Adventures in Apartment Dwelling..

I think I might actually have an evening at home tonight in which I don't have to go anywhere at all. These days, that's a rare thing. Buying the house is fun but it's exhausting. Last night, for example, I had to go watch my new home being inspected. It passed with only a few minor fixes but the hardest part to accept is that they're minor fixes I will have to make. Gone will be the days of calling my landlord and saying "[x] is broken!" and having them come and fix it for me. Nope, it'll be all me.

Not that it will be the first time. My first apartment in Los Angeles had some issues and I had one of those landlords who somehow never seems to be around and doesn't know how to answer the phone. I became an expert at repairing my toilet since the stupid ball thingy kept coming off or the chain kept breaking. There was one day when my toilet really broke though and the connection to the water source broke. It wasn't really my fault. I was mopping vigourously and I accidentally hit the piping. It broke. In my defense, I was told that it was really old piping and had become very brittle so it wasn't like my Super Mopping was really to blame. Unfortunately, it meant that the water source to my toilet had to be turned off. Not fun. I had to pour buckets of water from the shower down it to flush it. My landlord didn't fix it for two days. I think he did that on purpose.

My last apartment in Los Angeles was far worse though. I lived there with my roommate and when we moved in, we thought we had a bargain. Well, two years later, I think we were both rather relieved to be moving out. We were the only apartment on the ground floor. The foundations leaked. One day, I found my carpet was wet by my outer wall so I moved back a bookcase only to discover a layer of mildew had grown up the wall and it went all the way around the corner into my storage closet. I rarely went in that closet but I had a lot of boxes in there. I discovered that many of my boxes were soaked and already mildewing. It turned out that the sprinklers on the grass outside were flooding the ground which meant the water had to go somewhere. It went into my room. Not fun. My room smelled bad for days. The landlord threw a sandbag down outside. I had to throw a lot of stuff away. In the end, they didn't even kill the mildew, just painted over it and turned off the sprinkler. Of course, they couldn't turn off the rainy season so I ended up just moving stuff out of the closet and keeping towels on the floor when it rained.

We also had an ant infestation in that apartment. I don't mind ants when they're on their own or even in small groups. I do, however, have a rather strong dislike bordering on fear when I see an army swarming. It bothers me. I got to the point where I couldn't see an ant without getting panicky because it meant there was another swarm somewhere. When I do see a gathering of ants, I tend to squeal. My roommate became a champion ant killer. Me, I'd just keep that can of Raid nearby and get a little fanatical about finding the source of the problem.

The other thing about that apartment is that the ceiling fell in about my roommate's shower. The bathroom above ours was leaking. It leaked into her bathroom. The ceiling fell in. Fortunately, it wasn't while she was in the shower. The landlord came over and tidied up the hole. He never patched it up though and when we moved out, the hole was still there.

You're probably getting that our landlord wasn't the best in that apartment. There were actually two of them. We think they were a couple. The lady was older and obviously 'the boss'. The man was younger. He had a lot of enthusiasm but wasn't terribly useful. He also seemed to drink a lot. He would come by our apartment to fix stuff and tell us all sorts of interesting stories about his cousins and people who were in jail and things like that. He was an interesting character. He kept us amused, anyway. It didn't help with the fact that our apartment was a disaster area but it gave us something to joke about.

My current apartment building/managers couldn't be more opposite. If I want something fixed, it's done by the time I get home from work the next day. It's a clean apartment, well kept. I keep waiting to discover the secret flaw but, so far, there isn't one. I haven't even broken anything of any significance. Well, ok, so I did break an entire bottle of wine and have to clear it up but you can't tell that ever happened. I am also having a bit of a problem with the vertical blinds. Two of the slats fell off and they don't open properly. I'm rather hoping to hide this problem when I move out so that I don't get billed for it. I'm actually going to miss this apartment; it's been a good home to me.

I'm looking on the brightside of the home repairs I will have to do. I can do them on my own time frame, I can choose who fixes them and how they get fixed. There's nothing major wrong with the house which is a wonderful thing. The only thing standing in my way right now from starting the repairs is time. Also, there's a little old lady living in the house. Also, I haven't paid for it yet. Also, I need to pack.

Reality really gets in the way of being lyrical sometimes, doesn't it?

Happy Tuesday...