Lawnmower

So I wanted to post this story of what happened with my in-laws and our lawn mower because it's really bothering me and my husband doesn't want to talk about it.  I know that we all have our horrible in-law stories, but this one really takes the cake.

My husband has a habit of picking up inexpensive kind of junky lawnmowers from people on Craigslist.  He purchased a mower for $150 from a fellow in the next town over.  It worked for one season and then broke.  No surprise there.

My father-in-law is always bragging of the mechanical sensibilities and inexpensive pricing of a small engine repair place near his vacation home in Maine.  He offered to take the broken mower up, and we agreed.  $350 later we had a working lawn mower, just in time for the final mow of the season.  It wasn't working perfectly, but it was mowing so we didn't complain.

Fast forward through Winter and Spring.  It's time to start cutting the lawn again, so we get out the mower and it runs, but not well.  Half way through cutting the lawn, black smoke starts billowing out.  The mower dies and can't even be driven back to the shed.  We throw a tarp over it and give up.

Again, my father-in-law mentions he's bringing some items up to be repaired in Maine.  He offers to bring our mower up as well, and we agree.  The repair man looks at it and tells my father-in-law that it will cost $300 for a new motor.  The motor apparently died.  Awesome.  Oh, let me mention now that my husband sent a signed check made out to the small engine repair place with my father-in-law in the event that it could be repaired.  We told him to of course check with us first before agreeing to repairs and paying.

Well, because of other bills, we decided to put the expensive repairs off for a month.  My husband asked my father-in-law to just leave the mower at his vacation house until we decided what to do or could afford the repair.  He said ok, but mentioned that he thought the replacement motor was "really nice" and that if it were him, he'd do it.  Again, my husband told him that we needed to postpone repairs for a month.

A few days later, I got a call from my mother-in-law.  She said, "I just wanted to let you know that we thought it was a really good deal to fix the mower, so we told the guy to go ahead."  She then proceeded to tell me they would make the check out for $200 and then we would owe them the remainder.  I don't know where she got the OK for $200 from, but it wasn't myself or my husband, they had been told to hold off on the repairs.

So them my husband called his parents and got in a mini-fight with them about it.  His father said the repairs were being done, he couldn't tell the guy no, it's a really good deal, and that we could either pay the $300 or he would pay it and then sell our lawnmower to my brother-in-law for $300.

This really pissed me off.  Who do they think they are to have repairs done when we asked them not to and then sell a lawnmower that isn't theirs to begin with?  Even broken, a large riding lawn mower like ours can bring in at least $150 in our area.

So now they think that I'm being a horrible person for being angry with them about what they did, and my husband doesn't want to start any wars, so he's just not saying anything.  I contacted my brother-in-law, explained the situation to him, and asked him not to buy the mower from my father-in-law since it isn't his to sell.

If he goes and sells it online, I have several of his expensive tools at my house.  I'm contemplating wrapping the cords in duct tape and selling them for $30 each online, then telling him "Well, I put $30 into them and I need my money back so I had to sell them.  It doesn't matter that you didn't want me to do it, it's already done."

And these people don't see why I don't want to leave my children with them for any length of time.  If you can't respect our decisions regarding a lawnmower and its repair, you certainly won't respect our decisions regarding our children.