We live in a rental house in Knoxville, and while it was built in 2005, we've had numerous problems with it. The most recent was the water heater that stopped making hot water in mid-December. We called the rental agency, and they sent someone who arrived one evening at 7 p.m. and told us there's a red reset button that hopefully just needed to be reset, and that would solve the problem. It did need to be reset, and the hot water quickly returned, but after two showers and a dishwasher run, no hot water again. So we reset the button a couple more times and realized something else was wrong. To make a long story short, it's taken four repair trips to hopefully and finally fix the water heater. The top and bottom heating elements and the thermostat had to be replaced. I'm still not sure why all of this was necessary since the water heater is only a few years old.
In addition to that problem, we've had two stove burners short circuit, an ice maker that leaked water in our top freezer and bottom fridge, a leaky toilet, clogged drains (when we first moved it, David cleaned out the bathroom sink drain and found enough hair to cover a furry animal!), and closet shelves that have fallen twice. With the shelves, it took them more than a month to come out and fix them for the second time last summer. The carpet is thin, and all you have to do is look at one of the walls, and it makes a mark.
Some of you might also remember how our porch almost slid down the hill a couple of months after we moved here.
It was a Saturday and had rained all day, and about 4 p.m. when it stopped, I stepped out onto the porch, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the air conditioning unit leaning and realized the porch was also learning. They fixed it but not very well. Finally last summer, they came back and redid our porch and our neighbors' porches. The workers, however, thought our back hill was a landfill since they left all their water and Gatorade bottles and trash. Some of it we could pick up, but most of it was too far down the hill to get.
While we've had our share of problems, I'm glad we're renting this place. If we owned it, we would have spent a lot of money in home repairs. They probably built this house in day or two at the most. They were still finishing our subdivision when we moved, and I remember seeing houses going up in a matter of days, but the workmanship is not of high quality. David and I both have rented a series of apartments that were built in the 1970s or even earlier, and while you can see the numerous paint jobs, we never had as many issues with our rentals as we've had with this house in Knoxville.
The saving grace is the view of the small mountain ridge that I look at whenever I'm frustrated about something else breaking.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our hot water heater troubles are over for now and placing bets on what will need to be fixed next!
2 comments:
The obvious reason for the heater having problems is most people "up there" do not normally make use of running water (if they have it), especially hot water for cleaning purposes.
Ahh... it's certainly no fun at all when your water heater is on the fritz. Expecting warm water in the shower and getting greeted by so much cold water, it's so distressing. Looks like you have your work cut out for you with regards to your house. It's definitely good that you're just renting the place. Well, I hope you manage to get the place fixed, so you can enjoy the view without a problem. Good luck!
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