When Home Theaters Collapse

Yesterday, I posted about the contaminated water crisis that Boston residents such as myself have been suffering. Unfortunately, that’s not the only disaster that I’ve had to deal with recently. A few weeks back, we had a spell of torrential downpours. During that time, the shoddy masonry work on my building gave out. Water seeped in through the walls, causing considerable damage in three rooms of my apartment, including my home theater room. We have big water stains, crumbling plaster, and mold. This photo is just one small portion of the affected area, which extends from ceiling to floor.

Fortunately, none of the electronics in my HT were damaged. However, the whole apartment itself has been a big mess ever since. Once the weather here finally brightened up, the maintenance people came to clean up the mold, patch the holes, and paint. That was actually an even bigger ordeal than the rain storms were. I had to disconnect most of my home theater gear and move it away from the work zone. I also have tons of movies on shelves that I needed to box up temporarily. I’m in a limited amount of space here as it is. This really disrupted my life and my ability to work.

To top all this off, once the work was done and the interior damage was repaired, we had another light rain. Because the outside of the building still hasn’t been fixed, the water came right back in and totally destroyed everything that had just been done. That’s right, it was all for naught. Now it’s back to Square One. When the exterior of the building finally does get repaired, I’ll have to go through the ordeal of dismantling my theater room all over again.

If I have any small consolation in this, at least I’m not in a house with a basement home theater, as I’ve often thought of doing. Most of the homes around here had their basements flooded during the storms. That would have been catastrophic.

5 comments

  1. comixguru

    I’m surprised he has all the equipment he has in an apartment. Doesn’t being a reviewer pay enough to get a house inside the 128 loop? 🙂

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Let me put it this way: If I were only in this job for the money, I could make a better living by collecting soda cans off the side of the road. Probably a lot better living. In fact, does anyone have a shopping cart I could borrow? 🙂

      • Dick Ward

        I saw an episode of ‘Intervention’ with this former boxing champ who now made a living by begging for money on the street. Dude raked in about $2,000 a year less than me, and I doubt he’s paying taxes on it :p

  2. Tony Smith

    This happened to my family home when I was around 14 years old. They were extending the house and renovating and a massive storm came. Luckily we had insurance, 🙁 we were deprived of television and surround sound for a while though, which damn near killed me 🙁

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