Monday, I had just finished hanging some towels to dry on the balcony, enjoying the morning sun and breeze. I was slipping back into our bedroom, when…
Crash!
The whole door came off its rusted hinges!
It fell back against the railing and the top pain of thick, glass shattered completely. Some of the glass landed on the drying towel but most of it fell onto the balcony and down to the patio below.
I quickly called the number I had received for the maintenance guy. No answer. I left a message.
The sky was cloudy and I was afraid of what would happen if it started raining. I kept calling throughout the day, leaving a message each time.
Nearing the end of the day, I tried calling once more. Finally, an answer! The woman on the other end of the line was having a hard time understanding me and I her. I explained, as well as I could, and hung up hoping that the message had been understood and someone would come over to fix the hole in our wall.
Soon a man came by, took one look at the mess and said he would be back the next day to fix the door. At least the message got through.
That night we slept with a nice breeze blowing off the ocean. Maybe sleeping without a door on our tropical island wasn’t so bad.
The following day the man came back and got right to work. It was raining most of the day and even when it started pouring, he just kept working.
Once he finished the door, he let me know that he would have to wait until the next day to hang it, since he didn’t have the right hinges. The door looked great and we could go another night without a door.
That night the skies opened up and the wind blew.
By the time we were heading to bed, a third of our floor was one giant puddle! I grabbed some towels and mopped up the water. Our sheets were damp and there was no chance of drying them before climbing into bed.
The wind and rain were so wild that night. It almost seemed like the storm was right there in the room with us. We felt a constant cool mist but at least no solid rain drops. We fell asleep talking about how lucky we were that we wouldn’t have to deal with snow and freezing temperatures later this year.
I awoke in the middle of the night to a still and quiet outside. The storm had passed. I relaxed back down into my pillow, ready to drift back to sleep and realized that I was covered in mosquito bites! That door was good for more than just keeping out the wind and rain. I was providing an all-you-can-eat buffet for all the mosquitoes in the neighborhood. Perfect! I pulled the sheet up over my head and tried not to scratch my new bites, long enough to fall back to sleep.
Now its two days later and still no one has come and no answers to my calls.
Its been awhile since we have lived in a rental and not having the responsibility of repairs on the house can be nice but what do you do when the landlord doesn’t take care of it? I plan on giving them one more day and then we might have to finish the project ourselves. Who knows when anyone will come back to finish the job?!
