Pipes, Tenants, and Home Warranties

We are currently caught up in the nightmare that lurks in every new homeowner's fears: serious problems with the new house. Luckily for us, our builder has stepped up to the plate and the people in charge of warranty work have shown their determination to fix the problem no matter how much sheet rock they have to rip out. Here's a shout out to Liberty Homes, their warranty guy, and the construction superintendent. Way to go, guys.

The issue? Frozen pipes...in our studio apartment over the garage...off and on for a couple of months.

Our first tenant discovered the problem upon returning from a two-week vacation in December. He left his heat on; the problem was in the garage which is detached from our house and pretty cold. Brian spent a day heating the garage with the grill to thaw things out (yes, it smelled like barbecue for two weeks and no, he did not manage to poison himself with carbon monoxide). The second time the pipes froze we called Liberty and they came out and stuffed the pipe chassis with insulation. We all thought that would take care of it.

Last week, we found a new tenant after the first one abruptly moved out (thank you, KSL classifieds!) But as soon as she started moving in, she discovered one problem after another with the plumbing. There were leaks under both kitchen and bathroom sinks (and plenty of water damage, too, thanks to several months of neglect). When you turned on the kitchen faucet, the sprayer would start spraying water everywhere. (Why couldn't our first tenant tell us these things...?) And there was no hot water: the pipes were frozen...again.

Liberty sent a plumber--a few times, actually--to fix the leaks. After another failed attempt at padding the pipes with more insulation, they attacked the frozen pipes problem in full force. Our garage became a winter wonderland of dust and fluffy, loose insulation as they tore out the sheet-rocked ceiling to essentially re-do most of the plumbing to the apartment above. They moved my car out for me, covered what they could with tarps, and did their best to clean up the mess but we're going to have a nice spring cleaning chore when the garden hose thaws out enough to use it. Or Brian will, I'll be busy with other important things, like, changing ten diapers a day and trying to remember when was the last time I slept... It's not like it our garage was very spotless to begin with, considering the large, frozen puddle of elk blood in the center of it.


Have I mentioned this holes-in-the-garage-ceiling experience has happened on a smaller scale before? Our first tenant moved in and discovered there was no hot water. It turned out the hot and cold water lines were crossed. I'm beginning to worry about the plumbing in our own part of the house...

Our new tenant has been really good about all of this. If I were in her shoes and payed good money for a nice place to live and it turned out to not have running water I would be pretty ticked. She had to use our shower this morning. I didn't mind, but how annoying and embarrassing for her. We've discounted this month's rent but if it keeps up much longer I'm sure she'll have to move out...and expect her money back, too. And she hasn't even been here a week!