How to do repairs in a rental (when you have no budget for those repairs)

Let me first give you a little history of the house we are now renting.  Like most of the houses in this (and surrounding) neighborhood, the house was built in the early 1960's.  There are still a lot of originals from when it was built.  Such as plumbing & electrical.  But like most of these houses, they may have been "updated" in the 70's or 80's with paint, carpet & linoleum, but once they became rentals, they kinda got stuck in a time warp.

Some were "updated" by a handyman (sometimes called "the owner") or a "general contractor".  Our house was "updated" by a neighbor who is a "general contractor".  That is his job.  His business.  He installed some laminate wood floor in all the rooms, put a pool fence in the back yard (that was not pool code), and laid tile in the kitchen & dining room as well as on the counter tops.  All of which are what I would call sub-standard installs.  Sure, there have most likely been worse done by other contractors, but I hope his paying customers get a better result than his neighbor!

Anyway, the tile on the counter was jury (or is it Jerry?) rigged.  A piece of 1/8" plywood was stuck on top of the counter, but the sides are still the old Formica, laminate or whatever the cheap counter was.  Here is what the counter should look like:

 

  

Notice how nice & even the "general contractor" neighbor laid them.  The top isn't much better.

Here is what happened a couple of weeks ago, to the side that faces the dining room, when I leaned on the counter to move a glass:

 

Three pieces of tile went crashing to the floor!  Luckily only one piece broke, but it was a fairly clean break.  I left them sitting on the counter, but that ugly space staring at me every day, all day, was getting to me.  

Unfortunately, I do not have the money to get more grout, or more of that gunk that you slap on the back to stick them on.  (My technical term learned from watching all those hours of HGTV!!)

So I gathered what I had that would hopefully do the trick:

Some E-6000 epoxy glue, masking tape, electrical tape (in case the masking tape doesn't hold) and the tiles that fell off.  Slap some glue on the back of the tile you think is the first one, stick it to the side of the counter, then tape it up.

 

The masking tape began to left at the ends, so more electrical tape was called for.

Looks good, huh? I'll be submitting it to HGTV to see if they'll give me my own home improvement show!! 

NOT!!!

If I had the right tools & supplies, I could do a much better job.  But I don't & it's a janky rental, so this will do for now.

Stay tuned to next weeks Rental Home Improvement episode and see how I fix a leaky shower head!!  I have enough leftover glue & tape!!