Living within

So it is not a surprise to the people that live in my neighborhood that I have a difficult set of circumstances that I live in. My building was sold about 5 months after I moved in and since the new landlord took over it's been one battle after the next.

At first it was battling with the landlord. He didn't seem too concerned that there was no heat in the building for 5 days. I could live without a stove for weeks and it shouldn't be that big a deal. He always has some "Guy" who can "do da job". Well I am not like some people but if someone is installing my gas stove I want them to have a licence to do that job. Electrical work should be done by a person who has completed the required amount of training and is licenced. We have had no heat, too much heat, no water, water that has boiled over the radiators ruining the floor, no electricity. My electricity is linked to both the neighbor as well as the hallway. And lets see how long it will take before the landlord gets the problem fixed. I've been waiting for almost a year for the back porch to be fixed. It is leaking water and sludge down the stairs for the past 9 months. Before that it just leaked water.

The best part of this landlord's excuses are the fact that he keeps saying "But I called the guy and he's going to do it for free but he has to wait until there is no rain at all. Everything has to dry completely out." Well I am sorry then because he doesn't know that he's in New England and there aren't enough days that don't have some sort of wetness going on. But I digress. The main fight right now is parking, weekly cleaning of the common areas, it smells and the back porch is so sticky that I have to clean my shoes when I get in the house.

So the newest development of the "I can't believe they did that because it's so cliche" party is the downstairs neighbors. So one day several neighbors and I were speaking with our landlord about our concerns within the building. You know the parking, cleanliness (trash was being left in the hallways), and outside access doors being propped open. Wide open. And at least half of the apartments are rented by single women. Now I didn't think that conversation would be a bad thing however one of the neighbors were not happy that we were trying to fix the building and make it safer. OH NO! The lady neighbor was angry and started swearing and screaming about people complaining about stuff that isn't their business. Then she flicked us off.

But it gets better. It always gets better. Since they moved in (They lived on the other side of the building and then moved into the unit beneath me.) they have been less than satisfactory. They have a huge chair on the back porch and they sit and smoke there... sending smoke throughout the hallways and into my apartment. Lovely. So since they've moved in they have a habit of listening to the same 4 songs over and over again and with excessive loudness. The music is so loud that it not only vibrates the floor but it vibrates the couch that I am sitting on. I can't focus on my television because I am waiting for them to realize that 9pm and 10pm and that you turn your music down because it's late at night.

Well, they don't make that realization so I move to stage two. Now this usually includes tap dancing because I assume that they can't hear me so I might as well get some practice in. But this time I was tired if it all. So I call the landlord. I have complained about them already. I told Mr. Landlord that the music was so loud that I couldn't watch my television that was 5 feet away from me. He then said that he would call the downstairs neighbors and tell them to quiet down. Well he must have told them I was the one who complained because they started to bang on the ceiling downstairs. It scared the cats and they ran into the other room. I had it at that point. I called Mr. Landlord and told him that if they did that again I was going to call the police and not him. I told him that I was tired of it and that I was done with this situation. I said that it was up to him to talk to the neighbors and get things taken care of. I have done nothing wrong and that they don't respect him and do whatever they want.

Well he called them again... and after that there was a lot of yelling and slamming doors and stomping around coming from the downstairs apartment. I really hate having to be a total bitch but at the same time this is where I live and I can't keep myself happy and healthy if all I hear when I am trying to relax is crappy techno. I am worried that they might key my car. I did hear them slamming the outside doors. I hope that this all gets taken care of and that we can live in this building together.

And this doesn't include the parking lot wars between the residents and the business owners.