, you could also go to your Mom's too I suppose...)

But that's good that they're coming to fix it. And unfortunately, I've found that when service folks come that early on a weekend they always show up earlier than the designated time. But during the week, at 11am, they show up late... go figure.