The good, the bad, and the fuzzy white mold
I'm having mixed feelings right now about owning a home. On the one hand, it's fun to be able to paint walls and make improvements. On the other hand, you get things like leaky roofs and moldy walls.
This weekend was all house all the time. My mom came over to help me paint the bedroom and it was really nice to have the help, since Brad is still dealing with his broken collarbone and wasn't going to be able to do much to help. We got the painting done on Saturday and then on Sunday, Brad and I went shopping and picked up other items for the bedroom redecorating and I spent the rest of the day fixing up the room.
In the meantime, however, it just kept raining and raining. And our roof just kept leaking and leaking, and we tried to remain as calm and composed about the whole thing as possible, knowing no one would be by to fix the roof until Monday. So I'm sitting here waiting for the roofer right now. It's still raining. I just discovered mold growing on one of the walls where the water is coming in. There's water coming in to at least three rooms in our house, because it's leaking down inside a wall all the way into the basement. I'm feeling overwhelmed just imagining what it's going to take to fix all this.
I know now that it was not a good idea to buy a townhome. It sounds like a good idea to have an association to take care of things like roofs. Until you need to count an association to take care of a leaky roof, and it takes too long. I am feeling a distinct lack of control here and I don't like it one bit.
But at least my bedroom is pretty (and not being leaked into).
Comments
Andrea, It sucks that they took so long to get there, and it's certain that the delay caused the mold and further water damage. The blame goes directly on the shoulders of the Association. If their current contractor does not have the man power to fix the roofs, at the least, they should have put a tarp over your roof to minimize the water damage. It sounds to me like they need to find another contractor. One month after we moved into our townhouse, we had that bad storm that caused damage to shingles on all the units, but they were there the next day either covering damage they couldn't get to or fixing what could be fixed immediately. Everything was fixed in 48 hours.
Maybe Brad should take up the position on the association board?
Posted by: Tracy | 9:21AM, 10.10.07
Association?
That sounds like a slightly less convenient equivalent to landlord being responsible for your the state of your apartment.
I suppose with a non-town home (I don't know how thta goes in the USA -- didn't know that townhome was a specific class of housing), you get to pay more for a private contractor to fix your roof on supposedly shorter and more reliable notice.
Posted by: Wil | 12:35PM, 10.10.07
Is there a single homeowners association in this country that doesn't suck? Seriously? I have never heard anyone say "I just love how efficient and friendly my homeowners association is."
Posted by: jane | 2:47PM, 10.10.07
Eh, I think the real problem with homeowner's associations is that you just don't have as much control over how and when things get done. This can be a good thing, if you want to be hands-off about your house and not have to worry about it. But I think at this point I'd rather have to deal with all the responsibility myself and know that I can get things done the way I think is best.
Posted by: andrea | 9:37AM, 10.11.07