In the last week, everything in my kitchen has decided to go on strike. The can opener quit working. The kitchen sink was leaking uncontrollably; I figured the stems are bad. The fridge began leaking and then died, resulting in the loss of all the foodstuffs therein as well as some water damage. After days of no response to phone calls, the leasing office finally had the maintenance guys fix the sink and install a new fridge yesterday... after we made a personal appearance in the office to verbally kick a little ass.
The moment the spanking-new fridge was installed, I looked at the maintenance guys and said, "That's not going to work; the doors open the wrong direction."
"Huh?" the head maintenance guy replied oh-so-intelligently.
"The doors," I explained patiently. "They open the wrong way. We can't actually get into the fridge. You'll have to change the hinges so the doors open the other way."
After staring at me for a moment, he replied, "Oh, you can only do that on the really expensive fridges. This is a basic model, so I guess we'll have to get another fridge." Which, in maintenance speak, means it could be a week before I saw him again.
I quickly pointed out the extra anchor spots on the opposite side on top of the fridge. "No, see, here are the spots where the hinges go if you want the door to open the other way. You can fix this one."
Head guy looked at the other guy and sighed. "She really knows her stuff, huh?" Then he looked at me and said, "Yeah, I could switch the doors; I just didn't want to."
Didn't want to?!? What the hell? And don't get me started in on his apparent, original assessment of my intelligence. I mean, I might not know how to work a table saw, but even I know enough to be aware that you can switch the doors on a fridge! Anyway, they came back today--just left, as a matter of fact, and you know I think it's funny that I was typing this while they were working 15 feet away from me-- and fixed the doors. It took all of 20 minutes.
I actually learned a lot about maintenance, working in property management. I might not know how to fix things, but I'm pretty good at diagnosing the problem and knowing what needs to be done. I just need someone else to do it!
I don't even want to talk about the water damage and all the work that created. All I can say is that it's over now, and I want to sink into blissful self-induced amnesia.
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My husband worked was an auto mechanic for a while. Then he did maintenance. The he worked in heating/air/refrigeration.
Last year at our office we had to replace the entire furnace and air unit and you wouldn't believe the surprised looks I get sometimes when dealing with service/repair folks. I know just enough to be a Pain In Their Ass! Muhahahahaha!
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