The Good & the Bad of This Holiday Weekend

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Samster

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Location
South Carolina
First the good - we had WONDERFUL guests over the last 4 days...all of them were fantastic & we thoroughly enjoyed having them here. Some were here for several days & there were some one night stays in there. A great group of folks!
The bad Part 1 - Faucet in our suite with the full kitchen decided to stop working when the guests were in there fixing dinner on the 4th of July. Great. Nothing open to get a replacement. They were great about it & we teased them that we wouldn't charge them for breaking it. haha! My dh went to the hardware store the next day & got a much better quality faucet (Moen...the other one in this second house of ours was a piece of junk). Water connections that the guy had him buy were wrong. He had to go back to the hardware store...swearing, of course. Got the faucet in & everything was great.
The bad Part 2 - We're cleaning the rooms in our second house Sunday afternoon. Big thunderstorms roll in. We see a huge flash of lightning & big thunder boomers that look like it was right above our main house & are like, "Wow, that was close!" Almost done with the cleaning over there & there's a break in the weather so my dh comes back home to get something. House is dark. Checks the electric panel & half the circuit breakers are tripped. He starts checking around. The damages: LCD TV in kitchen - sound but no picture...toasted (the only friggin' TV in the house not on a surge protector). Fortunately, it's under extended warranty. The electronics in my beautiful 5 burner range...gone, so can't use the oven. The DVD/VHS unit in our bedroom...dead. Portable phones....also dead. Two emergency plug in lights...dead as doornails. Clock radio in our bedroom...also dead. Here's the BIGGIE - our downstairs A/C unit is totally not working. Dh did all he could & called the HVAC guy to come out in the morning. Fortunately, the rain cooled things down or we'd be sleeping upstairs where there's A/C...it is the South here!
Last but certainly NOT least - we have no phone & they will send a service technician within 24 hours. Anyone calling just gets a rapid busy signal.
Interesting end of the weekend........
 
oh my!
do you have online reservations? hopefully that will help.
a quiet phone might be a GOOD thing (for a little while) i hope all turns out okay. it is too bad about the damaged stuff!!!!!!
i had plumbing issues last week also ... not like yours.
at breakfast, full house, man says in front of all ... 'what time does the complaint department open?' i smile and say 'it's always open ... what is the complaint?' he says the cold water tap in his bathroom won't turn on ... this was on july 4, i look at it, don't have a clue, apologize profusely and he tells me 'MAYBE we won't deduct anything from our payment because of that' .... i sure hope he was kidding.
after they are gone, chambermaid wants to take a wrench to it as she thinks it is stuck. i tell her no, something might break. and i sit on the edge of the tub to have a think. i go get lubricant like wd40 and spritz it all over. then i take a face cloth and work the valve open. tada! wish i'd thought of that while guest was at breakfast, i could have announced the FIX in front of all and 'saved' his visit.
anyway, i heard water running and running and running ... some toilet where the handle just needed a jiggle but i don't know how long that was going on til i found it. not a good sign, that toilet acts up a lot.
and water dripping from a pipe, i find one wet pipe where one is connected to another and wrap white tape around it ... have calls in to plumbers who are all 'out on the boat' in my area right now.
you know what i think would be great? an emergency plumbing course for innkeepers! for things that go splash in the nite.
~m*
 
oh my!
do you have online reservations? hopefully that will help.
a quiet phone might be a GOOD thing (for a little while) i hope all turns out okay. it is too bad about the damaged stuff!!!!!!
i had plumbing issues last week also ... not like yours.
at breakfast, full house, man says in front of all ... 'what time does the complaint department open?' i smile and say 'it's always open ... what is the complaint?' he says the cold water tap in his bathroom won't turn on ... this was on july 4, i look at it, don't have a clue, apologize profusely and he tells me 'MAYBE we won't deduct anything from our payment because of that' .... i sure hope he was kidding.
after they are gone, chambermaid wants to take a wrench to it as she thinks it is stuck. i tell her no, something might break. and i sit on the edge of the tub to have a think. i go get lubricant like wd40 and spritz it all over. then i take a face cloth and work the valve open. tada! wish i'd thought of that while guest was at breakfast, i could have announced the FIX in front of all and 'saved' his visit.
anyway, i heard water running and running and running ... some toilet where the handle just needed a jiggle but i don't know how long that was going on til i found it. not a good sign, that toilet acts up a lot.
and water dripping from a pipe, i find one wet pipe where one is connected to another and wrap white tape around it ... have calls in to plumbers who are all 'out on the boat' in my area right now.
you know what i think would be great? an emergency plumbing course for innkeepers! for things that go splash in the nite.
~m*.
seashanty said:
you know what i think would be great? an emergency plumbing course for innkeepers! for things that go splash in the nite.
Sounds like you're already enrolled...
=)
Kk.
 
That is terrible! Something to look back on way way later and remember and talk about. But man oh man!
 
Oh no...I sure hope you get everything back up and working. We had over an inch and a half of rain yesterday. We needed it. Some lighting and thunder but nothing like that.
 
Oh no...I sure hope you get everything back up and working. We had over an inch and a half of rain yesterday. We needed it. Some lighting and thunder but nothing like that..
WE finally had a dry day yesterday. We had a good evening Tuesday for our Concert and then the rains came - AGAIN! the 4th was one rain cloud after the other. To give you an idea how bad it is here, June brought FEMA. Huge culverts were taken completely out by the water as it rushed through - several roads, our rail-trail....
 
Yowza! Hope all gets fixed quickly!.
Thanks, all!
Well, we have found a few more things. Our sprinkler system control box....also gone, so that is about $200. Looks like the wiring to the downstairs thermostat was hit, but the thermostat itself is OK. I've started the process with the insurance company and lightening is covered for these "personal" items. Of course they want detailed lists, etc. For the HVAC it's a different deal, they require that any old damaged parts be saved and they get sent to some company to evaluate so that they can determine that it was actually the lightening & NOT mechanical failure. Yeesch. I guess there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there trying to rip off the insurance companies after you pay them thousands & thousands of $$$ over the years
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We have $1K deductible, so maybe half will be covered when all is said & done. It's the aggravation more than anything of having all this stuff on the fritz.
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Looks like what happened is lightening hit the tree between the back of our house and our garage. The tree has some peeling bark but no scorch marks and it didn't lose a limb or anything.
Plumbing 101 for innkeepers...I think I've taken the course but my dh is the expert. Thank goodness I have him for the bigger things!
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What an awful weekend! How did you do breakfast service without the range?
My mother lost her air conditioning system over the weekend due to a lightening strike. Fortunately, she had everything else unplugged. Her house has been struck by lightening more than once in the past which led to all new kitchen appliances, TV, computer, etc. She can't really unplug the air conditioning since it's hard-wired. Bummer.
I have great lightening protection...it's called "neighboring sailboats". They take the lightening strikes before I do since their tall metal masts will attract lightening away from me.
I found the perfect, all-inclusive "Emergency Plumbing-Electrical-HVAC-Mechanical 101" course...buy a boat - you'll get thrown into the course whether you're a willing student or not! LOL I can't even begin to describe how much I have learned in all of these areas over the past two years, and of course, much of what I've learned was on the "emergency" side because usually what needs fixing is tied to the "gotta get you home" factor or the "guests are about to arrive" factor, neither of which is pleasant. Having built my own house several years ago, I only thought I knew much of what I needed to know. I've been surprised over the past couple of years with what else there was to learn.
A new skill for me that I've not had in a house before has been a plumbing issue - all of my fittings are "flared fittings", and I've never seen those before. In fact, I was a little scared of them because they were strange to me. Little did I know, these things make plumbing jobs a piece of cake. It takes a little time to master making these, but I'm impressed at how well they work and their longevity. And they're everywhere - all plumbing, AC refrigerant lines, fuel lines, etc. My fittings are 28 years old and can still be taken apart and put right back together like the day they were new, and not one has failed. The only one compression fitting I have - on the ice maker - yes, that one does fail from time to time.
 
There is thunder booming outside right now. It has been all week long here daily afternoon thunderstorms. Our lawns and gardens are very happy..
We were at Bear Creek Lake and thunder was heard way way way off in the distance. Barely audible.
Lifeguards said OUT OF THE WATER AND OFF THE BEACH NOW! As we were scrambling it cracked again and hit a tree we were standing near!
The rule of thumb, if you can hear it, it can strike you where you are.
 
What an awful weekend! How did you do breakfast service without the range?
My mother lost her air conditioning system over the weekend due to a lightening strike. Fortunately, she had everything else unplugged. Her house has been struck by lightening more than once in the past which led to all new kitchen appliances, TV, computer, etc. She can't really unplug the air conditioning since it's hard-wired. Bummer.
I have great lightening protection...it's called "neighboring sailboats". They take the lightening strikes before I do since their tall metal masts will attract lightening away from me.
I found the perfect, all-inclusive "Emergency Plumbing-Electrical-HVAC-Mechanical 101" course...buy a boat - you'll get thrown into the course whether you're a willing student or not! LOL I can't even begin to describe how much I have learned in all of these areas over the past two years, and of course, much of what I've learned was on the "emergency" side because usually what needs fixing is tied to the "gotta get you home" factor or the "guests are about to arrive" factor, neither of which is pleasant. Having built my own house several years ago, I only thought I knew much of what I needed to know. I've been surprised over the past couple of years with what else there was to learn.
A new skill for me that I've not had in a house before has been a plumbing issue - all of my fittings are "flared fittings", and I've never seen those before. In fact, I was a little scared of them because they were strange to me. Little did I know, these things make plumbing jobs a piece of cake. It takes a little time to master making these, but I'm impressed at how well they work and their longevity. And they're everywhere - all plumbing, AC refrigerant lines, fuel lines, etc. My fittings are 28 years old and can still be taken apart and put right back together like the day they were new, and not one has failed. The only one compression fitting I have - on the ice maker - yes, that one does fail from time to time..
My range is gas & I could light it the old fashioned way :) Only one room last night, so no biggie.
We've been dealing with all the stuff related to this all morning....insurance, repair people, blah, blah, blah. It's more a pain than anything else. Keeps life interesting! NOT!!!
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