We returned home on Thursday of last week to discover that our AC was out. Kendall and I spent the night at our neighbor Betsy's house and the dogs stayed home. It wasn't smoldering inside yet but by mid afternoon the next day it was bad. The management company got someone to the house Friday morning but they needed to order a new compressor and it would take 3-5 business days to come in. I flipped out just a little. Ok, I flipped out a lot. I contacted the Richardson city inspector to see if he knew of any code sections on the topic of air conditioning and uninhabitable conditions. Sure enough, if the temps are over 95 (they were way over 95), a landlord has 72 hours to fix the problem or he has to pay for alternate living arrangements for the tenant. This landlord, rather his mother who is the main contact here because he is 100% unreachable, did not believe this to be the case. The mother suggested that I purchase a portable unit for the back bedroom and then return it after I was done with it. Quality person. The management company actually did purchase me a unit for the bedroom and the property manager bought it herself and helped me put it in. By day 3, the thermostat read 91. By day 4, it read 96 but I didn't get a picture.
This is "EVE" who reminded me of EVE from WALL-E. Or maybe EVEn with the thing on the bedroom didn't get below 86 degrees. The dogs got a bit of relief, at least, and Kendall and I had Betsy's nice cool house.
All in all, staying at Betsy's was not exactly a painful time for either of us. Jane, Betsy's daughter, was with her dad that weekend so Kendall had all of Jane's toys and her room to herself. Betsy fed us each night or we went out and we spent a lot of time in the pool!
Even though Betsy's daughter wasn't there, we somehow wound up with 8 kids in the pool on Sunday afternoon and then had an impromptu pizza party. Kendall and I stayed home with the dogs that night, all of us piled into my bedroom and Kendall on a blow up mattress. She had her first day of camp back at Hockaday that morning and my week was already promising to be crazy at work.
After more drama and more calls from the city inspector about the landlord being in violation of the city code, the AC was finally fixed Monday night. We had a total of 5 days without air conditioning in 100+ degree temperature. The good thing that came out of all of this is that I have been encouraged to start considering purchasing a house so we can get away from this one. I also had a LOT of folks offer to help me and it was a nice reminder of what great friends I have!
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