Living in a 2 bedroom apartment with two growing children was not my long term goal when I moved to my last apartment in 2009. I was waiting for my oldest child to graduate 8th grade in 2014, and low and behold she was held back and didn't graduate until 2015 (another story for another blog...lol), so we spent an additional year in the apartment. A few years ago a very good friend of mine needed a place to live, didn't have a good job, and asked if I would be kind enough to spare a little space. After long consideration, I figured I could use the extra money, so my dear friend (DF) moved in and resided on my sofa. Current occupancy then...2 adults and 2 kids! There was barely any space before, and then I felt as if we we're literally living on top of one another.
The building I lived in was mediocre, there were no amenities with the exception of a small laundry room (one washer, one dryer, for six units), which doubled as a storage room with very very small storage cabinets for the tenants. I had no central air, a very dated apartment, idiot neighbors, water bugs (which I had to combat myself), and crappy windows. I was a trooper, life handed me lemons and I made lemonade. When it was cold, we were cold, when it was hot, we were hot, we had to improvise best we could, and so we did. Oh, and don't let a fuse blow out after hours, yes I said fuse blow! They refused to update that feature! Tenants would have to wait until the next business day to report it to the management office.. Sooooo, on a Saturday after 2:pm (they wouldn't reopen until Monday, 9am), and the fuse blows, you're screwed! And before you ask, there was no emergency line, well there was, but a blown fuse was not enough of an emergency...and yes, I'm still speaking about having no electricity due to the fuse blowing.
The sad thing is, I know all of this from personal experience because one summer I purchased a window AC, the fuse kept blowing, and eventually someone was smart enough to look into the issue. It was found that the outlet designated to the AC (they used to have them in the apartments before I moved in, but removed them all and sealed the wall sleeves), had been painted over and could not be used. So the maintenance dude repaired it so I didn't have to use the regular outlet, well I couldn't use it anyway, the fuse would blow! I had no clue there was a designated AC outlet, and had it not been for me fussing about how I purchased an AC that was within the spec they provided, and how they didn't provide AC, they would have changed the fuse as usual, and not send maintenance to come into my apartment to sort out the issue.
To fast forward to 2015, it was finally time to start house hunting for my first home. I had boxes packed before I started looking and opted to not sign another lease and go month to month. I knew at this point I was well on my way to more financial responsibilities but a peace of mind...
The building I lived in was mediocre, there were no amenities with the exception of a small laundry room (one washer, one dryer, for six units), which doubled as a storage room with very very small storage cabinets for the tenants. I had no central air, a very dated apartment, idiot neighbors, water bugs (which I had to combat myself), and crappy windows. I was a trooper, life handed me lemons and I made lemonade. When it was cold, we were cold, when it was hot, we were hot, we had to improvise best we could, and so we did. Oh, and don't let a fuse blow out after hours, yes I said fuse blow! They refused to update that feature! Tenants would have to wait until the next business day to report it to the management office.. Sooooo, on a Saturday after 2:pm (they wouldn't reopen until Monday, 9am), and the fuse blows, you're screwed! And before you ask, there was no emergency line, well there was, but a blown fuse was not enough of an emergency...and yes, I'm still speaking about having no electricity due to the fuse blowing.
The sad thing is, I know all of this from personal experience because one summer I purchased a window AC, the fuse kept blowing, and eventually someone was smart enough to look into the issue. It was found that the outlet designated to the AC (they used to have them in the apartments before I moved in, but removed them all and sealed the wall sleeves), had been painted over and could not be used. So the maintenance dude repaired it so I didn't have to use the regular outlet, well I couldn't use it anyway, the fuse would blow! I had no clue there was a designated AC outlet, and had it not been for me fussing about how I purchased an AC that was within the spec they provided, and how they didn't provide AC, they would have changed the fuse as usual, and not send maintenance to come into my apartment to sort out the issue.
To fast forward to 2015, it was finally time to start house hunting for my first home. I had boxes packed before I started looking and opted to not sign another lease and go month to month. I knew at this point I was well on my way to more financial responsibilities but a peace of mind...
