So. I'm afraid this is rather a belated post to this blog that no one reads. On July 7, 2011 I moved out of the infamous apartment in Washington, DC, to begin a new adventure in a new city and a new apartment. I am pleased to say that my current place is a definite upgrade from the ancient Lexington. It's not brand new or 100% bugless or completely perfect in any way, but when you live in a set of rooms that, though inanimate, seems to invent problems by the day just to see how close to a breakdown they can drive you, you learn to appreciate the little things. (Plus we even have a washer/dryer!!)
I guess there's a good chance that this is the end of this blog. If any big surprises come out of the woodwork (and I hope that doesn't turn out to be a literal prediction) I'll be sure to let you know. For now I'll sign off and bring my obnoxious rants on apartment sanitation and dilapidation to an end.
If "you" miss me, be sure to look for my new blog, still untitled, and without a set subject matter... err... but it's coming shortly. I need to have some sort of well-meaning, ongoing project that I can use to continue honing my excellent skills of procrastination.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Lion-Lamb
It's that time of year when you wake up shivering and walk home from work sweating, feeling silly for the gloves and scarf you have stuffed in your bag. My schedule probably exacerbates these extremes--with the daylight savings' "spring forward" I am even going into work in the dark. It seems like our heat has been permanently turned off in the apartment (in their defense Sunday was the first of spring). But as surprised as I am to say this, I miss waking up to the hiss and spittle of the radiator, because waking up to silence means stepping out onto a cold floor and not having a handy clothes-toaster ready to warm my socks in the morning. And as crazy as it sounds, there's a chance of snow in the forecast. I long for the day when I have a thermostat that I can completely and exclusively control.
In other news, one door that has been creaking for months has stopped, and another that has been silent for the last year immediately started. The first few spring bugs have started showing up and the new neighbors downstairs have an occasionally noisy dog, but really I don't have much to complain about these days. Hope this doesn't jinx me.
In other news, one door that has been creaking for months has stopped, and another that has been silent for the last year immediately started. The first few spring bugs have started showing up and the new neighbors downstairs have an occasionally noisy dog, but really I don't have much to complain about these days. Hope this doesn't jinx me.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Heat
It should be an accepted fact that December, not February is the shortest month of the year. Honestly, does any span of time pass more quickly than the 31 days of the month of December?
In our grubby apartment, the new year started off with yet another problem. The person that lives in the apartment below knocked on my door one evening to tell me that something was leaking into his room below. Based on his description, a quick survey of my apartment led me to discover that almost all of my radiators were leaking, some of them quite a bit. The radiators are ancient, like the rest of the building, and the flooring is really uneven under and around them (literally in some places there are giant gaps between the floorboards, and some are so loose I'm sure they could be persuaded to lift up with very little effort), so the water was able to drip down the pipes and right through the cracks in the floor. It's very evident that there is not much insulation in our building--on a cold night if you turn the radiators off, the temperature in the apartment cools down to whatever the temp. is outside in about 20 minutes flat--so I guess there was little to stop the water from falling straight into the rooms underneath. (And the radiators are so noisy, they're always hissing or humming or making other strange sounds, that I didn't notice the dripping). A call to my leasing company brought a maintenance worker out who changed one bolt on one radiator (there are four units total in the apartment). The only change I noticed after this "improvement" was that the leak moved to the opposite side of the radiator. Now it leaks out around the knob that you use to adjust the temperature--and it leaks even when the whole blasted thing is turned off.
My apartment company is not very good with fixing problems; I'm actually amazed they showed up at all the first time (even if they didn't accomplish anything). So now I have various jars and bottles sitting around the radiators to catch the falling water. (And a towel that I change out regularly wrapped around the leaky handle.) I figure it'll just be for a few more months, so as long as the guy below me doesn't complain of any other issues downstairs, I'll just try to manage it as best as I can. My minimal efforts may not seem like much, but they are honestly more that I can expect from management.
In our grubby apartment, the new year started off with yet another problem. The person that lives in the apartment below knocked on my door one evening to tell me that something was leaking into his room below. Based on his description, a quick survey of my apartment led me to discover that almost all of my radiators were leaking, some of them quite a bit. The radiators are ancient, like the rest of the building, and the flooring is really uneven under and around them (literally in some places there are giant gaps between the floorboards, and some are so loose I'm sure they could be persuaded to lift up with very little effort), so the water was able to drip down the pipes and right through the cracks in the floor. It's very evident that there is not much insulation in our building--on a cold night if you turn the radiators off, the temperature in the apartment cools down to whatever the temp. is outside in about 20 minutes flat--so I guess there was little to stop the water from falling straight into the rooms underneath. (And the radiators are so noisy, they're always hissing or humming or making other strange sounds, that I didn't notice the dripping). A call to my leasing company brought a maintenance worker out who changed one bolt on one radiator (there are four units total in the apartment). The only change I noticed after this "improvement" was that the leak moved to the opposite side of the radiator. Now it leaks out around the knob that you use to adjust the temperature--and it leaks even when the whole blasted thing is turned off.
My apartment company is not very good with fixing problems; I'm actually amazed they showed up at all the first time (even if they didn't accomplish anything). So now I have various jars and bottles sitting around the radiators to catch the falling water. (And a towel that I change out regularly wrapped around the leaky handle.) I figure it'll just be for a few more months, so as long as the guy below me doesn't complain of any other issues downstairs, I'll just try to manage it as best as I can. My minimal efforts may not seem like much, but they are honestly more that I can expect from management.
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