As someone who grew up in the UK and now in Japan I'm with you on most of this. But I did spend a while in Finland and Central Germany in winter so I know what the cold is like. But the weather is one reason why I don't live in those places any more. I like seeing snow on mountain peaks not on the streets I need to drive along
Getting stuck in a snow drift at 1am on the way home from a night shift helped me learn this lesson, keeping some additional gloves and warm clothes in my car along with a shovel when it gets cold out so I'm not stuck in negative 40 degree windchill miles from home all night like I nearly was.
1. Holly is not exaggerating. Her apt. is that clean and neat.
2. This time we'll make an exception. You may choose *one* wire hanger for your closet.
3. Everything manufactured today is absolute shit .Chinese shit. American shit. European shit.
It's all shit.
Every single *mechanical* appliance---remember, they are meant to do physical work in the material world by moving tangible matter in three dimensions---is behind a "electronic paywall."
This is a conscious choice. It's not rational from a consumer need perspective.
It's anti-rational. Not just irrational, anti-rational.
The last thing a woman wants in -22 degree weather is heater that *decides*, based on its circuit-chip-feels, to prohibit the fire from lighting.
Seriously. Look at what we're actually dealing with.
This is a Rinnai. Best on the market.
And they consciously chose these two things:
1. Make sure it will NOT operate if electricity goes out. Then, sell them in the Northeast where electricity goes out.
2. Make the appliance's core function---keeping humans alive with heat---dependent on whether the fucking FILTER feels comfy in its slot.
I'll stop because I'm getting angry and writing an essay. These choices can *kill* a person who needs heat in arctic weather.
But this shit isn't "normal" by any standards except those within the past few decades.
Anyone reading---I urge you to get *old entirely mechanical appliances that have no chips or electronics of any kind.* Dials, buttons, mechanical springs.
At the very least, get a heater that can be lit with a match (or find a smart handyman who will remove the "safety" features that prevent a heater from igniting unless it's tied to a live electric circuit).
Indeed, Josh is wise for his years. Being prepared for as many contingencies as one can imagine is a sign of common sense and maturity.
When I purchased the place in which I still live, it was a newly built townhouse. Being one of the show units, it featured a fully equipped kitchen, albeit with mid-range priced no frills appliances: GE brand refrigerator, electric stove, over-the-stove microwave and a dishwasher. The microwave perished first, after about 15 years. At 25 years the dishwasher had to be replaced. 2 years ago, or 40 years later, I replaced the refrigerator and stove, though both of them still worked. My 48 year old deep freeze was finally replaced in Oct. of 2022. As the delivery guy for the new one wheeled the old one out of my garage I was reluctant to see it go. Sure, it was a frost free freezer whose door gasket had hardened with age and no longer kept the freezer frost free, but the dang thing still kept food frozen. I couldn't find a replacement part for the gasket, unfortunately. A Whirlpool Washer and Dryer set, purchased in the early 80's stood the test of time until I had to replace the washer in 2021, but the dryer still works like a charm. I kept it because I figured I may need it when the new one craps out in another few years. I seriously doubt I will outlive any of the replacements.
Planned obsolescence is a crime. I would gladly pay more, quite a bit more, for a well-constructed, built to last appliance or furniture or car or anything! The toaster I received as a wedding gift in 1978 worked fine for 25 years. Since it went where all faithful appliances go in their afterlife, I've yet to find a toaster that works worth a darn.
I fully concede that I'm different than most people. I keep my stuff until it breaks or falls apart, but by the same token I will nearly always choose quality over the latest style. Sadly, that option is becoming almost non-existent. Quality isn't even a thing anymore.
Holly, you made me laugh a few times with your descriptions of your fusty and uber niggardly landlord. Reminds me of people who spend a $1.00 to save 10 cents using a coupon. SCA's advice is good - you may want to seriously consider avoiding another winter in your current accommodations.
I'm just amazed at how STUPID he is. How does he not see that his current strategy results in spending a LOT more money than he would if he just bought a new heater from the beginning?
Well, the only excuse I could make for that is he believes a used heater (pre-1990??) is better made, costs less, and is likely to last longer than a new heater. Which in the latter case turned out not to be true. Besides, an 8 hour drive one way or even roundtrip does seem exceptionally silly in terms of time spent.
Everything really is getting worse. Cheap plastic crap. And fabrics bought on the cheap from places like Mexico. No offense to the Mexicans, of course, they are just trying to earn a living, but clothes are falling apart like never before. My evidence? All the folks in the country who claim that their septic tanks and drainage fields are filling up with the threads. And I've been wearing Levi's 505's for my entire life and i've never seen them wear out as quickly as they do now.
Your landlord totally sucks, and I say that as a landlord myself. We buy properties that are nearly ready for the wrecking ball and replace *everything* with new things. A 10 yo water heater? Replaced, even if it doesn't show problems. That's for my own sanity as much as for the comfort of my tenants. I don't want them without hot water, and I sure as hell don't want them calling me on a Thursday morning when I'm packing my shit to head to the deer woods.
For SE Texas, we had a horribly cold Valentine's Day week in 2021. It caused some plumbing issues for 1 of my tenants. I was on the phone with my plumber as soon as the tenant called. Of course, everybody in greater Houston needed a plumber then, too. I think it took a week for my plumber to get out there and fix the problem. The tenant is a young couple with an 18 month old baby. FUCK!
Texted the husband: "Do you guys need me to get you a couple cases of water or something to tide you over until the plumber can get to you? Also, whatever expenses you incur to work around this, send me the receipts and I'll deduct it from the month's rent."
This isn't the first plumbing issue in this house with these tenants, either. Put in a new water heater, it went bad right after they moved in. Put in another new one, it went bad (both of course still under warranty). Third time was the charm with the water heater.
My fuck-up, we didn't inspect the main coming out of the house when we bought the place. A giant green ash in the front yard had penetrated the main, causing a backup into the shower. Fuck. That cost me $5k. It is what it is. That's business.
Provide a good product at market price. That's all I'm doing. That's the way my mentor trained me, and we've made a shit ton of money doing things that way in the last 4 or 5 years.
It's a very odd situation here. Vermont laws are very pro-tenant with regard to evictions. If I stopped paying it would take him 3 months, minimum, to get me out. But in other ways, the bureaucracy is so bad that tenants functionally have no rights at all. I say that because I went to school in Burlington and was privy to the details of what the slumlords in Burlington are actually like. Yes, technically, you may have the right to recovery if your landlord refuses to fix the heater in January and you have to leave in order to not die and incur costs. But if it's August before you get a hearing and March of the following year before you'd get your case settled, what do your technical rights have to do with anything? Some of the experiences people I know have had with landlords in Burlington are downright terrifying.
I like the area I live in a lot, and part of his absolutely astonishing stupidity with regard to money is that he hasn't kept up with how much the rental market has changed. He could get $700 a month more tomorrow. So I just sort of keep my head down and deal with stuff myself. It's not a good situation in some respects, but for the area, believe it or not, he's above average.
Texas laws are very pro-property owner. If rent isn't paid by MN on the 4th of the month (stipulated in all of our leases), we can start eviction proceedings - starting with a 72-hour notice to vacate the property. In the less densely populated satellite counties around Houston where we own properties, I can usually get a hearing with the JP in a week or 10 days.
We've only had to evict 1 tenant, and let them slide for 2 months. But I was still having to make the mortgage payments. Once we got things rolling, they were gone in about 10 days.
Yeah, that's pretty intense. Are you allowed to collect last month's rent up front (which would then mean that functionally, someone who lost their job or had a financial crisis would have a month, not 72 hours, right? You could apply the last month's rent in that situation?).
We could, but it's generally a bad idea. The deposit is held for repairs (above normal wear-and-tear "damage," that's on us to fix) after a tenant moves out. Most of our tenants have been very good and left things largely the way they found them. Fixing nail holes in the sheet rock and a new coat of paint and steam cleaning the carpet and other things like that are just part of a "make ready" expense that we incur.
For example, if a tenant moves out after a year, and there's a giant tear or stain on the brand new carpet, their deposit will be used to cure that. If they've been in for 8 or 9 years and the carpet has just been worn threadbare from ordinary foot traffic, that's on us, not them.
That makes sense. I have a month's expenses in the bank, and plan on expanding that to three months this year. But that wasn't always possible for me. There was a time when a sudden job loss would have been disastrous and I would have been completely hosed trying to make rent in three days. So I was just curious.
I understand that may sound harsh, but there are other reasons as well.
If I grant much leeway to one tenant, then I put myself on the hook for having to do the same for all of my tenants. Also understand that 3 or 4 months unpaid rent means I will make no money on that property for that year, and very likely will lose money.
We buy houses that can't qualify for conventional mortgages. We obtain high interest rate construction loans (usually for 90 days), fix up the properties, then get 80/20 conventional mortgages on them. In addition to the 20% down requirement, lenders also require us to have a certain amount of cash in reserve, as much as 6 months worth of mortgage payments sitting in the bank, per property.
All of the cash to do this stuff we earned from our W-2 jobs and frugal living.
My curiosity got the best of me. In order to learn what transpired, I am now a paid subscriber and the story was well worth it!!! You handled the whole scenario with patience and grace. I totally understand your frustrations with tightwads. Our power was off 20 days during Texas’ winter storm URI in 2021. I had PTS . Power poles broke, trees fell on the lines, it was a mess. Enter winter storm 2023...same issue because they did not trim trees or repair lines with lines that would withstand the ice load(a problem they identified in 2021.) They are too cheap to do things right. Anyway, I now can read all you great posts that were behind the paywall. I can’t wait!
OMG, thanks! I hope you enjoy it. Sometimes I get busy and don't write much but generally I write 2-4 days a week. There's a ton, though, so I'm not sure where to suggest you start. The creative writing series is popular. "Almost-Rain, in the Graveyard" is about a day I spent with my friend Josh. People also like the novel excerpt, "Light Bulb Moments," "Dreaming of Snakes" and "The Tornado." "In the Library with William" is heavy but got a lot of email. Hope you enjoy! :-)
Josh is correct about how everything is crap these days. My brother, who I mention below, could have written the post above. It is so spot on that I briefly wondered if it _was_ my brother. Also, I am basically becoming a Luddite with regard to modern technology. There is plenty of other stuff to talk about, but just for example, in my current software gig the amount of work that we spend on security concerns is just ridiculous. And don't get me started on VOIP. But that's not the main thing your post made me want to talk about.
I grew up in the middle of North Carolina, out in the country, where we were way more likely to get freezing rain than actual snow. I don't know if we lost our power _every_ year, but it seemed like it. Ice-laden trees falling on power lines tend to do that. Particularly after the stupid nihilistic environmentalists started demanding that the power company NOT CUT BACK TREES NEAR THE POWER LINES.
Living where we did, in a very low density area, it could easily be several days before the power company sent a crew out to fix it. I think they went almost a week without it in the winter of '02/03. I remember my dad drove to my apartment in Raleigh to get a shower one day.
Now, there are a few things about being moderately not very well-off and having lived through the 70's oil crisis. One of them is that one year my dad decided we couldn't afford oil for the furnace, and went out and got a wood stove. And he stuck it in the middle of what was the living room at the time, which just happened to be underneath one of the bedrooms that my brother and I shared. So, he ran the pipe right up through the ceiling into that room and then out through an old fireplace that had been bricked over long ago. To get the maximum heat out of it. To heat the most area that he could. To keep his family warm when the power _was_ on.
Of course, we didn't pay for the wood. Especially not when the property was covered in acres of old growth Piedmont forest. So, we sweated out our summers cutting down next year's and splitting this year's. It needs at least a year to dry out. Chopping wood is excellent exercise, if you can manage not to chop a limb off and avoid the hordes of copperheads that invaded the wood piles.
We spent our winters huddled around that wood stove. Whether we had power or not. And we stocked up on flashlights and batteries, and candles and matches for when we needed them.
And it also just so happens that there is a little creek that runs through the property. Of course, the creek runs across the driveway. Which caused some problems. For many years, before my father and brother built a neat little covered bridge over it, we would have to park the car way down the lane on the other side of the creek whenever it looked like rain might raise the creek to the point that it couldn't be driven over. Fun stuff! On the other hand, we had a really nice, deep well that gave us the clearest, best tasting water. But, of course, it was powered by ... electricity. My dad installed a single light bulb in the wellhouse to keep it moderately warm, but you also learn to run the water just a bit out of every faucet to keep the pump and the lines from freezing. Especially in a drafty old farmhouse that didn't have a proper basement to run the pipes through. But, the water wasn't forced through the pipes like it was for the city folk (who of course got their power restored in a timely manner anyway). It simply didn't work without ... electricity. Did I mention that little creek? Well, that's were we got water to flush toilets or wash ourselves, if we really had to, during these times.
We were prepared. We dealt with these inevitable hardships. I'm sure it took some time to learn how to do it. But we learned. And we dealt with it. Because we prepared for it. How or why we got by without a generator, I will never understand. Did no good ones exist in the 70's and 80's?
Fast forward 30 or 40 years and the old farmhouse has proper HVAC! And my brother has a generator, or several, and has been investigating hand-driven pumps for the old well, in case either the zombie apocalypse or the Chinese EMPs cause a complete failure of the grid or the gas supply. You want to talk about preppers? Oh, boy. Only six weeks of rations? He _would_ look at you like you were crazy if you happened to mention that. There are some other things I could mention, but who knows who might be listening.
And I've been enjoying sunny southern California for almost two decades when I suddenly find myself living with and taking care of my elderly mother in the guest house of my recently deceased sister's home in Little Rock, Arkansas. My mom really needs full time care and we are figuring out what that is going to look like in the long term. But, for now, i can work remotely (yay, pandemic?) and just spend the rest of my time taking care of her. And give my brother-in-law some time and space to do what he has to do. Rereading this, it seems like some kind of humble-brag. It really isn't.
Because, just last week we get the ice storm. And in the back of my mind for a day or two I'm just sort of going about my business, trying to tell myself that at least there is a fireplace in the main house, should we need it. And not even realizing how I had gotten soft and lazy in sunny SoCal.
But then the power goes out around 6pm and it is almost pitch black. And I realize I don't have a flashlight. Or candles. Much less batteries or matches. And I have literally 1% juice on my cell phone. So, I am frantically trying to find my back up phone charger (which is actually pretty solid, i can get more than one full recharge of my phone from it) just to use the flashlight on the phone, so that I can find my shoes, and go get a flashlight from my brother in law, and talk to him about what to do. All the while, increasingly coming to the dreadful realization that I'm responsible for a 90 year old lady, who is not exactly spry, in an area I am completely unfamiliar with, in conditions that I am embarrassingly unprepared for. I wasn't exactly in a panic. But, I was close.
After about 15 minutes, I had a short conversation about the nature of the power company's response with the neighbor who was out setting up _his_ generator because he had been through this (just once) before without it. And when he said something to the effect of "yall just knock on the door if you start to get too cold. I've seen the old lady living over there" ... well, I was not actually on the verge of tears. But the amount of solace, and comfort, not to mention confirmation of the general decency of people, that I got out of that man, at that moment, is something I will never forget.
We also learned pretty quickly that the power company was working on the downed line. And they gave us a four hour estimate. And they almost met that mark (my brother told me the next day that the local power company line men are his literal heroes and his standards are about as high as you can get). Just getting that info from them real made me feel a lot better. And the upstairs room of the guest house stayed really admirably warm for the almost five hours that we were without power. So I was only mildly worried about having to bundle up my mom and trudge her through the frozen and icy ground over to the main house and start a fire. And my mom and I had fun talking about the nature of God (her father was a reverend) and some other neat stuff that she may or may not even have remembered the next day. And at one point I thought it was cold enough for us to get under one of the three thick blankets we had assembled. It was a little warm for me, but, I knew it would help keep her warm. And once in a while I turned the flashlight on to remind her where we were, and where the bathroom was if she needed to go. And hoped the city was still pushing the water through the pipes, if she had to go more than once.
And I joked with her that "the god i believe in shouldn't need to hear me say this out loud, but, God, if you do, then there is nothing I want more that that those linemen ..." and so on. We prayed out loud that those line men knew what they were doing. That they had all the equipment that they needed. That they were happy in their lives and that they had loving families to go home to. And probably some other stuff that I don't remember. And it wasn't too long before the lights, and the furnace, and the refrigerator, and all those other things that I have come to depend on, well, they just all sprang back to life. Isn't technology really great?
I hate to jinx myself, but I feel like we beat that mean old Murphy this time. I just hope it was enough of a reminder to me that he is always around the corner. Waiting for you to get soft and lazy. Waiting to pounce. To catch you off guard. To catch you unprepared.
I hope this isn't another interminable four-paragraph comment like usual. (Given your weather you might could use some hot air though.) Either we were separately born on the same wavelength or you're just a good writer because it often feels like you're stealing my thoughts. The fact that when I got to the one-word paragraph "heh" I read it aloud is proof.
Prepping seems to be a normal and logical practice, to not take things for granted. From what I've heard and read this is not uncommon with people who have a traumatic background. I imagine that if you've experienced extreme tumult you understand better than most that the rug can be pulled out from beneath at any time. So you prepare for it.
Though I'm curious--rhetorically, I'm not asking anything of you--what constitutes, as you put it, "less justifiable" measures. As the most self-aware person I know I am obsessed with the line between being fair to oneself and holding oneself accountable. Self-awares are tilted towards the latter. When I see others deal in self-doubt I default advocate for fairness, i.e., "I'm not burdened by your innate anti-you bias therefore my more balanced observation is more valid than your unfair criticism of yourself :) "
Your landlord seems to have voluntarily demonstrated the "Vimes Boots Theory" from one of Sir Pterry's books (Men at Arms in this case)
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
I don't pretend to know what the landlord was thinking -- and the minute he decided it was to his advantage to get a new heater, he did that same day -- but this theory you describe makes a lot of sense to me.
I absolutely loathe running out of something! We aren't doomsday preppers, but we do preserve food and have at least a year's worth on hand at the moment. Our home is solar powered with a back-up generator. We heat and cook with propane with a wood stove for backup. I love to cook, and keep a huge stock of cooking supplies so that I'm never out of something in the middle of a recipe. Even if I don't have the back-up supplies, I always have back-up plans. I'm not sure if I want to call this anxiety or quirky or just wanting to be prepared because of the times when I wasn't. I probably went a bit too far last year though. I accidentally let myself run out of feminine supplies (I'm in perimenopause and was at a point where I didn't think I would be needing them any longer.) I ran to the store to buy what was needed and the shelves were empty. Went to another store and again, the shelves were empty. Went to the closest larger town to a Sam's Club and NOTHING! Anyway, the next time I was in a Walmart and there were tampons on the shelf, I filled the damn cart! Then I had to find a place to store them in our 800sq ft house :) .
I guess I'm just telling you that I relate! There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with being prepared, in my opinion!
Thank you for reading it! It's a pleasure to be able to share little stories from my life and have people enjoy them. 🥰
As someone who grew up in the UK and now in Japan I'm with you on most of this. But I did spend a while in Finland and Central Germany in winter so I know what the cold is like. But the weather is one reason why I don't live in those places any more. I like seeing snow on mountain peaks not on the streets I need to drive along
Getting stuck in a snow drift at 1am on the way home from a night shift helped me learn this lesson, keeping some additional gloves and warm clothes in my car along with a shovel when it gets cold out so I'm not stuck in negative 40 degree windchill miles from home all night like I nearly was.
1. Holly is not exaggerating. Her apt. is that clean and neat.
2. This time we'll make an exception. You may choose *one* wire hanger for your closet.
3. Everything manufactured today is absolute shit .Chinese shit. American shit. European shit.
It's all shit.
Every single *mechanical* appliance---remember, they are meant to do physical work in the material world by moving tangible matter in three dimensions---is behind a "electronic paywall."
This is a conscious choice. It's not rational from a consumer need perspective.
It's anti-rational. Not just irrational, anti-rational.
The last thing a woman wants in -22 degree weather is heater that *decides*, based on its circuit-chip-feels, to prohibit the fire from lighting.
Seriously. Look at what we're actually dealing with.
This is a Rinnai. Best on the market.
And they consciously chose these two things:
1. Make sure it will NOT operate if electricity goes out. Then, sell them in the Northeast where electricity goes out.
2. Make the appliance's core function---keeping humans alive with heat---dependent on whether the fucking FILTER feels comfy in its slot.
I'll stop because I'm getting angry and writing an essay. These choices can *kill* a person who needs heat in arctic weather.
But this shit isn't "normal" by any standards except those within the past few decades.
Anyone reading---I urge you to get *old entirely mechanical appliances that have no chips or electronics of any kind.* Dials, buttons, mechanical springs.
At the very least, get a heater that can be lit with a match (or find a smart handyman who will remove the "safety" features that prevent a heater from igniting unless it's tied to a live electric circuit).
*whistles and applauds*
The electronic gate keeper thing absolutely applies to gas stoves too. There are some* that WILL NOT ALLOW GAS TO FLOW IF THERE IS NO ELECTRICAL POWER
So in a power outage you can't cook or use the stove to keep warm even though there's plenty of gas.
*No I don't know the brand, this came courtesy of a friend in California who found out the problem the hard way when Ca had rolling blackouts
Absolutely great yarn - and bravo Josh!
Indeed, Josh is wise for his years. Being prepared for as many contingencies as one can imagine is a sign of common sense and maturity.
When I purchased the place in which I still live, it was a newly built townhouse. Being one of the show units, it featured a fully equipped kitchen, albeit with mid-range priced no frills appliances: GE brand refrigerator, electric stove, over-the-stove microwave and a dishwasher. The microwave perished first, after about 15 years. At 25 years the dishwasher had to be replaced. 2 years ago, or 40 years later, I replaced the refrigerator and stove, though both of them still worked. My 48 year old deep freeze was finally replaced in Oct. of 2022. As the delivery guy for the new one wheeled the old one out of my garage I was reluctant to see it go. Sure, it was a frost free freezer whose door gasket had hardened with age and no longer kept the freezer frost free, but the dang thing still kept food frozen. I couldn't find a replacement part for the gasket, unfortunately. A Whirlpool Washer and Dryer set, purchased in the early 80's stood the test of time until I had to replace the washer in 2021, but the dryer still works like a charm. I kept it because I figured I may need it when the new one craps out in another few years. I seriously doubt I will outlive any of the replacements.
Planned obsolescence is a crime. I would gladly pay more, quite a bit more, for a well-constructed, built to last appliance or furniture or car or anything! The toaster I received as a wedding gift in 1978 worked fine for 25 years. Since it went where all faithful appliances go in their afterlife, I've yet to find a toaster that works worth a darn.
I fully concede that I'm different than most people. I keep my stuff until it breaks or falls apart, but by the same token I will nearly always choose quality over the latest style. Sadly, that option is becoming almost non-existent. Quality isn't even a thing anymore.
Holly, you made me laugh a few times with your descriptions of your fusty and uber niggardly landlord. Reminds me of people who spend a $1.00 to save 10 cents using a coupon. SCA's advice is good - you may want to seriously consider avoiding another winter in your current accommodations.
I'm just amazed at how STUPID he is. How does he not see that his current strategy results in spending a LOT more money than he would if he just bought a new heater from the beginning?
Well, the only excuse I could make for that is he believes a used heater (pre-1990??) is better made, costs less, and is likely to last longer than a new heater. Which in the latter case turned out not to be true. Besides, an 8 hour drive one way or even roundtrip does seem exceptionally silly in terms of time spent.
Everything really is getting worse. Cheap plastic crap. And fabrics bought on the cheap from places like Mexico. No offense to the Mexicans, of course, they are just trying to earn a living, but clothes are falling apart like never before. My evidence? All the folks in the country who claim that their septic tanks and drainage fields are filling up with the threads. And I've been wearing Levi's 505's for my entire life and i've never seen them wear out as quickly as they do now.
Just want to say ❤️. Yay you. 😀
Your landlord totally sucks, and I say that as a landlord myself. We buy properties that are nearly ready for the wrecking ball and replace *everything* with new things. A 10 yo water heater? Replaced, even if it doesn't show problems. That's for my own sanity as much as for the comfort of my tenants. I don't want them without hot water, and I sure as hell don't want them calling me on a Thursday morning when I'm packing my shit to head to the deer woods.
For SE Texas, we had a horribly cold Valentine's Day week in 2021. It caused some plumbing issues for 1 of my tenants. I was on the phone with my plumber as soon as the tenant called. Of course, everybody in greater Houston needed a plumber then, too. I think it took a week for my plumber to get out there and fix the problem. The tenant is a young couple with an 18 month old baby. FUCK!
Texted the husband: "Do you guys need me to get you a couple cases of water or something to tide you over until the plumber can get to you? Also, whatever expenses you incur to work around this, send me the receipts and I'll deduct it from the month's rent."
This isn't the first plumbing issue in this house with these tenants, either. Put in a new water heater, it went bad right after they moved in. Put in another new one, it went bad (both of course still under warranty). Third time was the charm with the water heater.
My fuck-up, we didn't inspect the main coming out of the house when we bought the place. A giant green ash in the front yard had penetrated the main, causing a backup into the shower. Fuck. That cost me $5k. It is what it is. That's business.
Provide a good product at market price. That's all I'm doing. That's the way my mentor trained me, and we've made a shit ton of money doing things that way in the last 4 or 5 years.
It's a very odd situation here. Vermont laws are very pro-tenant with regard to evictions. If I stopped paying it would take him 3 months, minimum, to get me out. But in other ways, the bureaucracy is so bad that tenants functionally have no rights at all. I say that because I went to school in Burlington and was privy to the details of what the slumlords in Burlington are actually like. Yes, technically, you may have the right to recovery if your landlord refuses to fix the heater in January and you have to leave in order to not die and incur costs. But if it's August before you get a hearing and March of the following year before you'd get your case settled, what do your technical rights have to do with anything? Some of the experiences people I know have had with landlords in Burlington are downright terrifying.
I like the area I live in a lot, and part of his absolutely astonishing stupidity with regard to money is that he hasn't kept up with how much the rental market has changed. He could get $700 a month more tomorrow. So I just sort of keep my head down and deal with stuff myself. It's not a good situation in some respects, but for the area, believe it or not, he's above average.
Texas laws are very pro-property owner. If rent isn't paid by MN on the 4th of the month (stipulated in all of our leases), we can start eviction proceedings - starting with a 72-hour notice to vacate the property. In the less densely populated satellite counties around Houston where we own properties, I can usually get a hearing with the JP in a week or 10 days.
We've only had to evict 1 tenant, and let them slide for 2 months. But I was still having to make the mortgage payments. Once we got things rolling, they were gone in about 10 days.
Yeah, that's pretty intense. Are you allowed to collect last month's rent up front (which would then mean that functionally, someone who lost their job or had a financial crisis would have a month, not 72 hours, right? You could apply the last month's rent in that situation?).
We could, but it's generally a bad idea. The deposit is held for repairs (above normal wear-and-tear "damage," that's on us to fix) after a tenant moves out. Most of our tenants have been very good and left things largely the way they found them. Fixing nail holes in the sheet rock and a new coat of paint and steam cleaning the carpet and other things like that are just part of a "make ready" expense that we incur.
For example, if a tenant moves out after a year, and there's a giant tear or stain on the brand new carpet, their deposit will be used to cure that. If they've been in for 8 or 9 years and the carpet has just been worn threadbare from ordinary foot traffic, that's on us, not them.
That makes sense. I have a month's expenses in the bank, and plan on expanding that to three months this year. But that wasn't always possible for me. There was a time when a sudden job loss would have been disastrous and I would have been completely hosed trying to make rent in three days. So I was just curious.
I understand that may sound harsh, but there are other reasons as well.
If I grant much leeway to one tenant, then I put myself on the hook for having to do the same for all of my tenants. Also understand that 3 or 4 months unpaid rent means I will make no money on that property for that year, and very likely will lose money.
We buy houses that can't qualify for conventional mortgages. We obtain high interest rate construction loans (usually for 90 days), fix up the properties, then get 80/20 conventional mortgages on them. In addition to the 20% down requirement, lenders also require us to have a certain amount of cash in reserve, as much as 6 months worth of mortgage payments sitting in the bank, per property.
All of the cash to do this stuff we earned from our W-2 jobs and frugal living.
No, it doesn't sound harsh. I understand. Just like I understood why people preferred to rent to couples -- two incomes is more secure than one.
My curiosity got the best of me. In order to learn what transpired, I am now a paid subscriber and the story was well worth it!!! You handled the whole scenario with patience and grace. I totally understand your frustrations with tightwads. Our power was off 20 days during Texas’ winter storm URI in 2021. I had PTS . Power poles broke, trees fell on the lines, it was a mess. Enter winter storm 2023...same issue because they did not trim trees or repair lines with lines that would withstand the ice load(a problem they identified in 2021.) They are too cheap to do things right. Anyway, I now can read all you great posts that were behind the paywall. I can’t wait!
OMG, thanks! I hope you enjoy it. Sometimes I get busy and don't write much but generally I write 2-4 days a week. There's a ton, though, so I'm not sure where to suggest you start. The creative writing series is popular. "Almost-Rain, in the Graveyard" is about a day I spent with my friend Josh. People also like the novel excerpt, "Light Bulb Moments," "Dreaming of Snakes" and "The Tornado." "In the Library with William" is heavy but got a lot of email. Hope you enjoy! :-)
Josh is correct about how everything is crap these days. My brother, who I mention below, could have written the post above. It is so spot on that I briefly wondered if it _was_ my brother. Also, I am basically becoming a Luddite with regard to modern technology. There is plenty of other stuff to talk about, but just for example, in my current software gig the amount of work that we spend on security concerns is just ridiculous. And don't get me started on VOIP. But that's not the main thing your post made me want to talk about.
I grew up in the middle of North Carolina, out in the country, where we were way more likely to get freezing rain than actual snow. I don't know if we lost our power _every_ year, but it seemed like it. Ice-laden trees falling on power lines tend to do that. Particularly after the stupid nihilistic environmentalists started demanding that the power company NOT CUT BACK TREES NEAR THE POWER LINES.
Living where we did, in a very low density area, it could easily be several days before the power company sent a crew out to fix it. I think they went almost a week without it in the winter of '02/03. I remember my dad drove to my apartment in Raleigh to get a shower one day.
Now, there are a few things about being moderately not very well-off and having lived through the 70's oil crisis. One of them is that one year my dad decided we couldn't afford oil for the furnace, and went out and got a wood stove. And he stuck it in the middle of what was the living room at the time, which just happened to be underneath one of the bedrooms that my brother and I shared. So, he ran the pipe right up through the ceiling into that room and then out through an old fireplace that had been bricked over long ago. To get the maximum heat out of it. To heat the most area that he could. To keep his family warm when the power _was_ on.
Of course, we didn't pay for the wood. Especially not when the property was covered in acres of old growth Piedmont forest. So, we sweated out our summers cutting down next year's and splitting this year's. It needs at least a year to dry out. Chopping wood is excellent exercise, if you can manage not to chop a limb off and avoid the hordes of copperheads that invaded the wood piles.
We spent our winters huddled around that wood stove. Whether we had power or not. And we stocked up on flashlights and batteries, and candles and matches for when we needed them.
And it also just so happens that there is a little creek that runs through the property. Of course, the creek runs across the driveway. Which caused some problems. For many years, before my father and brother built a neat little covered bridge over it, we would have to park the car way down the lane on the other side of the creek whenever it looked like rain might raise the creek to the point that it couldn't be driven over. Fun stuff! On the other hand, we had a really nice, deep well that gave us the clearest, best tasting water. But, of course, it was powered by ... electricity. My dad installed a single light bulb in the wellhouse to keep it moderately warm, but you also learn to run the water just a bit out of every faucet to keep the pump and the lines from freezing. Especially in a drafty old farmhouse that didn't have a proper basement to run the pipes through. But, the water wasn't forced through the pipes like it was for the city folk (who of course got their power restored in a timely manner anyway). It simply didn't work without ... electricity. Did I mention that little creek? Well, that's were we got water to flush toilets or wash ourselves, if we really had to, during these times.
We were prepared. We dealt with these inevitable hardships. I'm sure it took some time to learn how to do it. But we learned. And we dealt with it. Because we prepared for it. How or why we got by without a generator, I will never understand. Did no good ones exist in the 70's and 80's?
Fast forward 30 or 40 years and the old farmhouse has proper HVAC! And my brother has a generator, or several, and has been investigating hand-driven pumps for the old well, in case either the zombie apocalypse or the Chinese EMPs cause a complete failure of the grid or the gas supply. You want to talk about preppers? Oh, boy. Only six weeks of rations? He _would_ look at you like you were crazy if you happened to mention that. There are some other things I could mention, but who knows who might be listening.
And I've been enjoying sunny southern California for almost two decades when I suddenly find myself living with and taking care of my elderly mother in the guest house of my recently deceased sister's home in Little Rock, Arkansas. My mom really needs full time care and we are figuring out what that is going to look like in the long term. But, for now, i can work remotely (yay, pandemic?) and just spend the rest of my time taking care of her. And give my brother-in-law some time and space to do what he has to do. Rereading this, it seems like some kind of humble-brag. It really isn't.
Because, just last week we get the ice storm. And in the back of my mind for a day or two I'm just sort of going about my business, trying to tell myself that at least there is a fireplace in the main house, should we need it. And not even realizing how I had gotten soft and lazy in sunny SoCal.
But then the power goes out around 6pm and it is almost pitch black. And I realize I don't have a flashlight. Or candles. Much less batteries or matches. And I have literally 1% juice on my cell phone. So, I am frantically trying to find my back up phone charger (which is actually pretty solid, i can get more than one full recharge of my phone from it) just to use the flashlight on the phone, so that I can find my shoes, and go get a flashlight from my brother in law, and talk to him about what to do. All the while, increasingly coming to the dreadful realization that I'm responsible for a 90 year old lady, who is not exactly spry, in an area I am completely unfamiliar with, in conditions that I am embarrassingly unprepared for. I wasn't exactly in a panic. But, I was close.
After about 15 minutes, I had a short conversation about the nature of the power company's response with the neighbor who was out setting up _his_ generator because he had been through this (just once) before without it. And when he said something to the effect of "yall just knock on the door if you start to get too cold. I've seen the old lady living over there" ... well, I was not actually on the verge of tears. But the amount of solace, and comfort, not to mention confirmation of the general decency of people, that I got out of that man, at that moment, is something I will never forget.
We also learned pretty quickly that the power company was working on the downed line. And they gave us a four hour estimate. And they almost met that mark (my brother told me the next day that the local power company line men are his literal heroes and his standards are about as high as you can get). Just getting that info from them real made me feel a lot better. And the upstairs room of the guest house stayed really admirably warm for the almost five hours that we were without power. So I was only mildly worried about having to bundle up my mom and trudge her through the frozen and icy ground over to the main house and start a fire. And my mom and I had fun talking about the nature of God (her father was a reverend) and some other neat stuff that she may or may not even have remembered the next day. And at one point I thought it was cold enough for us to get under one of the three thick blankets we had assembled. It was a little warm for me, but, I knew it would help keep her warm. And once in a while I turned the flashlight on to remind her where we were, and where the bathroom was if she needed to go. And hoped the city was still pushing the water through the pipes, if she had to go more than once.
And I joked with her that "the god i believe in shouldn't need to hear me say this out loud, but, God, if you do, then there is nothing I want more that that those linemen ..." and so on. We prayed out loud that those line men knew what they were doing. That they had all the equipment that they needed. That they were happy in their lives and that they had loving families to go home to. And probably some other stuff that I don't remember. And it wasn't too long before the lights, and the furnace, and the refrigerator, and all those other things that I have come to depend on, well, they just all sprang back to life. Isn't technology really great?
I hate to jinx myself, but I feel like we beat that mean old Murphy this time. I just hope it was enough of a reminder to me that he is always around the corner. Waiting for you to get soft and lazy. Waiting to pounce. To catch you off guard. To catch you unprepared.
Be prepared indeed. It's better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it.
I hope this isn't another interminable four-paragraph comment like usual. (Given your weather you might could use some hot air though.) Either we were separately born on the same wavelength or you're just a good writer because it often feels like you're stealing my thoughts. The fact that when I got to the one-word paragraph "heh" I read it aloud is proof.
Prepping seems to be a normal and logical practice, to not take things for granted. From what I've heard and read this is not uncommon with people who have a traumatic background. I imagine that if you've experienced extreme tumult you understand better than most that the rug can be pulled out from beneath at any time. So you prepare for it.
Though I'm curious--rhetorically, I'm not asking anything of you--what constitutes, as you put it, "less justifiable" measures. As the most self-aware person I know I am obsessed with the line between being fair to oneself and holding oneself accountable. Self-awares are tilted towards the latter. When I see others deal in self-doubt I default advocate for fairness, i.e., "I'm not burdened by your innate anti-you bias therefore my more balanced observation is more valid than your unfair criticism of yourself :) "
Your landlord seems to have voluntarily demonstrated the "Vimes Boots Theory" from one of Sir Pterry's books (Men at Arms in this case)
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes "Boots" theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
I don't pretend to know what the landlord was thinking -- and the minute he decided it was to his advantage to get a new heater, he did that same day -- but this theory you describe makes a lot of sense to me.
I absolutely loathe running out of something! We aren't doomsday preppers, but we do preserve food and have at least a year's worth on hand at the moment. Our home is solar powered with a back-up generator. We heat and cook with propane with a wood stove for backup. I love to cook, and keep a huge stock of cooking supplies so that I'm never out of something in the middle of a recipe. Even if I don't have the back-up supplies, I always have back-up plans. I'm not sure if I want to call this anxiety or quirky or just wanting to be prepared because of the times when I wasn't. I probably went a bit too far last year though. I accidentally let myself run out of feminine supplies (I'm in perimenopause and was at a point where I didn't think I would be needing them any longer.) I ran to the store to buy what was needed and the shelves were empty. Went to another store and again, the shelves were empty. Went to the closest larger town to a Sam's Club and NOTHING! Anyway, the next time I was in a Walmart and there were tampons on the shelf, I filled the damn cart! Then I had to find a place to store them in our 800sq ft house :) .
I guess I'm just telling you that I relate! There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with being prepared, in my opinion!