AirBnB

Hammond – Day 10

The morning was spent inside, except for my brief outdoor walk around to get the first two photos below. We walked for lunch at Lee’s Drive In, a Hammond institution, because it was just two blocks north of the Airbnb. By the time we left for there at noon the street was almost entirely free of snow. Sally had the chicken topped salad and had a patty melt. And because her mom will probably never read this blog, we split an app of Fried Pickles which were the best I’d ever had.

After that we visited with the Birthday Girl at her house and the roads were pretty much all clear, except for the last 50 yards before turning into her Cul de sac where the trees prevented the sun from doing its radiant energy thing. There was a little bit of sliding there. Talking of New Orleans memories and telling tall stories of past exploits with the granddaughter/daughter Claire.

When Sally and me returned to the Airbnb, had a small dinner, we were both still a little full from lunch, and then watched a movie that had Justin Timberlake in it. Just because when the Airbnb’s host dropped by (see explanation below the photos) she told us that Mr. Timberlake stayed here while filming the movie The Open Road. Unlike last night’s Hallmark Christmas movie with a couple of movie stars in it, this was more like a badly written, poorly filmed and edited one with a bunch of movie stars in it. Closed Captioning might have helped, but I couldn’t figure how to get it on the Fire TV we have. I told Sally that for Friday night one of us picks a movie that they have seen and enjoyed enough to watch a second time. That way, worst case scenario, at least one of us will enjoy the show.

AirBnB

AirBnB
Fleur de Lis

Fleur de Lis
Spiral Staircase

Spiral Staircase
Hydra

Hydra

1) Outside of our Airbnb. 2) Closeup of the fence surrounding the place. 3) The spiral staircase to the 3rd floor loft with bed & bath number three. 4) Hydra.

The last one needs a little ‘splaining. The heat pump worked fine until the hard freezing temps and snow arrived. The night before last when the temps plummeted to single digits it couldn’t keep up and inside the Airbnb it was 53°. The heating contractor come out to fix it right away, so the host gave us a space heater. With it we got the interior up to 61 before bed, but we of course turn the heater off to be safe. This morning it was 51° inside. Our host works at Neil Corporation that trains salon owners and she knew we were still cold, so today she brought over another space heater and this contraption, used for something hair related or what they use to keep hamburgers warm in the cafeteria.

Rental Issues

When we first moved into this AirBnB a month ago the front doors were very sticky. Both the storm door and the main door had to be yanked or pushed fairly hard to open. We lived with it for a few days and then, tired of the kicking and yanking, complained to the host. She promptly relayed the issue to the owner and within a day he came over, tightened the screws on the storm door and shaved some of the front door to make things right. Both doors were then just a little tight, not perfect, but a darn sight better than before.

The dishwasher was never screwed into the counter top. Donna tried to live with it, but after a week of the thing tilting dangerously every time the door was fully opened we contacted the host who contacted the owner who showed up a day or so later and added the screws. Not long after that Donna asked them to see if they could find a silverware basket that had bottoms in more half of its compartments. It took a few days, but the host did deliver a complete basket.

The main source of heat in the place is a large gas heater centrally located in the main room. It has a rudimentary thermostat control that consists of a dial numbered one through ten. It has an electric fan to circulate the warm air controlled by a knob with 5 settings, low & high constant, off, and low & high when the gas is lit. We would manually control the thermostat and left the fan on low at all times to create a white noise to cover the traffic sounds of the street out front. About three weeks in the fan quit. The gas burner part still worked, so we weren’t going to freeze. We notified the host who passed it along to the owner and a couple days later he came over and “fixed” it.

We were not home while he was working on it, but arrived back just as he was finishing up. He told us he oiled the motor and it was fine now. Later that evening when the heat kicked on, the fan did not, even though the knob was set at Low/Auto. I tired various settings and the fan would never start running. We miss the white noise, but as long as the fire works we will just let this one ride.

Then there was the infamous power outage day – Wednesday the 13th

Yesterday morning after throwing a load of clothes in the washer and adding detergent, the washer wouldn’t start. I went outside to see if a breaker had tripped. Nope. Came in and tried to plug it into a different outlet, still not coming on. Tried a different cycle with still no joy. Contacted the the host who got back to us an hour or so later to say that the owner would be over shortly. He came over and fiddled with something and couldn’t get it to work. He said, “We’ll get you a replacement later today.” “We have several used ones in storage, we just have to find one that works.” Late evening we get a text, that it will be Saturday morning around ten before we get a washer.

This morning at quarter to 10 we get another text, it’ll be more like 11:00. We had a couple of morning things planned so we opted to head out and do one knowing we’d be back by eleven. When we got back to the AirBnB a few minutes before eleven o’clock the host and owner were muscling a washer in through the front door. It would go through the storm door, but they had to take the main door off its hinges to get the machine in. Even though they knew the washer worked before they brought it over, they hooked it up and ran it through a complete cycle here just to check everything out again. While that ran, they took the old washer out, loaded it onto their trailer and put the front door back on.

After they had packed up and left, we closed the front door and it took a heavy shove to get it closed. Somehow just taking it off and putting on the hinges, we are right back to where we started….sigh.