Well, soon anyway. This heat wave has been RIDIC! It was what, 108 the other day? Insane! It's about 90 degrees right now, so it's calming down. We'll be getting back in the 70's as the week continues. Thank goodness! I like the heat, but not like this! Okay, no, I don't like the heat. 60's and 70's is my kind of weather. The cold is nice too. For awhile that is.
Anyway, Gary and I have been thinking a lot about our apartment, and whether or not we want to stay another year when our lease is up. So we're not even halfway through our lease yet (almost) and we're already talking about moving. You see, everything was wonderful with this place to begin with. Then it started to go downhill a couple of months ago.
New neighbors moved into our building. It's fine when new people move in; but these just aren't new neighbors. They're your favorite busy-bodies. Here's how it started:
A couple of months ago, Gary and I received a phone call from the office. Our management told us that there were complaints about too much noise coming from our apartment. Okay, I admit, Gary and I are party animals. We have parties on a weekly basis with drunks, loud music, and electric guitars. Not. We have always been very courteous in respecting the rules of the lease. We turned down the base to our computer anyway, just in case. By the way, nobody lives below us (because it's a garage), and we don't share a wall with anybody. There are people above us, but we never hear them (except from the bathroom which is strange). The walls here are thick. We are quiet neighbors.
Gary called them back to ask for more information. What sounds? Where are the sounds coming from? We just needed to know where to pinpoint the problem. They refused to share with us anymore information. Okay, fine. We just turned everything down and tried even harder to be quiet neighbors.
A couple of weeks later, we received a written warning about the noise. According to the dates of the complaints, we were out of town. Clearly it wasn't us. We called management to explain this, and they really didn't want to hear it. Nice of them, huh? No apologies, nothing. We were gone those days! Unless the cats have some secret agenda, I really don't know how else to explain this.
Okay, so we moved on with life, turning down the base even more to our computers and television. We hadn't heard anything for awhile. Until almost a week ago.
Gary, who is in the Elder's Quorum, got up early one Saturday morning to help a family in our ward move. He was gone for a few hours, and I was working that morning. When I came home from work, he was already home. I noticed another slip in our doorway, and handed it to Gary upon walking in. He opened it up and frowned. More complaints. The complaint this time? For not keeping our patio "orderly". What? We glanced outside. The freshly swept patio looked pretty neat to me. We didn't have crap everywhere. In fact, we have our grill and a desk out there. That's all. Oh, and a kitty condo in the corner. PLENTY of space and no issues. We looked back over the letter, and it said, "Problem: wind chimes drilled into stucco." Seriously? First off, we didn't drill into the stucco. The hole and hanger were there when we moved in. Looks like the last occupants had wind chimes too. We simply hung them up: when we moved in over a year ago! Management even knew we had them there because we were complimented on how pretty they are. We rolled our eyes and took them down anyway. Glancing around, we noticed other neighbors had hanging wind chimes, humming bird feeders, and even lights for their outdoor tables. Interesting. Upset we didn't get a verbal warning before this written warning, Gary sent them a very professional letter, explaining we aren't very happy about these written warnings. We've heard nothing since.
A neighbor of ours down the hall has a habit of leaving his trash on his front porch. It's policy here to not do that. I didn't complain about it though, because it's not my business. However, a letter slipped into our door again this afternoon, and I asked aloud, "now what?" Luckily it wasn't another written warning; just a letter sent to all complex occupants. It described the policy of "leaving your trash out". The new policy says that if anyone is caught leaving their trash on the front porch, or not throwing it properly in the dumpster, we will be fined. A little silly, but whatever. We've been following that.
What's interesting however, happened Monday morning. I was taking the trash out to the dumpster before heading off to work. As I was leaving the apartment with the trash in my hand, a woman who seemed to be in her 30's, was walking down the stairs from the third floor. I continued on my way, and over to the dumpster. I followed the rules of throwing it properly in the dumpster, and as I turned to leave the dumpster area, that same woman was in her SUV, get this, watching me. When I made eye contact with her, she quickly turned her head and drove off. I think I found our busy-body. Mind your business, woman!
Anyway, we're very tempted to move out when our lease is up. And yes, we're looking at homes again. We do this occasionally. We found a few nice homes in the Acton area with some acreage, but something that really caught my eye are the new homes in Palmdale. One of my managers at work mentioned new homes were just built recently, with no previous owners. Completely new. Here are a few Gary and I checked out:
Anyway, Gary and I have been thinking a lot about our apartment, and whether or not we want to stay another year when our lease is up. So we're not even halfway through our lease yet (almost) and we're already talking about moving. You see, everything was wonderful with this place to begin with. Then it started to go downhill a couple of months ago.
New neighbors moved into our building. It's fine when new people move in; but these just aren't new neighbors. They're your favorite busy-bodies. Here's how it started:
A couple of months ago, Gary and I received a phone call from the office. Our management told us that there were complaints about too much noise coming from our apartment. Okay, I admit, Gary and I are party animals. We have parties on a weekly basis with drunks, loud music, and electric guitars. Not. We have always been very courteous in respecting the rules of the lease. We turned down the base to our computer anyway, just in case. By the way, nobody lives below us (because it's a garage), and we don't share a wall with anybody. There are people above us, but we never hear them (except from the bathroom which is strange). The walls here are thick. We are quiet neighbors.
Gary called them back to ask for more information. What sounds? Where are the sounds coming from? We just needed to know where to pinpoint the problem. They refused to share with us anymore information. Okay, fine. We just turned everything down and tried even harder to be quiet neighbors.
A couple of weeks later, we received a written warning about the noise. According to the dates of the complaints, we were out of town. Clearly it wasn't us. We called management to explain this, and they really didn't want to hear it. Nice of them, huh? No apologies, nothing. We were gone those days! Unless the cats have some secret agenda, I really don't know how else to explain this.
Okay, so we moved on with life, turning down the base even more to our computers and television. We hadn't heard anything for awhile. Until almost a week ago.
Gary, who is in the Elder's Quorum, got up early one Saturday morning to help a family in our ward move. He was gone for a few hours, and I was working that morning. When I came home from work, he was already home. I noticed another slip in our doorway, and handed it to Gary upon walking in. He opened it up and frowned. More complaints. The complaint this time? For not keeping our patio "orderly". What? We glanced outside. The freshly swept patio looked pretty neat to me. We didn't have crap everywhere. In fact, we have our grill and a desk out there. That's all. Oh, and a kitty condo in the corner. PLENTY of space and no issues. We looked back over the letter, and it said, "Problem: wind chimes drilled into stucco." Seriously? First off, we didn't drill into the stucco. The hole and hanger were there when we moved in. Looks like the last occupants had wind chimes too. We simply hung them up: when we moved in over a year ago! Management even knew we had them there because we were complimented on how pretty they are. We rolled our eyes and took them down anyway. Glancing around, we noticed other neighbors had hanging wind chimes, humming bird feeders, and even lights for their outdoor tables. Interesting. Upset we didn't get a verbal warning before this written warning, Gary sent them a very professional letter, explaining we aren't very happy about these written warnings. We've heard nothing since.
A neighbor of ours down the hall has a habit of leaving his trash on his front porch. It's policy here to not do that. I didn't complain about it though, because it's not my business. However, a letter slipped into our door again this afternoon, and I asked aloud, "now what?" Luckily it wasn't another written warning; just a letter sent to all complex occupants. It described the policy of "leaving your trash out". The new policy says that if anyone is caught leaving their trash on the front porch, or not throwing it properly in the dumpster, we will be fined. A little silly, but whatever. We've been following that.
What's interesting however, happened Monday morning. I was taking the trash out to the dumpster before heading off to work. As I was leaving the apartment with the trash in my hand, a woman who seemed to be in her 30's, was walking down the stairs from the third floor. I continued on my way, and over to the dumpster. I followed the rules of throwing it properly in the dumpster, and as I turned to leave the dumpster area, that same woman was in her SUV, get this, watching me. When I made eye contact with her, she quickly turned her head and drove off. I think I found our busy-body. Mind your business, woman!
Anyway, we're very tempted to move out when our lease is up. And yes, we're looking at homes again. We do this occasionally. We found a few nice homes in the Acton area with some acreage, but something that really caught my eye are the new homes in Palmdale. One of my managers at work mentioned new homes were just built recently, with no previous owners. Completely new. Here are a few Gary and I checked out:
Aren't they gorgeous? Here's the link: American Home Guides . They are insanely affordable, too! So we'll see.
Anyway, dinner time! Pizza, pasta, and ice cream! Bye!
Anyway, dinner time! Pizza, pasta, and ice cream! Bye!
4 comments:
Sorry about the CRAPPY neighbors! We had some of those when we lived in our first apartment (remember, you relinquished your room to us so we could escape them?) They were angry because they could hear me rocking James in the evening... It's funny that your UPSTAIRS neighbors claim they can hear you... bologna is what that is.
Anyway, it's a COMPLETE buyers market right now! Hope it remains that way for a couple more years!
Oh my gosh. Just reading this made me angry for you guys! How incredibly annoying!!! I really hope you guys are able to get away from there. This brings back bad memories of the people managing our place too. Not good. Those houses in Palmdale are GORGEOUS!! I definitely hope you guys can find something before your lease is up and while the market is still so awesome. Good luck!
Hey those look like the Khavnanion Homes. I agree with Catla, definitely a buyers market, rates are sooo low. Noisy neighbors, sorry about that.
Carla, I forgot to proof read again.
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