Toilet Frog

Here's one for the books...In many units when clients leave for the season we recommend that they pour some bleach into the toilet bowls then cover them with Saran Wrap. We always thought it accomplished two things...#1 it prevents toilet water evaporation from puting moisture into the air thereby lessening the chance of mold and mildew and #2 the bleach keeps the inside of the toilet bowl clean. Now we have a 3rd reason....Recently when we checked a unit in Cedar Hammock we discovered a dead frog inside a bowl that had been sealed with saran wrap. Somehow the frog must have came in through the plumbing and entered the toilet bowl only to encounter bleach water that promptly ended it's life. Sad news for the frog but good news for the client because the saran wrap prevented the frog from entering the home and doing whatever damge frogs may do.

Water Disaster

My heart dropped when I went to enter a unit in Forest Glen the other day and saw that water was running out the bottom of the front door. As I tried to steady myself I couldn't imagine where the water could be coming from, since we ALWAYS leave the water main OFF. As I cautiously entered I found a waterfall gushing from across the kitchen ceiling. I immediately realized that the 3rd floor unit had some kind of serious water problem and it was intruding into my clients unit on the 2nd flood (needless to say it also went down to the 1st floor as well). I immediately contacted the property managemant company and after they entered the 3rd floor unit they discovered a sprinkler system pipe had broken. We notified the owner and referred a disaster cleanup company who hastily began their work. The photos above show the holes that were drilled to dry out the inside walls, the first step in the restoration process. Fortunately my client was insured for this kind of problem so be sure you have insurance because even though the problem was caused by the upper unit my client was responsible for the repair costs to his unit.

Golf Course Living

As many of us know there are a lot of pluses living in a golf course community but every once in awhile we at Peace of Mind come across a minus and as this photo shows, an errant golf ball is definately not something we'd consider puting on the plus side.

Digital Thermostat Batteries

These past couple of months we have encountered a large number of digital thermostats that have dead batteries. If your Florida home has one of these installed you need to remember to replace them at least once a year. The photo to the right shows a thermostat that uses two (2) AA batteries however some may use as many as three. When these batteries go "dead" in most cases the A/C will not run because the system is unable to detect what the actual temperature is inside the unit. Sometimes corrosion occurs when the batteries leak acid which is a worse situation….in one case we encountered there was acid….we attempted to scrape the acid off the end terminals but it is difficult to remove all the acid residue without the proper tools. This situation was bad because newly installed batteries on an acid covered terminal increases resistance and/or current leaking around the battery terminal resulting in the batteries going dead within a couple of weeks and/or rendering the thermostat defective and in the worst case scenario, in need of replacement.

Toilet Problems

If you haven't checked the inside of your toilet tanks for awhile, you may want to do so while you're in Naples this season. Here's what we found when we flushed toilets inside a unit we checked recently. As you can see the flush mechanism is spewing water all over the inside of the tank and is in dire need of repair. In addition if your toilet(s) try to flush every so often by themselves even when not in use the flapper may have deteriorated and be in need of replacement as was the case here as well. We arranged for a service call and they repaired both the master bath and guest bath toilets so now they're as good as new.

Bug Season

When we check a unit we also do a cursory check for bug problems. Should we see something that's seems major we contact the owner who advises us of the pest control company that needs to be contacted for treatment. In our opinion...since bugs actually own Florida it's not unusual for us to find dead palmetto bugs (cockroaches to us) and other deceased pests but our credo is "dead bugs are good bugs" however sometimes we discover the unusual. Last week we encounted a pest problem (see photos) that had apparently manifested itself between weekly visits. One week there's no sign of pests, next week we find a problem as evidenced by the attached photos...what we discovered in a bedroom closet and on a lanai We notified the owner, notified pest control and facilitated access. Hopefully they won't return!!

Thinking of Renting???

If you've ever thought about renting your Florida home the attached photos might make you give it some thought before you do. These photos show the way an annual renter (would you believe a TEACHER) left a unit after staying there 3 years. I guess the message we're trying to convey is...if you rent make sure you screen your prospective renter and be sure to require a healthy security deposit.