Once every two years, I have a sewer back up in my basement apartment at
property Alpha. Most of the time it’s just a little bit of water that goes down
once the Department of Public Works (DPW) in Smalltown comes out and flushes
the drain. Last Friday night I saw a little bit of water and realized that the
sewer was backing up. With DPW unavailable until Monday, I had to leave it
alone until then. I figured it was just a little water so what’s a couple days
gonna hurt, right?
Sunday night I came home from the shipping depot and there was just a little
bit more water than before so I was cool with that and went to sleep. Monday
morning I woke up and I almost threw up. The basement stunk to HIGH HELL of
shit and sewage water. Half of my basement was flooded with the nastiness and I
woke up gagging. Because there’s not much ventilation in the basement
apartment, the smell has nowhere to escape to which makes it even stronger. I
took a quick shower and got the hell out of there. I called DPW while I was at
work and they flushed the drain. When I came home, the basement was clear of
the water but the shit and toilet tissue and sludge was still there. I bought a
garden hoe and scraped all the sewage into one area, then doused the entire
half of the basement with bleach. I really wanted to pass out because the smell
was giving me a massive headache and I was getting dizzy.
Before, whenever I would have a shitty day like this I would eat like crazy.
Instead, I had a flurry with extra Oreos and rainbow sprinkles from Friendlys,
followed by their grilled chicken stir fry from their “Under 555 calories”
menu. Once I was done, I went to the gym with Ola to work out all the stress I
had and it was great. The only good to come from Shitty Monday is that I’m
finding better ways to handle bad situations when it comes to stress. Anyway, waking
up in a tenant’s shit is no way for a landlord to live. Now that I think of it,
there was a time I had a sewage back up at property Chi last year when I had
some really nasty tenants (Laurie) that would flush their baby diapers down the
toilet, so maybe the backup was caused by my new tenants, Belle and Sebastian?
They have no kids but they have a lot of pets. Well, if it happens again I’ll
know it was them and I’ll have to make them clean it up. Maybe I’ll send a general
non-accusatory letter asking tenants to “be careful what you flush” just to be
on the safe side.
After I buy property Charlie and get its units rented out next year, I plan
to spend maybe $3,000 finishing the basement—and that includes getting a
plumber to install something that can catch the sewage in some kind of large
container. I would give the job to Handyman Stan, but I’m still a little pissed
that he ignored my calls when I wanted him to fix that kitchen sink. If not him
or someone just as good, I may have to turn to Sha and his miserable band of
idiot workers. Yeah I decided to forget the "Aceveda" incident. Until I can find a bunch of handymen or companies that I can rely on 100% to take care of a job at a good price, I'll keep things between he and I copacetic. The job I give his guys will be for ME, so I’d still be keeping my promise of
never hiring Sha’s guys to fix a tenant problem again. Unless I can buy a
commercial property with a finished attic, I’ll be stuck in property Alpha’s
basement for at least the next 3 years so I have to spend money fixing it up
and making it comfortable. I ever want to have a morning like that again.
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