Delayed maintenance is expensive. Putting off repairs that seem inconvenient or too costly just makes the problem worse. I should have known the dripping cut-off valve behind the commode would progress from "kitty water fountain" to nightmare, but it was so easy to ignore. Now the whole floor has to be replaced and the broken flange replaced and resealed. Yuck! What a mess! I'm just glad the whole thing didn't collapse through to the first floor. At least, the leak downstairs is inside the closet where the HVAC is located ... not pretty, but not visible, either ... or is delaying the repair of those walls causing further problems down the road?

We have a new handyman at Woodlake. I feel sorry for the man, he must feel like he's landed in the Excessively Desperate Housewives Zone. Everybody out here has maintenance problems, enough to keep him busy from now 'til kingdom come. Our homeowners board hired him to do outside repair, plenty of delayed maintenance there, but he can do inside jobs for individual homeowners, time permitting, which means he could work every night and all week-ends if he chooses. I've warned him that his predecessors have all burned out in less than a year, but he says he likes to stay busy. Well, he certainly came to the right place.

Now my Madison renter is calling with complaints of another leak under that house. I was just up there Tuesday with plumbers replacing old pipes under the kitchen sink. I should have made a full inspection around the house while they were there, but I didn't, and would I have known what to look for if I had? She has asthma and is threatening to move due to the health hazard, the mold is making her sick, she says. Where is the mold? The house was built in 1936, so at 72 years old, it's bound to be full of problems just waiting to happen. Roto-Rooter supposedly fixed water line leaks, sewer line leaks and gas line leaks back in December. Of course, the 90 day warranty just passed.

Lord, have mercy!