Drama update: one month later

Good news: no more leaks! We've had several rather massive thunderstorms and my bedroom remained dry! w00t!

Bad news: Remember that patch of carpet in front of my bedroom door that was removed? Yeah. It's still missing. They haven't replaced it yet, so the subfloor (plywood) is still exposed. Nor have they replaced the lock on my bedroom window from the break in. Nor have they started to deal with the fact that the gas company removed the gas meters from the property back in JULY so they heat won't work (gas powered furnace). Needless to say, I'm seriously considering typing up everything that hasn't been done and mailing it with my next rent check. If they cash the check, then I'll know they have the list.

In other news, the previous tenant in my apartment took my landlords to court. Why? From what I understand (hearing from both the previous tenant and my landlord), it's because they withheld a large amount of his security deposit related to replacing/repairing/patching the upstairs carpet. Well, that was never done. It wasn't even cleaned before I moved in (trust me...it was NOT cleaned). So the previous tenant sued them to get his money back and won. Now there's some legal arrangement whereby my rent is garnished by the courts to repay him. An officer of the court has been trying to deliver the paperwork to me since early August. Apparently he was told by my neighbors (my landlord's family!) that I had moved. This was about the same time that the flooding incident happened in early August. Yeah. I don't know the details of any of this, just what the previous tenant and my landlords told me, but I'll find out on Friday when I meet the officer to get the paperwork that tells me what to do with my rent (I had to call him to make arrangements).

OMG the drama just doesn't end. And this is in addition to an ongoing battle I have with them about them entering my apartment and NOT TELLING ME.

Last week (Wed., Sept. 9) I came home to find that someone had been in my apartment. How did I know? The lights were on AND my bedroom door was closed. What's worse they had trapped the cat in the bedroom when they shut the door. I called my contact and basically let her have it via voice mail. This was at about 4:30pm. I had heard nothing from anyone about WHY or WHEN they had entered my apartment. And then I waited. And waited.

Finally, at about 8:20pm, four hours after I called, my contact returns my call. Apparently, in preparation for the annual fire inspection, they were working on the fire alarms in the rest of the building and set off the alarm, which meant they had to enter my property to turn it off (the panel for the alarm is connected to the electrical panels, and access is via my bedroom). Great. That still doesn't explain why no one notified me promptly that they accessed my property (emergency - so no reasonable notification prior to entry). They're in violation of their own lease. I even read the relevant parts to her on the phone. This is the third time this has happened. I explained to her that it was UNACCEPTABLE and that I'm tired of having this conversation. I was told last time that it would never happen again and yet here we are, having the same conversation less than 2 months later (previous incident was around July 16th). She said she was unavailable so that's why no one called...I told her that was bullshit, it doesn't matter: four hours is NOT "prompt notification" by any definition and clearly they need to fix their communication issues because it's unacceptable. Someone has to contact me. If she's not available, there should be a backup plan. I should NOT be calling them to find out what's going on and WHY they've been in my apartment. There are no excuses for this. I repeated that they're violating their own lease, making it null and void (also per the terms of their own lease; violation = nullification). She acquiesced, and said they're meeting about it. I have yet to hear the report of said meeting, one week later. I'm not holding my breath.

But I have no doubt that when the rent garnishing begins that I'll receive a prompt phone call about it. Gotta love the drama. It's to the point now that it's ridiculous, like a bad sitcom. I'm just trying to weather the storm (so to speak) and not let it get to me too much. Some days I'm better at it than others.

Drama update

They came and laid new carpet last Friday. Poor Capri had to spend her first full day back in the house locked in the bathroom, this time with the window shut (the damaged screen she escaped through was finally replaced, only a little over a year after I reported it). Needless to say, she was displeased when I got home and let her out. But she was still here, so I was not sympathetic to her grumpy mood.

The carpet is a nice shade of neutral, and it's in. Well, all except for the small patch in the hallway in front of the door and extending to the bottom of the stairs. They cut a small square off of what they took out to try and match the color. So when the hall carpet gets patched is all dependent on when they can find something to match. So right outside my bedroom door is the plywood sub-floor for now. I need to find a small area rug...

Anyway, so about my bedroom furniture. It was offered for them to come move it back into my room on Saturday, but unfortunately my plans weren't working with their schedule. And I'll be damned if I was going to sit around and wait for most of the day for them to show up. Sunday didn't work either (they weren't available). Or Monday after work. Today, Tuesday, my furniture is finally back in my bedroom. My bed (and mattress!) is back where it belongs. And I can't wait to put fresh sheets on the bed and sleep in there tonight instead of my living room.

My bedroom is pretty simple. All I have in there is my bed and my clothing (in dressers). That's it. No radio besides my clock-radio-alarm, no TV, no electronics beyond a phone. And I did that on purpose. I've had a really hard time sleeping this past week. Partially because I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, and partially because there was just too many distractions upstairs in my living room. I had a very hard time quieting my mind so I could sleep. Blinking lights, electronics, stuff. Too much stuff.

The drama is nearly over. There's been no more leaking when it rains. Believe you me, I've been freaked out with each thunderstorm we get. The new carpet is still dry. And I am overdue for a good night's sleep.

And the drama goes on...pt. 2

[continued from pt. 1]

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009

I get up and get ready to head into work. My landlord promises to be here when they come to spray, so I don't have to wait. All I have to do is lock my cat Capri in the bathroom so she's out of the way. I do that, knowing that I will pay for it in the form of cat retribution when I let her out that evening. I head into work.

At 4:30pm I call my landlord to find out what's up. They came and sprayed around 1pm. They also left an industrial strength fan in my room to help dry things out. They will be back to pick up the fan on Thursday evening (so they say). The floor should already be mostly dry, it's just the walls. Still, it is recommended I shut the door to the bedroom to keep the cat out. No problem. I head home.

I get home, change, and shut the bedroom door. I then go to let Capri out of the bathroom. She's not there. She's not anywhere in the house. PANIC. I discover that she escaped via the bathroom window. I had left it cracked due to the heat, and she pushed the window open farther and got out. The screen in that window wasn't secure. It needed to be fixed. I reported this to my landlords LAST YEAR when I moved in. It was never fixed. So she escaped. Because ONCE AGAIN they didn't fix things in a timely manner (or, in this case, not at all, which is also not unusual...there are several other things that were never fixed too). Clearly basic maintenance is not something they actually do consistently, if at all, and now it's caused two major problems: flooding and my cat escaping. I am livid. And terrified. I have no idea how long she's been out or where she is. She's an indoor cat, just over 2 years old, and I've only had her about 11 months now.

What's worse I took her collar off of her before locking her in the bathroom. Why? Because the last time she caught herself on the corner of the cabinet and freaked out (fortunately I was home so I freed her promptly). I didn't want that to happen again, so I took off her collar. So now she's outside, running around gods knows where, with nothing but a microchip. MORE PANIC.

I call my friend Plum and freak out. She comes over and as soon as I see her I start crying in the middle of the sidewalk. I've been walking around the blocks near my place calling for Capri, meowing (she actually answers to my meows, really), and shaking a treat bag. I can't find her. Then we hear her meowing. I meow back, and she responds (typical, we have regular "conversations" in meows). So we start trying to follow the meows. Plum and I start looking in the neighbors' backyards and Plum spots her up a tree. OhMyGodsThankTheLordShe'sOK. I coax her down, and right as I'm about to grab her (I even have my hands on her), a car alarm goes off and she bolts. SH*T!! Plum and I take off after her, cursing the car alarm as we run. Capri runs for the street. Fortunately a nice woman out for a run (happens to be running in our direction) heads her off and the landlords' kid (elementary age boy) keeps her from going into the street and she turns around and runs back into the yards behind my place. Whew. She goes back up the same tree, only even higher this time, clearly scared and now panting slightly. DAMMIT.

So Plum and I camp out in the yard where the tree is. My ankles are a buffet for mosquitoes (really, they are now polka-dotted with bites and I'm using anti-itch cream like lotion). We wait. I try tempting her down with treats. No dice. So I try milk which she loves and is notorious for trying to trip me when I get the carton out of the fridge and shake it. Also no dice. Capri sits up in the tree, and looks at me, quite comfortably, meowing periodically, from her branch (a good 20 feet off the ground). After a bit, Plum goes to Fu-Wah Mini Market nearby to get tofu-hoagies for us to eat for dinner. I continue my stake out of the tree, fighting a losing battle with the mosquitoes. [Side note: the tofu hoagies from Fu-Wah Mini Market are fantastic. Definitely recommended...it's a vegetarian banh-mi sandwich!]

After waiting for over an hour, watching Capri move around on the branch 20 feet off the ground with no movement downwards, we give up around 7:30pm. Plum heads home to take care of her own 4-legged furry brood, and I head inside. I go back outside to the tree to check on her at regular intervals, and she keeps refusing to come down out of the tree and back inside. I try tempting her with wet cat food (a major treat) but still no dice. At one point when I look up the tree she's descended to a lower fork in the branches (now only about 10 ft. off the ground) but still looks far to comfortable. I am also alarmed to see a raccoon in a neighboring branch. They are ignoring each other and quite calm. I'm freaked out. I decide to not try another food temptation for fear I'll get the raccoon instead of my cat. Yikes.

Around 10pm when I check on her she's out of the tree and lying on the ground, but as soon as I walk towards her she runs from me. She climbs another tree, this one right in my backyard, and meows at me. For the next 3 plus hours we have regular conversations of meows, her in the tree and me on the ground, but she won't come near me or come inside. I call my mom and freak out at her on the phone for 2 of those hours (good thing she lives in Australia where it's mid-day...I can always call my mom at midnight and not worry about waking her up!). At nearly 2am I finally give up and try to get some sleep.

Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009

I wake up after only about 3 hours of sleep, and still no sign of her and now no meowing. She hasn't tried to come in. It's also raining. I head into work, hoping that when I get home later she'll be waiting to let in where it's dry and there's food. I spend the day surprisingly productive, fueled by coffee and worry.

I get home shortly before 5pm, and look for Capri. She's nowhere to be found. I meow. No response. I let my landlord (the father who owns the property) know that I'm extremely displeased with them because my cat got out because they never fixed the screen on that window that I reported a year ago. He looks shocked. I explain again that she got out because they never did a repair I reported several times and I'm really really upset about that and it's inexcusable on their part.

[Side note: I also notice when I get home that the Stanley Steamer people haven't been back and their fan is still in my bedroom. Wonder when they're going to come get that...]

I go inside and retrieve the milk carton, take it out back and shake it, hoping to tempt her. Nothing. No sign of her. I try shaking the treat bag. Again no sign of Capri at all. I meow. Nothing. I decide to walk around the block once, shaking the treat bag and meowing. There's absolutely no sign or sound of her at all. OMG. I'm afraid she's decided to go exploring farther away from home, has gotten trapped someplace, or someone has trapped her. I can't stand it! I just want my cat back home and safe!!

Now there's really nothing else I can do besides wait for her to come home. And it's killing me. I also print out signs to put up on the corners near my house, hoping people see them and if they've taken her in they'll call me.

My landlord (my regular contact) comes by to measure the bedroom for the carpet. She tells me people are supposed to be coming tomorrow to actually lay the carpet and then they'll put my bedroom back together. I also take the opportunity let her know about the window screen (since she's my "official" contact), and how upset I am that pretty much all of the recent problems could have been prevented if regular and basic maintenance/upkeep was done on the property, such as cleaning the drains/gutters, repairing exterior windows/screens, etc. All the little things you have to do when you own a house just to keep it standing. And I tell her I hope that they can see that specifically the flooding, etc. that's happened this week is an indication that maintenance is needed and I hope they use it as a learning experience and start doing said regular maintenance. We shall see. I'm not holding my breath. But I'm *this* close to putting a hex on their entire family, I swear.

I know all I can really do is hope and pray that Capri is OK and comes home soon. And try to get some sleep despite how worried I am. She's got to get hungry eventually, right?

And the drama goes on...pt. 1

There's no lack of drama around here lately. The Sunday flood issues (see previous post) are still being resolved.

Sunday evening my landlord finally called me back and said they'd be by again on Monday to work on drying the carpet some more. So at 9:30pm, I drag my mattress (futon) upstairs to my living room and put it on the floor. Somehow I manage to do this without getting the mattress wet by dropping or dragging it on the wet bedroom carpet. Chalk one up for anger-induced strength. Sunday night I sleep upstairs in my living room. This is strange, and confounds the cat, who keeps meowing at me to go downstairs to bed. On the other hand, she is also quite happy to have a giant soft surface to play/sleep on, so I don't think she quite understands that it's the mattress.

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009

Monday I wake up and call my landlord before 9am. I spend a bit of time explaining why the wet-vac ain't gonna cut it at this point. I convince her, and she's going to call professionals to come in and dry it and make sure all is well. I also have to provide her with the names of several companies (mad librarian search skillz FTW!) because she has no idea who to call. I give her three names and numbers. She makes calls and we settle in to wait. A little after 11am she tells me someone is supposed to be here between 11am and 1pm. OK. And we wait. My bedroom is now so musty and muggy I can hardly breathe and it's triggering my asthma (I keep coughing uncontrollably...a bad sign for me). It's been over 24 hours so I know the carpet is toast and will have to be replaced at this point. Cleaning it is no longer an option...the mold has set in.

At nearly 2pm we are still waiting. She calls back as well as calling the other places. She tells me all three work together and the first one she calls knows she's called the other two and is pissed off at her for calling them. Well, duh. If you don't show up as promised naturally people will look for other options. At 6:30pm I get another update from my landlord. They are still coming, the question is WHEN? A little later, the first company calls and says that a., they won't be coming until tomorrow now (but again, won't give a time) and b., they need at least $2000 just. to. show. up. OMG really? Landlord tells them to forget it, and she ends up calling Stanley Steamer. It's now after 7pm. Stanley Steamer doesn't come that night. Landlord brings by a dehumidifier to try and control the damp air if nothing else. I sleep in my living room again, my bedroom carpet still soaking wet and the air very musty/muggy, to the point I can no longer breathe in there at all (all I do is cough, which, again, is BAD and a sign my cough-variant asthma is kicking in).

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009

I wake up and brace myself for the waiting game. Email various people at work to let them know and settle in with coffee and my remote desktop connection to get some reports and indexing project work done. Landlord calls Stanley Steamer people again and they say someone will be out that afternoon. I tell my landlord that the carpet is not salvageable at this point, it's been too long and there's no way to effectively clean it. What's more, because of my asthma any remaining mold could put me in the hospital with a severe respiratory infection and could kill me. She says let's wait and see what the professionals say. Grumble. I don't think she's really listening. MOLD = POSSIBLY DEADLY to an asthmatic, not to mention people with healthy lungs. No lie.

I see pictures of the flood in Louisville that devastated the public library via Twitter. OMG. The pictures make me gasp and are shockingly terrible. It's just an awful situation. And it certainly puts my issue in perspective. Still, I know my flood, while minor by comparison, needs to be resolved too.

Stanley Steamer shows up around 2:30pm. And thank the lords they back me and immediately tell her that the carpet needs to go. That they can smell the mold that's already growing in it. It's been wet too long now to be cleaned/dried and salvaged. It needs to be ripped out, along with the padding, and trashed. I am relieved. They want the room cleaned out, the baseboards, carpet and padding removed, and then they will spray the entire room and lower walls with an anti-microbial agent to kill any mold that's there. Once that dries, we are free to lay new carpet. OK. Sounds like a plan.

Landlord's dad (one who actually owns the property) shows up to get the estimate from them. He gets the estimate, and tells them they (landlords) will pull out the carpet. They make an appointment for them to come back on Wed. afternoon to do the anti-microbial spraying. The Stanley Steamer guys leave.

My landlord then offers me some lovely unsolicited advice in the form of a website promising a "natural cure" for allergies and allergy-induced asthma. I politely thank him and explain that my asthma isn't allergy related, but rather a portion of my lungs just don't work and I'm extra susceptible to respiratory infections and that said infections can get very serious and even deadly very easily if not taken care of. So, um, NO. Thanks but also "natural cures" like that one, well, it just doesn't work that way. Grrr.

He leaves and then people (more of landlords family, including my usual contact person) come in to move the furniture out of my bedroom. My bed is dismantled, and it and my dressers are placed in the hallway. Good thing it's a long hallway. They pull off the baseboards. I am disturbed to see mold on the backside of several of them, so I point it out and say that is NOT coming back into this room. Period. Landlord's daughter (my usual contact), says OK and promises they will be trashed instead (I'll be checking when they reinstall baseboards to make absolutely sure). They rip out the carpet, padding and tack strips, and clean up the resulting mess. The dehumidifier is put back in the now empty room in an attempt to start the drying process before they spray.

I realize my entire bedroom will be in the hallway and I'll be sleeping in the living room for the rest of the week. They won't be able to lay carpet for a good 36 hours after spraying, so the earliest new carpet will go down is Friday. GAH.

I go to sleep in my living room, cranky, but glad that things are finally getting done.

[To be continued...]

Time to build an ark, me thinks

I've been in my current apartment just over a year now. In that time I've been besieged by water issues. A useful detail to understanding things: I'm in a split level 2 bedroom apartment. My living space is upstairs, and the 2 bedrooms are downstairs in the finished basement. There are two baths, one upstairs and one down. My landlord is the member of the family responsible for this property, so "landlord" is somewhat misleading as it's not just her that I'm ultimately dealing with. She's just my specific contact person. Her family owns several properties that they manage.

Now back to the true tale of my water woes.

First it was a leaking pipe from the upstairs bathroom that was dripping into my bedroom right below it. It showed up within 2 weeks of me moving in. Various holes were created either by the water itself or to track the leak. I lived with holes in my ceiling and a bucket (plus a trash can at times) in my bedroom for a good 6 months until they found the source. I didn't use the upstairs bathroom either because why would I want to make the drip happen?!? So for the first 6 months I lived in this apartment I basically only had one bathroom, despite paying for two. Then I lived with the holes in my ceiling until they *finally* patched the holes over 6 months later.

Then the leak in the kitchen ceiling appeared. It was leaking from the same place it did previously, evidenced by the patch already there, so clearly there's been a leak in the roof before. For several months I had a bucket to catch the drips. Then the leak spread. So I added a trash can. And another. You can see the set-up here on Flickr. Eventually they fixed the hole in the roof (or I'm assuming they did as the drips stopped), but not before the drywall tape on the patch fell down so I had it dangling from my ceiling. When they finally patched the bedroom ceiling they put the tape back up.

I though things were finally calming down and the water issues had been finally resolved.

I was wrong. So very very wrong.

Now we have a new water problem. The Friday I got back from ALA (July 17th for those keeping track), we had a terrific thunderstorm. The drains outside the house couldn't handle the deluge. But instead of just sitting outside until it had a chance to drain, the water found someplace to go. It seeped through the foundation (or found a hole), and made a nice puddle on the floor of my bedroom. Specifically it soaked the area under my bed, and spread into the middle of the room. I called my landlord. The next day they brought a wet-vac along with the other supplies to make the final repairs as planned. They vacuumed up the water, and moved my dehumidifier into my bedroom along with an extra fan I have to help finish the drying process.

I lived with the dehumidifier in there for a week. Things seemed to dry out sufficiently.

Then we had another deluge. This morning (Sunday, Aug. 2nd, for those keeping track) we had a fantastic thunderstorm, just like the one a few weeks ago. The skies opened up and it just poured. I watched the water build up outside by the drain. So I went to check my bedroom. And my carpet was wet again. The water was clearly coming in along the base of the wall, so essentially through the brick/stone foundation. I curse and run down the hall to get the rag towels to try and soak up some of the water. I spread them out under my bed, specifically around the bedposts, and along the wall where it's coming in.

I head back upstairs and call my landlord. She starts making phone calls and sends someone over with the wet-vac. It's still pouring. I go back downstairs. OMFG I HAVE A SMALL LAKE THAT IS NOW COVERING HALF OF MY BEDROOM. The towels are completely overwhelmed by the amount of water and are useless. It's coming in all along the wall now, not just in a few small places. What's worse, when the water came it, it also brought debris, so there's dirt and crap all over the place.

I go back upstairs. I call my landlord back and let her know the magnitude of the problem. I let her know that this problem clearly needs a professional to come in, clean up the water and fix the foundation. This is way way beyond what a general handyman can fix.

A couple people from my landlord's family come by with the wet-vac. Since I had last called my landlord I notice that there's water coming in behind the fridge in the kitchen. I point it out and they pull the fridge out from the wall (partially blocking the doorway). One person goes outside to find out where it's coming in. The two young dudes head downstairs with the wet-vac and start vacuuming up the water. The rain is still coming down. The guy that went outside to inspect where the water upstairs is coming from finds that it's coming from next door. He then starts trying to speed up the drains. One is has debris partially blocking it. Debris that ran down the steps from the yard. The other is pretty much completely blocked in the pipe so there's no speeding it up.

The rain finally lets up. The dudes are still vacuuming. They leave around 2:30ish, saying they'll be back later to do another pass. I call my landlord to check in and find out what's going on. She tells me she's talking to others in the family and they're going to find someone to come deal with this and she'll let me know.

It's now 8:00pm. No one has returned to do another wet-vac pass. My landlord hasn't called me. So I call her and leave a message letting her know that that's NOT OK. I need to know what the plan is. And this needs to be fixed by a professional within the next week. One week is a reasonable amount of time given the magnitude of the problem and the amount of water that came in this time. If the water keeps increasing, eventually the entire basement will flood. Not only that, if the water keeps coming in every time we have a major thunderstorm (it is that time of year, mind you), things will never dry out, which will beget mold, which could potentially kill me given my asthma. And I'm really not exaggerating.

So now I wait. I wait for them to respond. I wait to find out the plan. I wait for some kind of action on their part. I #$*@%! hate waiting.

Oh, and to add insult to injury? My kitchen light is not always turning on. Sometimes it works when I flip the switch, other times it comes 1/2 way on, and sometimes nothing happens until I flip the switch off and on a few times. That makes me nervous. There quite possibly could be some sort of electrical issue stemming from the leak in the kitchen roof. Yeah, that's freaking me out a bit.

Is this balance?

So the weekend started with my massive disappointment in which I did not get NIN tickets despite being "in line waiting" before they even went on sale. Reportedly all the NYC shows sold out in 10 minutes.

The weekend then moved into the "are you f*cking kidding me" phase. We had a massive thunderstorm. Truly massive. The drains outside couldn't handle it. I even went out in the rain and removed debris from the drain to help and there still was a good 1 inch of water. The drain just couldn't keep up with the deluge. It rained like that for a good hour before it finally let up. When I went downstairs to go to bed (given my bedroom being in the finished basement), I thought the carpet felt a little squishy. So I leaned down to see what was up with my hand.

It was wet. WET CARPET IN MY BEDROOM. Clearly the deluge had overloaded the drains and the water table and the runoff had ended up in my bedroom, soaking part of my carpet. It had come in at one place along the wall, and then pooled under my bed. So I gathered up all the rag towels I had and started spreading them everywhere, lifting up the corner of the bed to put it under the bedposts. I also had to move my mattress to lift up the center support beam and put a towel under that leg given that was where the most of the water was. Much cursing was involved, and I think I bruised my knee banging it against the edge of the bed. Given that it was now midnight, there wasn't much more I could do so I collapsed into bed.

Then came the balance part of my weekend. My landlord was planning on coming by on Saturday to finish some repairs. Granted, several of these were repairs that should have been done 6 months ago (the end of the bedroom leak saga), but the timing ended up actually being a good thing. I was able to call her before she was on her way and let her know about the deluge induced bedroom flood, giving her time to find a wet-vac.

Saturday I had plans to meet up with my friend EM and hit the farmers' market in Clark Park and get breakfast tacos and Stumptown iced coffee from Honest Tom's taco truck. She arrived the same time as my landlord with the handyman (a different one this time...seemed to know more what he was doing, which made me very happy). I walked my landlord and the handyman through the apartment, reviewing everything that needed to be done to make sure we were all on the same page. Then EM and I headed out for breakfast and the farmers' market.

We returned a couple of hours later, bellies full of yummy breakfast tacos and bags of fresh farmers' market goods in hand, to find they were finishing up. They had to run out for a quick part to fix the toilet downstairs (the handle was being held to the plunger with a safety pin! which I discovered when it rusted through the other day), but otherwise they were done. Wow. The drywall mudding was done on the ceiling patches. He fixed the vent on my dryer that the gas company f-ed up recently. They had wet-vac-ed the bedroom, even putting the wet towels in the dryer. They moved my dehumidifier and my box fan in there to finish the drying process. Part of the carpet was still damp, where the most water had pooled, but certainly no longer soaked. They were really and truly done, the repairs completed in ONE visit as planned. This is new. I like it.

So EM and I headed back out to walk her bike down to the local shop (Firehouse Bicycles) to get a flat tire fixed. While we were sipping some nice iced coffees (from Satellite Cafe) and sitting in the park on the grass waiting for the flat repair to be finished, my landlord called to tell me they had finished replacing the flushing valve and handle and were now completely done. Miracles never cease.

EM and I had a lovely day. One random activity just kind of flowed into the other, no schedule, no plan, culminating in a gathering at Miss Plum's place for some grilling. The weather was gorgeous. The day overall was quite relaxing.

I'm guessing the lovely day was the balance for the hellish evening the day before. Went from high stress/frustration/anger to calm and relaxed. I'm not sure I like this flip-flopping stuff.

So, Universe, can we not do this one extreme to the other and instead just have some even-keel for awhile? I'd really appreciate it.

Nowhere to go but up

2008 has not been a year that I'd want to live over again. It's had its bright spots, but overall I'd have to say it sucked. No where to go but up.

And the icing on the cake for the year is I'm ringing in the New Year without heat. I'm not kidding. While I was out of town, a fuse blew, which then caused the transformer on the heater to melt, so they had to turn the heat off to replace the part. Of course, because of the holiday, they couldn't find anyone available to come and do that until Friday. So I'm spending New Year's Eve and Day trying to keep warm with 3 space heaters, blankets, hot tea, long underwear (thank the lord for Patagonia capilene!) and wool socks and slippers. Layers, lots of layers. I will say that it was lucky that one of the other tenants was home and reported the issue before it caused a fire.

My Aunt and Grandmother sent me home from my visit to Michigan with a can of green beans, a can of black eyed peas, and a small ham so I could have my traditional New Year's Day meal. This is a very good thing since I didn't have a chance to get to the store today with all the heat issues. I'm pairing my meal this year with baked sweet potato fries for something different. In addition to the meal fixings, they also sent me home with an insane amount of cookies, chocolates, and other goodies.

I did have a wonderful visit to Michigan for Christmas. My new baby cousin is adorable, even when he spits up on me (which he did more than once) and cries all over my shirt. I spent 7 days completely offline, with little to no cell phone reception, forcing me to disconnect from the world for a bit and just focus on the time with family. It was wonderful. I really wish I lived closer to them.

Anyway, I'm going to curl up on the couch with the pets and a mug of tea and wait for the ball to drop so 2008 will finally be over. I can't wait. I really think there's nowhere to go but up from here (especially with the lack of heat) so things must improve in 2009.

Finally don't forget the New Year's Rules people!! Don't you dare do any laundry!

Hell of a week

So that leak in my bedroom ceiling we thought was fixed? Yeah. Not so much. In fact it got worse. It was practically raining in my bedroom for several days last week. Well, maybe not a steady rain, but a constant drip. And the spots where it was dripping have expanded so now there's three. I currently have a bucket, a trash can, and a plastic bag to catch the water from the various locations. It soaked through three towels just from side drips and soaking up what was already in the carpet. I'm running out of rag towels to use as the wet ones need replacing faster than they dry. Various chunks of drywall compound have fallen down. And wet plaster/paint/drywall paper? YUCK. It's sticky and gloopy and generally a pain to clean up. Since the carpet is wet, bits of it are stuck to the fibers...I'll have to wait for things to dry out before I can vacuum up the plaster crumbs.

To make matters worse, the fallen compound revealed something more sinister: black mold (no, I haven't had it cultured so I don't know if it's the toxic variety, but I also just want it to go away so I don't have to find out). The ceiling panels are also all warped now from the weight of all that water. They aren't lining up properly anymore so there are gaps between them and they're all bowed so the ceiling looks like it has a big lump in it. There are at least three panels in the ceiling that will have to be replaced between the water damage and mold. Good times.

To add insult to injury, I woke up with a horrific earache in my right ear last Wednesday. Turns out my Eustachian tube is inflamed and the fluid can't drain and the air pressure can't equalize. So I have fluid and air trapped behind my eardrum. The good news is that it's not infected...yet. Unless the fluid drains soon, however, it can become infected. The nearest I can describe the feeling is when you're flying and the pressure in your ears won't equalize so your ear hurts and feels like it needs to "pop." I sneezed and thought my head was going to explode. And it keeps affecting my balance because my inner ear pressure is all off.

The fun just never ends around here. I believe a phrase used by a colleague best describes it: "ass circus" (thanks LR!).

Coming back to life

I'm still alive. Really. I know I haven't posted for two months. I was in "keep my head down and maybe I won't lose it" mode. Things have been a bit insane and until the personal earthquakes finally stopped I just focused on making it through each day.

Here's a nice summary list of the major events since July, in rough chronological order, handily organized by month.

July
*My cousin gives birth to a baby boy! Welcome to the family! My grandmother can now stop putting pressure on me about having her great-grandbabies before she dies (for some reason she was fixated on me being the one to have the babies). So thank you to my cousin. :)
*I take a long weekend and drive up to Boston, MA for a friend's wedding reception (YAY for LHK and WK!!) and to visit a good friend from grad school. Flickr pictures of the reception and my friend's garden (BF is an amazing gardener!).
*I move mid-month.
One week after moving the following events occurred:
*Visitors! My good friends LC and SB!
*Ozomatli concert! (the reason for my visitors)
*A leak appears in the ceiling in my bedroom closet, forcing me to take all the clothes I had recently unpacked and put away back out of the closet again.

August
*The leak in my closet ceiling is due to a leak in upstairs bathroom tub faucet. During repairs, the leak spreads to middle of my bedroom and rains all over the clothes I had removed from the closet to protect them. Dammit.
*Bike tires meet trolley rails. Ouch!
*Mid-month my mother arrives for a visit! YAY!!!
*One day prior to my mother's arrival, my landlord has a disagreement with the gas company and they turn off the gas service to the property. The gas powers the heat, hot water, and my stove. So now I can't shower or cook. Fortunately it's August so I don't have to worry about the heat just yet.
*My landlord replaces the gas hot water heater and my gas stove with electric appliances (note the furnace is NOT replaced at this time). I spend FIVE DAYS while they do this without hot water or the ability to cook anything. My mother suffers with me. Great visit, no?
*My mother fortunately is able to extend her visit by a few days so we can enjoy each others company once we've showered. :) She helps me finish unpacking and settling into my new apartment.
*My sister comes for a visit to attend the Nine Inch Nails concert with me!! w00t!! A truly incredible concert. We had a wonderful time hanging out together the rest of the weekend too.
*In the midst of all of this, things continue to change and move forward into an uncertain (yet encouraging) future at work. My new library school intern also started work the second week of August and I spend much of the first part of the month training her. Fortunately she's a quick study.

September
*Work is crazy. The students return and the semester begins. Additional organizational changes at work are announced.
*Mid-month I take a few days vacation that don't involve a pet emergency/drama, apartment drama, or some other drama. I enjoyed several days with no internet spending time with a really good friend just hanging out and relaxing. It was wonderful. Then I returned home and opened my email. Yikes.
*Upon returning from my [far too brief] vacation I adopted a cat to bring my total of four-legged furry children to two. Yes, a cat named Capri (pics on Flickr). And she and the dog get along just fine, thankyouverymuch.

October
*Work continues to be insanely busy.
*The month starts off badly with me getting sick with a fever for two days after getting soaked by rain.
*One of my best friends from college gets married in Louisville, KY. YAY for EH and KD!! Congrats!! KD, you are a very lucky woman as EH is an awesome guy. I'm so glad I was able to attend and had a blast at the wedding (photos I took at the event are posted here on Flickr).
*It gets cold. Since my landlords have not replaced my furnace or gotten the gas turned back on, the temperature in my apartment drops to 62 degrees, sometimes dipping a bit below that during the night. I start sleeping in my long underwear (normally reserved for camping) and wool socks.
*I get sick. Again. With the cold from hell that lays me up for nearly a week when my asthma kicks in and breathing becomes work. For several days after I start recovering I continue to sound like a husky lounge singer.
*The Phillies win the World Series! The city erupts in chaotic celebrations. Mayor Nutter reminds everyone: "You can be joyous. You cannot be a jackass." Fabulous!
*A new leak appears in the ceiling of my bedroom...this time in the middle of the room. I have to move the dog bed so plaster doesn't fall on her head.
*At the end of October I still don't have heat. After 3 workmen give estimates about what it would cost to convert to electric heat, my landlord decides to make a deal with the gas company to turn the gas back on so they can fire up the furnace. Mind you, access to the furnace for the building is through MY apartment...so each new workman means another person in my space.

November
*On Monday, Nov. 3rd, after 3 more days, a visit from the gas company to replace a meter (also in my apartment) and turn the gas back on, and visits from THREE different handymen, the furnace is finally turned back on and my apartment has heat! Just in time for a warm spell...oh well.
*The handymen on Monday kill two birds with one stone with their visit and fix the leak at the same time they get the furnace fired up! Efficiency is a beautiful thing.
*History is made and we elect Barak Obama as our next president. I am ecstatic!!

And I think that brings us to the present.

Sea of boxes

I am surrounded by a sea of boxes. I have successfully moved to my new apartment. My DirecTV was moved without a problem. My phone and internet also was switched seamlessly (I hear Verizon!).

Despite the fact that I do have home internet, posting will most likely be sparse for a couple of days. Why? Sea of boxes. So much unpacking to do (FYI, Food Network is great for background entertainment while unpacking).

Back to wrestling with shelf paper so I can unpack the kitchen.

Adventures with apartment ads

I'm still looking. I have yet to find a place that meets my needs. Fortunately, there's no time crunch, and I'm not going to move just to move. I'm going to find a place I want to move to that meets my simple yet specific needs.

Along the way, I've encountered some interesting apartment ads. There's the ones that are tagged that they allow pets, but in the ad clearly state "NO PETS" (usually in all caps). There's the ones that say "large" but um, no, not really. People stretch the truth in apartment ads. And if something sounds too good to be true, it quite possibly is.

Take, for example, a recent inquiry I made to an ad I found on Craigslist. It sounded too good to be true. I figured it probably was, but there was no harm in sending an email inquiring. They said they wanted a renter ASAP, but the rent seemed low for the location advertised, and the pictures of the place also seemed a bit too nice, as if they were staged. But again, no harm in asking, right? So I sent off my usual inquiry, telling them when I'm looking to move in, and asking about fees, security deposit, pet policies, utility rates, etc. plus a few specific questions clarifying things in the ad.

What I got back was a variation on a theme. A scam theme. Specifically: the Nigeria scam.

You know what scam I'm referring to. Those letters you get from some poor soul who is set to inherit money but needs your help so can you please send all your banking info to them asap so they can give you lots of money for your help? Yeah. That scam.

I did get a reply to my inquiry. The couple that owns the place is currently in, you guessed it, Nigeria! On a Christian mission. They were unable to find someone to rent their home prior to their departure, and also unable to find an agent to manage the house and rent it out. They have the only set of keys with them in Africa. No sh*t. They want to send me an application, so I can send them a deposit, and then they'll send me the keys. Um, thanks but no thanks. I had a variation on this about a month ago, where the guy said he had been transferred back to Europe and needed to sub-let the place for 5 years. I don't think so.

So for now, I'm still on the look out. For a new apartment AND for scams.

On the hunt

I'm hunting. But not for a date. For a new apartment. I need to move for many reasons. My current lease is up the end of July, so now is the time.

My needs are simple. But they're specific. It's that specificity that's causing me problems.

*First and foremost, I need a place that allows dogs. With Aussie getting older and her arthritis getting worse, a first floor would be ideal, but if the stairs aren't too steep and/or they're carpeted, we can deal with a second floor. Third floor (or higher) is out of the question for her unless there's an elevator involved.

*No studios. There must be at least one good sized bedroom. Honestly, what I really want is 2 bedrooms. I do have people that visit, and I don't want my guests (or me if I give them my bed) to have to sleep in the middle of the living room. This is negotiable, however, if the space is large enough to carve out distinct areas in the main living space or there's a dining room. But a minimum of one bedroom is a firm requirement.

*I need a decent and functional kitchen. I cook. And I really enjoy cooking. Therefore, I need a decent and functional kitchen. I've lived with a galley style kitchen before, and while I survived, once was enough, I'm not going there again. Decent counter space, a full sized stove, and room to move around are all kitchen requirements. [I'd love to have a dishwasher, but that's not a requirement.]

*I need a decent amount of space. I have an upright piano. And a couch. I'd like them both to fit in my living space at the same time. You think I'm joking but this has been an issue in at least two places I've looked at recently. Decent space also includes decent storage. One place had replaced the hall closet with the refrigerator to make more room in the kitchen, effectively nixing that storage space and leaving only two smallish closets in the bedrooms for everything. Points for creativity, but no hall closet and no alternative storage option to replace it is a problem. Have I mentioned recently I have a lot of stuff? Well, I do.

*I either need laundry in my apartment or in the building. I've lived both with and without laundry in my building, and with pets (like children), I've learned it is for the best if it's close by for those 2am emergency washes (if you have a pet or a child you know what I'm talking about).

*I have a budget. I've figured out how much I'm willing to pay both if utilities are included and if they are not included. Given my current gas bill, this is not a small margin of difference.

*I don't want to move far outside the city. I'd prefer to keep riding my bike to work, but I'm willing to negotiate as long as public transit is a viable option. I refuse to move somewhere that I'd have to drive in to work.

I find the most frustrating of the above requirements is regarding my dog. Now, Aussie is not a "small" dog. She's not quite 50 pounds. But she's not big. True to her Basset Hound parentage she's just solid. There are many places that allow dogs, but they often have a weight limit. This weight limit is usually between 25 and 35 pounds, effectively taking Aussie out of the running. Effectively taking any Basset Hound or Basset mix out of the running, actually.

So for now I continue to check Craigslist for new postings, make phone calls and hope someone actually returns my call (sometimes yes, sometimes the message disappears into the ether), look at places, and pray I find a place soon. If you have any leads, let me know.