Sister love at its finest!

I want to start this blog by thanking my beautiful sister “B” for her support these past few days. She gave me the courage to get through a terrible situation. She complimented me when I needed it the most, she talked me through ‘lists’ that were created on the ‘next steps’, she made me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry in frustration, she was my rock. I’m so grateful for having her at my house whenever weird/crazy stuff happens, she was my ‘voice of reason’ and in writing this I’m sad that I will be losing her to her ‘love of New York’ by the end of the year. So sister “B” I hope you have a ‘double bubbly drink’ in hand as I cheer you to my survival these past few days, love “sister A.”

It all starts Monday night, I’m in my PJ’s and “B’s show Glee” is about to come on at 8pm. We get a knock on the door, we look through the peep hole and don’t recognize who we see, so she says “Who is it” and they say “we’re your neighbors downstairs.” Then I say “What’s your name?” He says “Adam.” I say, “Let me get the list (read down 2 blogs to this hilarious story about my hot neighbors below my unit) On my way to get the list, I remember that Adam is ‘college boy’ downstairs, its confirmed on the list, I go back to the door, I hear Adam say in this sing song voice “you made me cookies.” I laugh and open the door, “ok that’s going to be the new password.”

NOTE: I own my condo, I bought it in 2006 before the economy took a turn for the worst, these are apartment converted condos which I will NEVER do again for many reasons to long to list here.

The laughing stops at the door mat, come to find out the ‘plaid shirt’ guy is there plumber, he asks if I have a leak in my washer/dryer unit. I say nope, they come in to check it out. Long story short, I remember that my male roommate told me Friday that he messed with the valves in the back of the washer/dryer unit. The complex where I live is notorious for shutting off the water w/o any warnings. He assumed that by twisting the valves the water would come back on in the dryer. Well it didn’t work, because ‘surprise, surprise’ the hot neighbor’s below have a puddle in Adam’s closet.

SIDE NOTE:
I’ve been in the boy’s unit several times, and I’m convincing myself more and more that these boys’s aren’t gay. #1 they have their own beds and bedroom’s. #2. They go to the gym together to ‘lift weights’ (ok I’m stretching it on this one) #3. I saw Adam’s bathroom and it has all of his bathroom stuff in one circle. Where’s the candles, and everything in its place, and pretty decorations, they don’t exist. And sadly, I’m not that interested in them because they are boys. I mistook them for men but they don’t have a clue how to fix this mess downstairs and they don’t care because they rent. I’ve decided that I will from this moment on, only obsess over the men that can be my “husband/plumbers” and eye candy. I will reserve these boys for nice ‘eye candy’ to appreciate when they take the trash out w/o a shirt, or take longer to answer their door because I’m pretty certain that they don’t have any clothes on.

Back to the drama at hand, basically, my roommate who rents a room from me decided that he was an ‘expert’ in the washer/dryer, he turned the valves and now there is a flood of water about a gallon in Adam’s closet where there is carpet. I have to hire my own plumber to come out and access the situation, because as “b” pointed out, Adam’s plumber does not have my ‘best interest in mind’ he has that of the owner in California. So my plumber comes out and determines that someone moved the valve. In all of my years owning this unit, did I ever even notice that there was a valve or what to do with it, since it was painted white it blended into the walls, case closed.

So, I’m furious with my roommate for many reasons, the first is that he is home during the day and when I texted him to see if he would be home he said sure and when push came to shove and I had people to come over to look at the damage, he would take off. In reality, he’s allowed to leave whenever he wants to but this will be a valid point of frustration for me later on. The second is, he should have never touched the valve since he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he doesn’t have a degree in plumping or maintance and basically was stupid when he thought he was ‘helping me.” I’m frustrated that I didn’t take “B’s” advice and write up a contract. Ignorance is not always bliss when ‘good people’ get screwed.

The conclusion is I have an amazing sister, fountain friends and a boss that understood when I had to leave work early. During this process of 24- hours I was able to remember that I have ‘homeowners insurance’ through my insurance company. I am in the process of having them file the claim and send another person over to see the damage. I had a talk with my roommate and he’s going to pay me half of the after-hours plumbing bill, which I appreciated.

Somehow in this mess, I saw that I have to be a woman of power and knowledge, unfortunately I can’t always count on people because my maintance guy was un-reliable this day and my roommate clearly can’t be counted on. Once I was able to ‘settle down’ and let this process of the damage that my roommate caused sink in to my cores. I realized that I don’t like conflict. I’m really good about addressing things in life that I’m confident about, like my work or my family but when things like this turn ugly and into ‘conflict’ I have this pit in my stomach that needs to churn for 24-48 hours and then I’m mighty mouse with the power of knowledge and support from my loved one’s.

I was able to take this confidence with me when I knocked on my roommate’s door the other night to tell him this:

Me: Ok, we have a problem because I realize that you didn’t know what you were doing, but when you turned that valve, it was the direct result of the leak downstairs.

Roommate: (aka “R”) I just can’t believe that, it doesn’t make sense, I mean; you don’t have any water up here. He rambles for a good 2-3 minutes about how he still doesn’t believe his actions are the direct result of my new nightmare.

Me: “R” gravity goes down, we share the pipe with the unit downstairs, and their floor plan is exactly like mine, so when you thought you were doing something to the valve, you actually caused the leak. I have the plumber receipt with me that shows the only way this could have happened was if the valve was turned. And, also, I don’t know that you’re telling me the whole truth because the plumber is saying that someone tightened the valve with a tool and you’re saying you only loosened it. Something is not matching up.

R: I just don’t get why the guys downstairs didn’t know they had water on the floor since Friday.

Me: Are you getting the point? The guys downstairs didn’t do anything until they noticed that their was water in Adam’s closet. This isn’t about them, this is about YOU, turning the valve when you should have come to me to tell me the problem.

Me: I want to say something, I made the mistake getting a male roommate thinking that they would know a little bit more then me with plumbing and household stuff, clearly you didn’t know any more than I did. You can’t think of me as ‘less’ than you, because I’m the owner, and I have to pay for this damage now. New rule, when you think something isn’t working; you have to come tell me first, so that I can hire a maintance guy to come look at the place since it’s my house, my responsibility.

R: reverts to a 5 year old- “so don’t touch anything” smile….

Me: really close to punching him, realizing that he’s stupid, he’s a grown man but he doesn’t have the common sense that I thought everyone shared with ‘man kind.’

Me: If your take away is, “don’t touch anything” then YES, don’t touch anything.

R: He feels really bad, he will pay me half of the plumbing bill. I realize that everyone thinks he should pay it all. But I was honestly, surprised that he even offered since he’s renting and doesn’t own the unit.

Me: I’ve been in this unit since 2006 and I have never had a pipe leak to the bottom unit, nor have I ever had a roommate that under-mined me as an owner.

The END… I feel better already. Next step, is seeing if he will pay me the other half and if not booting him to the door, I need the money but I don’t need the stress of some Moran.