Emerald Isle Realty

Let me start by saying, my family and I have been renting beach houses at the Outer Banks and Emerald Isle for the past 10-12 years. This is not my first rodeo and I know that none of these rentals are perfect. There are always some problems and short comings. I have to say 1 Tickled Pink fell way short and for a platinum rated home it was a true disappointment. The cleanliness and upkeep on this home was far below substandard.

Our week began on Saturday, September 5th, 2015 when members of my party arrived at the house at approximately, 2:30pm and noticed no cleaning crew was present. They did not enter, as the check in time was 4:00pm. They assumed the cleaning crew had been there and left and the house was complete. Most of my family and I began to arrive at 4:00pm and found the cleaning crew was there working on the home. We began to unload some of our items and I made it clear to the cleaning crew we are not rushing them and we wanted it clean and there was no hurry. The cleaning crew finished and left at approximately 5:00pm. I was left with the belief that the cleaning crew only spent a couple of hours working on this 8 bedroom 10.5 bath home.

I quickly realized the description in the ad was not accurate, as the elevator does not go to all floors. It does not go to the top floor of which three bedrooms are located. Since several members of my family are elderly they could not traverse to the top floor. This made bedroom assignments very difficult. The ad was also not accurate in describing an enclosed outdoor shower. There was nothing enclosed about it. Thus making a shower/ rinse and a change of clothes when coming in from the pool or ocean not possible. Additionally the swing described in the ad has no chains and is sitting on the ground. The hammock has chains that are made of steel, which is rusting through, I could not allow any member of my party to use the hammock for fear of the rotted chains breaking under load.

One of the first things I had to do once getting unpacked was to clean up the pool deck and gazebo. There was garbage lying around and the deck was covered with dirt and sand. The pool furniture was all disarranged and several pieces of furniture were on the gazebo blocking the way to the beach. Several pieces of the deck furniture were broken, two pieces later collapsed under the weight of my guests. Luckily no one was injured. One chair had an armrest that was pulled loose which exposed a long sharp rusty screw, which was in a position to gouge an unsuspecting arm.

I did find a hose and tried to spray down the decks, but with the very low water pressure it was difficult. Although the pool deck was dirty the upper deck was also dirty and had a fair amount of mold and slime. The second floor deck furniture was in need of a good bleaching and scrubbing to get the dirt and mildew off of it.

The pool was low on water and was getting to the point of drawing air into the skimmer so I had to add water. The pool may have a leak as I added water at least four times during the week.

The pool ladder was bolted into the deck. The four bolts were pulling out and looked like it would fail if someone tried used it. This was very dangerous so we opted to use the steps instead.

There is a shower at the poolside but you may want to step aside when you first turn on the water, as there is a steel pipe that holds the showerhead that will blow out rusted brown water at you for the first few seconds.

On the first morning I decided to open all of the shades around the living room. The windows were filthy from what appeared to be several layers of greasy handprints. I spent part of my morning cleaning the windows so we would have a view of the ocean. Both the front and rear doors are in need of a good cleaning and painting. They have a blackened area from handling, which is on par for a third rate one star hotel room door.

The house has numerous light bulbs burned out, my bedroom had four burned out and I guess there are 25-40 burned out through out. The exterior of the home has a lot of rust showing through the paint and needs to be repainted.

The Internet went down and a call was placed to Emerald Isle Reality on Sunday. My son made a call to Time Warner who reset the Internet and got it running again. The Internet did not work through out the house you had to be very close to the router in order to get reception.

Sunday afternoon came and a man from Emerald Isle reality arrived to look at the Internet problem. We explained to him we got it running but we went on to tell him about the plumbing problems. He said a plumber would be out. The toilet seat in my oldest sisters room was broken which required a person to keep one cheek up in order not to get pinched in a most tender area. The sink in my nieces room would not shut off and constantly dripped. This required you to keep the bathroom door closed in order to not keep you awake. The Master bedrooms toilet would not shut off and required you to lift the tank lid and manual lower the flapper valve to get it to stop running. The roof leak in this same bedroom required the mopping up of water after every rain. The water was coming out of the exhaust fan. Additionally this same bedrooms shower was filthy and required cleaning of dirt and grime and someone else s body hair before being used. The plumber did finally arrived after an additional call, but that was three days later.

The dining room area floor was filthy; my sister took a wet paper towel and wiped it on one tile. She picked it up and showed it to me and said, This is from one tile. The paper towel was black. The dining room table sat ten persons and any over flow had to use the counter. The table itself was beat. It looks like it just came out of Joes pool hall after a century of hard use. Some of the dining room chairs had no seat support. This caused you rear end to fall down into a hole in the center of the chair. Oddly not all the seats were like that. If you attempted to sit at the bar you would find the bar chairs too short. This put the counter at chin level and impossible to eat from. This is supposed to be platinum rated home. Which is described on the Emerald Isle Realty website as Exceptional accommodations featuring unique, top of the line design and superior appointments. Interiors are professionally designed with an emphasis on high quality furnishings and luxury finishes.

The kitchen was nice size and well equipped. One of the dishwashers had broken rollers on the rack, which required two persons to pick it up from both sides and manually move it in and out. The letters/numbers on the stovetop were worn off which did not allow the user to know what temperature he/she was cooking at. This resulted is several burned pans of food. The kitchen sink had a thick layer of black slime where the granite top and the stainless sink met. There was a stopper for each of the three sinks, none of which would stop up the sink. We got by, by placing a dishtowel under them and letting the water run if we were trying to thaw an item. The refrigerators filter also needed to be changed.

The home has a pool table that appears to have seen its better days. It would still be nice to be able to play a game of eight ball, but there was no eight ball. It was missing. The table was equipped with only two pool sticks one of which was missing its tip.

The theater room was missing the TV remote and at least two of the theater seats were broken. Also dont use the ceiling fan in there. It turns but there is an annoying buzz coming from it, making enjoying the show difficult.

The carpet in the home is a short shag style all of which is worn and in need of a good cleaning; my room also had the luxury of having a blue colored substance dumped on it in about ten places.

Mold and dirty showers was commonplace throughout the home, but my nieces toilet was disgusting. It was graced with a large black ring at the waterline and slime up the sides of the bowl. Low water pressure and clogged showerheads made taking a shower a challenge.

I was surprised to see only four cockroaches, far from an infestation but a call to an exterminator is in order.

The top floor is equipped with a small studio refrigerator, which is nice to have a few cold drinks for those on the top floor. Unfortunately, when we arrived the coils inside the refrigerator were packed with ice which needed to be thawed. I got a cooking tin and some spare towels and turned it off and allowed it to thaw for a day, catching the water as it dripped off. Once I cleaned up the water I was able to turn it back on and use it.

The center top floor bedrooms attic access hatch would not stay closed which allowed the hot attic air into the bedroom making it hot. The bed frame in this room was falling apart with the headboard and footboard tilting in towards each other and bolts falling out. If you were to go out on this bedrooms deck, be sure to wear your shoes as the decking is well weathered and splinters abound.

The bunkrooms bathroom door would not close and the towel bar was torn from the wall.

On Monday night I was making my famous grilled shrimp. After much anticipation I made my way to the gas grill only to find it did not work. It would light but only produce a very small flame, which would not even heat the grill enough to raise the thermometer. Luckily, I brought a portable charcoal grill with me, which saved the evening.

A few days later my brother in law managed to get the grill working. I dont know what was wrong with it, but it was fine the rest of the week.

On the last day a very nice woman from Emerald Isle Reality came by to fix the broken toilet seat. (Which was repaired by the plumbers a few days earlier), we told her it was fixed and showed her some of the other problems of which she took photographs.

There were other problems with 1 Tickled Pink but I am getting tired of typing.

This house was large and slept everyone very well. All of the bedrooms were very quiet and allowed everyone to get their rest. This could be a great home if it was brought up to standards.

Most of all we did have fun in spite of the many shortcomings. If you have any questions for me email me at *******@yahoo.com

Jim Brown