Top 10 Things I Dislike About Apartment Living

Now that we only have a little over a month left in our small one bedroom apartment, I thought I would share my top ten list of what I dislike about living in an apartment.

Number 10:  The fitness room. The treadmills work occasionally and it is the only fitness room I have every seen where the treadmills face a wall of windows and the TV`s are on the side walls. It is impossible to watch TV while working out on any of the treadmills.

This is our mail center and our tiny little

mail boxes.

Number 9: Community mailboxes. Getting my mail involves, leaving the apartment, locking the door, walking to the mail center, unlocking the tiny box, getting the crammed mail out, then walking to the office to pick packages that have not been put in one of the small package mail boxes, putting the security code into the gate, and then walking back to the apartment to our barking dog that has been standing by the door waiting for my return.

This is the open security gate.

Number 8: The security gate that is not all that secure. The gate works maybe 75% of time and people just follow cars in after the residents open the gate with their fobs. If you wait long enough outside the gate you can draft in behind a resident. NASCAR style!

Number 7: The small, small, small kitchen. You can stand in one place, turn and use the stove, oven, microwave, sink, dishwasher and get into the refrigerator. There is no counter space and even less cabinet space. The only positive thing about this kitchen is that it only takes about 3 minutes to clean.

Edy`s private piece of poop real estate

Number 6:  I miss letting my dog out the back door so she can do her business. I took for granted the simplicity of just opening the door and letting her out. At the apartment I having to put her on the leash, walk her to the very small grassy area by our patio, of course she has to bark at everyone driving or walking by, and then I have to bag the fruits of her labor in the brightly colored poop bags that we put in the illegal patio poop bag pot.

Number 5: Sleeping with the air conditioner unit right outside the bedroom window. This is Texas and the air conditioner is on all the time.

One of the our rows of garages.

Number 4: The walk to the garage to get my car. There is not a garage near our apartment, so we had to rent 4 garages that are spread all over the complex.  They are not easy to get into because of the parking spaces in front of them. I am never excited to come home late and have to make the trek from the garage to the apartment by myself. Thankfully we have the "security gate" at our complex.

All of these cars are pointed right at the
windows of the ground floor apartments.

Number 3: Headlights into the bedroom. Our apartment is on the bottom floor and in the front of the building right near the parking spaces. So all night long people are pulling into the parking spaces and shining their headlights right into our bedroom. It is like sleeping on the highway to dreamland.

The dreaded patio poop pot!

Number 2: The walk to the trash dumpster. I am so tired of dragging my trash across the apartment complex to throw it away. We make a lot of trash, not to mention the dog poop bags. I have actually driven the trash to the dumpster in the back of my SUV. Hate It!

Number 1: The barking dogs upstairs. Who needs an alarm clock when you have the running, jumping, barking dogs above you. They start at 6 am and can go on for hours. Good Morning Cujo!

The above video was taken while I was in bed one morning listening to the dogs upstairs. I am sorry if the video does not work, I am even sorrier that I had to hear it in real time.

We have lived in this one bedroom "temporary" housing apartment for almost 15 months and as much as I disliked the wait we had to sell and to buy a home, I am still very grateful for a clean safe place to lay my head at night.

   

The Creepy Bug Guy

Owning a house in Virginia, in the hilly woods, you just know there are varmints and bugs. Not to mention the deer and bears. Everyone has a contract with a pest control company to come and spray 4 times a year, and put mouse traps outside. Everyone!

Enter, Creepy Bug Guy. The tech that came to the house 4 times a year, I will call him Bill, was a very odd man and very arrogant. I was always the one home when he came and I always just put up with him. He was always one step away from patting me on the head and saying now, now Miss just let the men handle this.

Bill and my Husband (played by Vincent Price)

I will set the scene for our last encounter. We scheduled the Creepy Bug Guy at a time when my husband was going to be in VA.  The appointment  was scheduled in advance, but it turned out that we were to have a showing at the house at the same time. I called to have the appointment changed with the Bug Guy and the Office Guy could not reach him.  As it turned out the whole time Office Guy was trying to contact the wrong person. So, you guessed it, the Bug Guy showed up at the house during the showing. Just what you want a potential buyer to see a pest control truck show up while they are looking at your house. Oy!

Now, you can make the argument that it was not Bill`s fault that he showed up. True, and if it stopped there Bill would have stayed as our Creepy Bug Guy. But NOOOOOO! Arrogant Bill walks into our home, confronts my already angry husband and says that he was doing us a favor by even showing up. His exact words. Funny, I thought we scheduled the appointment and was paying hundreds of dollars for the service. Favor? I think not. It went down hill from there, and he was kicked out of the house. Permanently!

Ugly Termite

The manager of the company was called, and he apologized profusely about the office mix up and for Bill`s attitude and behavior. Then he said when you are ready for the termite inspection for the sale of your house, we will do it for free.  Oh, and Bill will not be back in your house again, ever.

Fast forward many months. The house finally sold and we needed a termite inspection. I call the Creepy Bug Company and guess who answers the phone................Bill. So, I ask Bill for the manager and he says he is the manager, not true, I hope anyway. So, I said I have an agreement with a manager to get a free termite inspection. He transfers me to, I will call him, Bob the inspector, and evidently a good friend of Bills. I mentioned that the manager promised us a free termite inspection because of the behavior of an employee, and he said of you mean Bill. At that point I should have hung up and moved on. But NOOOO, I wanted the inspection ASAP and so he said he would come out in an hour. Our agent was meeting him there to let him in the house. This is how my agent tells the story.

As he pulls up to the house  Bill the "Inspector", and I use that title loosely, was already in the flower beds. He walks up to our agent with a small plastic container, and says he found termites in the flower beds around the house. He did not show our agent any place where there were termites, just the container. Our agent just dropped and shook his head. Then they went inside and our agent went with him as he "inspected", shocking, no termites found. As he was leaving he told our agent we will need to spend $1700 for remediation to get rid of the termites. So much for a free inspection.

The official form that is not sent to the state, ever!

Our agent called me and told me what he said Bob found, and  then our agent made an appointment with another company for a second opinion scheduled the next day. I called Bob the "Inspector" and asked what he found, and he said he would send me the report and that we needed remediation. I told him we were getting a second opinion and he became very hostile. He said if they don`t find anything they are not looking hard enough because there are termites in your yard. He also told me he was filing his report with the state to tell them we have termites outside. I said file your report and thanks for coming out. Bye, Bye!

The house was inspected the next day, and there were no signs of termites anywhere. They also told me that there was no place in the state to file a termite report. My conclusion at this point was that Bill and Bob got their little "bug heads" together and decided to stick it to us. He brought the bugs with him, showed up early so he was in the beds when our agent showed up, and then thought we would pay the $1700 for remediation. He couldn't`t lie about the inside having termites because our agent was with him. Then when I called him and told him we were getting a second opinion he though he would scare me by telling me he was going to tell the state we had termites. What a poor sad little bug man.

What is the moral of this story? Could be: "Nothing is for free!", or "When something looks too good to be true, it usually is."  More likely it is "Never trust the friend of an arrogant Creepy Bug Guy to do your termite inspection."

I have the to say the whole incident is still BUGGING me!

Independence Day has a new meaning for me now!

We put our house in Virginia on the market in April of 2014. After many showings and price changes the comments were always the same. Love the house, hate the lot! For us empty nesters the drastic down hill slope in the back yard was never an issue. We don`t have young kids, our grandchildren lived too far away for it to be an issue, and we loved the view. The problem was that people with young kids kept looking at the house and hating the slope of the lot.

There were several people that were interested but never gave us an offer, just disappointment. Here are just a few:

First, We had the Doctor and his wife that loved the house, but couldn't keep their kids in the same school. They wouldn't even follow through with the school system to see if they would allow it.

Next, The Question Guy, who was a cash buyer that came back 3 times and stayed for over an hour each time asking many, many questions. He came over the Thanksgiving weekend and interrupted our time with family asking the dumbest questions, and then never made an offer. We must have heard 10 times that our house was at the top of his list. He is still in temp housing and probably asking someone else questions.

Then there was the FSBO (for sale by owner) couple that loved the house and even came back to measure the rooms. Their house went up for sale a month later by owner, and then a few months later it was listed with a agent. It is still for sale.

There was the  retired Air Force woman that came back a few times. She could not get past the backyard and even had someone give them an estimate on how much it would cost to fill in the back yard. I think they were talking a $100k. Too much! There heads are in the clouds. Pun definitely intended!

The new backyard!

In May of 2015 we invested several thousand dollars and had a retaining wall built in the back and had the yard filled in. Was not even close to a $100k. It turned out great and gave a great space for a back yard.  We were ready for families to come and see the great change in the yard.

Then in June while we were on vacation there was the Contingency couple. They loved the house and wanted to make an offer contingent on selling their house. They left for their vacation for 10 days and were going to make an offer on the 28th of June, the day after they returned. Their agent called the next day telling us that they had way too much work to do on their house before it can be put on the market, and that they were going to wait to make the offer. Their agent did not think it was fair to take our house off the market for that long. Thanks Miss Deal Killer.

While on Vacation the last thing we wanted to do was think about selling our house.

We dropped the price another 25k on July 1st.  On July 3rd we were flying back to VA to spend the Independence Day Holiday at the house, and do some major purging of stuff. When we landed our agent had sent us a text telling us that we had a showing at 4 pm. We landed at 1 pm and needed to get to the house, and out again for the showing. The people showed up and stayed for 2 hours.  I am not sure what you can do in someone else`s house for 2 hours. They did have some questions after the showing, and then on the 5th the wife came back for a second showing and stayed another hour. What could she possible be looking at? They loved the house and there was talk of an offer. After waiting until the 7th we gave them a one time offer of; another big price cut, no contingencies and they had 24 hours to respond. We got a offer and the start of our independence from that house. July 8th is our new Independence Day!

Happy 8th of July!

This is Our Normal

We have a running joke in our family that if we had a dollar for every time we heard " That is the first time that has ever happened" or "That has never happened before" we would be Billionaires! We are very blessed that the major things in our lives work out fine, not always smoothly, but fine, not so much for the everyday or minor events. Cue our vacation a few weeks ago.

We own a condo in Florida that we rent out most of the year, and get to visit a few times a year. This June we went to the condo with our son and his girlfriend. Should have been a simple week at the beach, but NOOOOOOO!

Most of the week was pretty easy going. Mornings spent on the lazy river floating for an hour or two, until the kids show up. Afternoon naps on the beach in a beach chair under an umbrella, or reading a book. Late afternoon at the pool swimming in water so warm it felt like bath water. This is what vacation at a beach resort should be. And then there were the bizarre incidents that happen to us. These things happen so often that we expect them, and are by the grace of God, and our gene pool, we are able to laugh about it later. Sometimes much, much later.

The Lazy River is by far my favorite thing to do in the mornings

Incident one! We went out to eat for dinner at a local chain restaurant. We were sitting at the bar (the only seats available) and had just received our food. My phone rings and I do not recognize the number, but have to answer because I rent the condo and have a house for sale, so it could be about either of those topics.

Did someone named Cindy call about a fire?

This is how the conversation went:
Me: Hello,
Voice: "This is "Tom" from "Name of our apartment complex", Why didn't you tell us you had a fire in your apartment?"
Me: "WHAT?"
Voice: "You are suppose to inform us when there is a fire."
Me: "What are you talking about, is our apartment on fire? We are on vacation in Florida, is our apartment on fire?"
Voice: "How long have you been in Florida? Is your daughter or someone named Cindy staying in your apartment?"
Me: "Tom,  we have been gone for four days, no one is staying in our apartment, and we do not know anyone named Cindy. Is our apartment on fire?"
Voice: "Do we have your permission to go into your apartment and make sure it is OK?"
Me: "Yes and call me as soon as you get out."
Voice: "OK."

We have cameras hooked up in the apartment, so we were able to see them go in, and also see that there was not a fire currently.

A watched phone never rings!

Waiting, Waiting, watch them go in and come out of the apartment, Waiting, Waiting, Waiting,.........

I call my daughter who was at the hospital with her premature baby, and she was on her way home driving past the apartment complex. She saw a fire and water damage remediation truck sitting out on the street in front of the complex and though that may have something to do with the call.
Still waiting for the call back from "Tom". After 15 minutes I call "Tom" back and get no answer.
I call the complex office and leave a "not so nice" message mentioning that I still don't know if my apartment is on fire and asking them to please call me back.

10 minutes later I finally get a call back from "Tom".
Me: "Hello?"
Voice: "This is "Tom"
Me: "What is going on? Was there a fire? You know "Tom" you cannot call someone and tell them there was a fire in their home, and then have them wait forever for you to call them back!"
Voice: "I am sorry, wait for it........This has never happened before. Someone named Cindy called a restoration company to clean up water damage from the sprinklers after an apartment fire. They gave our complex name and your apartment number. As it turns out there is an apartment complex with the same name in Irving, TX and they were suppose to go there. I am sorry for the scare, but it took us a while to figure it out."
Me: "Could you just make sure that you locked our door, and nothing personal, but I hope to not hear from you again while I am on vacation."
Voice: "I understand."

Two days later we go out to dinner, use our credit card to pay and go back to the condo. We were going to go play miniature golf, but first we were going to see if we could find a new patio set for the condo. The chairs are a few years old and starting to leave rust marks on the patio because the plastic stoppers have come off the feet. Thank you sea air!

The new patio set looks great and is very comfy. 

We go to Lowes, find a set we like, and when I go to pay, my card is declined. This happens to us a lot in Florida when we go to buy major purchases for the condo. The credit card company thinks you are on vacation and that someone is using your card to buy major household items. I use another card and on our way to miniature golf I call the credit card company. While I am talking to the man from customer service he says that I need to talk to the fraud department. The lady in the fraud department says that they are canceling our card. What????? She said that one of the stores where we had used our card had a security breach, and they need to replace the card. I said OK, but we are in the middle of our vacation and need to use the card. She said they had to cancel it and that was that. What???????? What if I didn`t have another card I could use, you can`t just cancel someone's card while they are on vacation. I asked who the company was that was causing this problem and she could not, or would not tell me. I gave up because the conversation was going nowhere.

As it turned out the card was not canceled until we activated the new card they sent us, but the lady from the fraud department must not have gotten that far in her training to be able to pass that information to us.

We have had more than a few vacations where the hotel has been on fire, or the fire alarms have gone off. I know most people have never had that happen. But this was the the first time that we had a call about a fire at home while we were on vacation. But there was the time we were at an outdoor concert and it happened. That is a whole other blog!