We live in the apartment from hell. I just want to put that out there for anyone who feels like being sympathetic.
As most of you already know, if you’ve been following the saga since Sam and I moved into this apartment in October, we have already had to deal with the following things:
Water heater leak in the cellar... started as a drip (which is when Sam called our landlord) and progressed into a river (when he failed to show up to fix it) which resulted in no hot water one very brisk November morning. Cold showers are not fun. And the water heater had to be replaced.
Water leak in the kitchen. This one happened over our refrigerator, but it came from a faulty ice maker in our upstairs neighbor’s fridge. It was a slow leak that eventually built up enough water to force itself down our wall, under the paint. Made a very interesting looking bubble, until we touched it to see what it was. After a few days, the water dripped more constantly, causing all the paint in one area of the ceiling to disintegrate and fall off. The landlord came to "fix it," and it did stop... for a few weeks. When it started again, he sent his nephew to do something to stop it. It worked... but it lead to...
Water leak in the kitchen. This time over our sink. Turns out when the nephew turned off the ice maker, he did something else that caused another leak. This one dripped for about two months in various spots over the sink. The wood over the sink and over the window is now warped and damaged as a result, and the windowsill paint is bubbled and cracked and stained a weird brownish-rust color in some spots. But that has since stopped dripping, which is a relief. We were running out of Tupperware to catch the drips.
Then there’s the toilet. In my 29 years of living with my parents, I may have needed to use a plunger twice. Since we moved into this apartment, we got so much use out of our plunger that we eventually had to upgrade to a no-nonsense black rubber industrial strength plunger. (Which kinda sucks, because the old one matched the toilet brush.) About a month ago, the toilet backed up for seemingly no reason, and after an hour of plunging (no exaggeration), the water didn’t move. My father came and tried, to no avail. Our landlord was called, and his nephew came out with a plumbing snake... five minutes later, problem solved.
We have one washing machine in the basement that we have to share with our upstairs neighbor and her deliquent son (he’s another story for another time). So it’s not a good thing when that one washing machine is out of order. A few weeks ago, the basin next to the washing machine backed up so much that the water overflowed and spilled onto the floor. I had to take my laundry to my parents house to do, which is just a bit of an inconvenience. Eventually it drained on its own. When our landlord came out one weekend to check our water leak in the kitchen, he also checked the basin and said it was fine. Which it was, for about two weeks. But I just went down to check my laundry and found water all over the floor, a basin full of water, and my clothes still sitting in about 6 inches of water in the machine. I had to wring them by hand before putting them in the dryer (and they’ll probably take forever to dry... which means I’ll have to spend an extra dollar to run the dryer again). Now my shirt is wet and my hands are cold from the water and I can’t do any more laundry tonight. BOO.
Also, our kitchen sink has backed up twice while we were using the garbage disposal. That’s not a very big deal, but when you factor in the toilet and the wash basin, it might mean there’s a problem with the pipes somewhere.
I’m not much of a complainer. And when I do complain, it’s usually good-natured. But this is getting ridiculous. I’m at my breaking point. My stomach is upset and I need to eat something so I don’t feel more sick and all I wanted was a quiet evening of watching "Ghost Hunters" and folding laundry. GRRRRRR.
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