Just a quick note: I finally fixed the code for my post pages, so now if you click on one of the previous post links to the right you'll actually be taken to that post's page. This should also fix the rss feed problem. Back to packing! :)
Well, we're moving.
Wednesday morning, I woke up to hear rain pouring down outside. I was not surprised to hear the sound of dripping water in my apartment when I opened the bedroom door. The kitchen and bathroom were leaking. Again. I called Esther and left a message for her: "Good morning Esther... It's raining outside, which of course means that it's raining inside my apartment. Why don't you do your job and have someone come out and fix the roof and why don't you call me..." I left her my cell number, knowing that she wouldn't call me back - she's just so unprofessional! I looked around quickly for some containers to put under the leaks and then left for work.
A little bit before 1 o'clock, I got a phone call from the girl downstairs, Sheri. Her kitchen ceiling was leaking now - water was coming through the light fixture. She wanted to let me know that my apartment was likely leaking. I told her that I found the leak first thing this morning and had called Esther about it, but of course she didn't call me back so I had no idea if there was anything being done to fix it. Sheri called the code enforcement department and a building inspector was on his way over, so I left work so that I could let him into my apartment to inspect it too.
The building inspector saw the leaks in my place - which our management company had called minor - and he informed the maintenance guy that the leaks were not minor and that it was not okay that water was coming through light fixtures. He told them that they had 30 days to fix everything and that they better get an electrician in to remove the light fixtures in the areas where there are leaks. An electrician did come that day and remove the light fixtures. A new roofer came as well, but he was only on the roof for about 15 minutes that day and hasn't returned since. Maintenance claims that the roof is now fixed. That's insane. If anything, another patch was put on the roof and the next time it really rains the leak will come back - or find another place where there's a faulty seal on the roof.
We just don't feel safe in this building. I know that there's another apartment on the 2nd floor where there has been a continuous leak through the kitchen light fixture, but that tenant wasn't home and so the building inspector could not see it and nothing was done about it. The landlord/management company continue to try and patch problems up and not actually fix them and I'm afraid that the roof is going to fall on my head one of these days. The entire apartment smells musty and I've seen the mold that's above the ceiling tiles in the bathroom, so I'm afraid that it's unhealthy to live in here. We've given them over a month to fix these problems but they haven't fixed them and they're not even responsive to us when we contact them. I've got no faith in their ability to fix this place and I've got no faith in the stability of the building. We're just not going to stay in a place where we don't feel safe.
So this weekend, we move. We got that adorable apartment from my last post. It's gonna be a really long weekend because as of right now, Saturday morning at 7 am (I've been having trouble sleeping lately... I wish I was still in bed right now) we've got 4 boxes packed. D'oh! We can't pick up our moving van until after 5 pm today, so the entire day will be devoted to packing. NIMO is coming to the new apartment today to turn on the power and the utilities will be shut off here tomorrow. I've already changed our addresses with pretty much every service/company I can think of. I swear, I'm going to be an expert at moving... Since December of 2004, this is our 4th address. Hopefully this new one will stick for a while. ;)
So, we went out Apartment Hunting again yesterday. Alex had called a few places from ads in the Daily Gazette and we were able to visit the Colonial Arms apartments in the Stockade right away. The superintendant, Scott, lives in the basement of the building and met us at the front door in what looked like his PJ's at just before noon. He took us up to the 2nd floor to the front corner apartment. It was a two bedroom apartment with views of the big, old, First Reformed Church across the street and of the Stockade Inn next door. (If you want to see a great Quicktime panoramic image of the block, click that Stockade Inn link and then click on the picture on the main page of the Inn. The Apartment building is the tan building to the right of the Inn.)
Here's a floor plan. Don't laugh at my Paint skills...
I've registered with the National Body Challenge with the girls at work. I was supposed to start yesterday... D'oh! I'll start today.. :)
Apartment hunting went OK yesterday. We actually saw another apartment in Barney Square that I liked. It was a one bedroom, but it had an office area and the living room was HUGE. It had enormous windows, which I thought were very cool. But... the windows looked out at a vacant store front across the street. Here are some pics...
Sigh.
So, yesterday morning I got up and opened the bedroom door. I could hear that it was raining pretty heavily outside, so I pretty much expected to find the bathroom leaking. It's been dripping since December 30th - and the property manager has known about it since then - but they've done nothing to fix it. We'd called a couple of times to remind them about it (when the leak had gotten a little bigger and the affected ceiling tile began dangling) but the most they did was send the maintenance guy over who took the ceiling tile off and shoved it in the hole that it left. Nice.
So anyway, as I left my bedroom, I could a fast, heavy, dripping sound. But when I went in the bathroom, there was no leak to match the sound. I mean, I could hear it dripping in there, but it wasn't like the dripping I heard when I was in the hallway. I left the bathroom and when out to the kitchen... where it appeared to be raining inside. There was water pouring in from the top of the window trim. The windowsill and the floor were covered in water. I tweaked out. I got Alex up and showed him the latest leak and then he discovered that there was now water leaking out of the bathroom door frame. The leak that they'd "fixed" above the toilet (which they obviously didn't do properly because we still had a drip there) had moved and now water was coming in pretty much all over the bathroom ceiling and in the kitchen too.
Alex and I both called the property manager. He left a message on Esther's cellphone and I left one on the business line for her. She called back and Alex picked up the phone, telling her that we now had multiple massive leaks in the apartment. Her response to him - after telling him that she was glad that he picked up because I leave "unnecessary messages" (I guess she didn't like that I told her in the message that we needed a call back from her and she shouldn't just send maintenance out) - was that she'd call her supervisor (Chris).
An hour passed and we could hear that someone was on the roof, but no one had come to see where these new leaks were in the apartment and we still didn't hear back from Esther. Alex called her cellphone and left a message saying that we were looking for an update from her and pointing out that no one had come to see the leaks and asking her to call us back. She, of course, didn't call us back. She just called her husband (the maintenance man) and he showed up at the door looking to look at the leaks. This really pissed me off. Esther is such a lazy POS. Half of the time when we call her about a maintenance issue, she doesn't call us back, she just sends her husband out. He comes out, apparently does nothing, and leaves without telling us what's going on. So we're left wondering if anything was even done to fix the problem. And then, on the rare occasion that she does actually call us back, she lies to us ("Oh the roof has been fixed and you will never have a leak again!" I can't tell you how many times I've heard that and still had water coming into the apartment) and is never apologetic or anything about all the shit that we've had to put up with in this building.
So I got really pissed off and called the business line and left a syrup-y sweet message: "Esther, it's Alison from Winnie St. I understand that you don't like to return my phone calls, but you need to call me back. We need to discuss the rent. I don't know how you people expect me to pay you anything for the rent when for the past month we've been dealing with leaks in the apartment that are never fixed properly and there is apparently no end in site to this. Call me at..." and then I left the apartment number. She didn't call the apartment number back. She called Alex's cell number (which she KNOWS his HIS cell number and not my number and not our apartment number). He gave me the phone and I answered it. She was surprised to hear that it was me, but once she realized she had to talk to me, it was on. She started going off on me for leaving the message. "I ALWAYS call you back and we were out at the building within a half hour of Alex calling this morning..." and on and on and on. I just sat there and said, over and over again, "Ester, you need to listen to ME." When she finally stopped for a breath, I layed into her. I told her that if she'd listened to my message, she would have realized that what I was saying is that she doesn't return MY calls. She started to go off and I pretty much told her to shut up again. I let her know that Alex told me what she said to him about my "unnecessary messages" and that set her off again with a bunch of lies "I never said that!" She was just going on and on and said that she couldn't make any decisions about the rent, that was up to her boss and the Landlord. I asked her to give me their numbers since she couldn't make any decisions. She refused. Then she said that it was a Saturday and she'd talk to them about it on Monday. Then she just started to go off on me again. Suddenly, I realized that SHE was yelling at ME. I mean, I'm the one sitting in a damp apartment that leaks every time it's above freezing and pours in every time it rains. I snapped. I yelled right back at her... "Esther, I DO NOT APPRECIATE YOUR YELLING AT ME." And then I just hung right up on her while she was still going on. What a bitch. Anyway, it made me feel better to yell at her.
I don't know where she gets off, though. I mean, this ENTIRE thing could have been avoided if they just did their jobs. The drains on the roof became blocked and we ended up with a massive leak 12/16 to 12/19. Drains being blocked aren't an act of God - it's negligance. If they'd been properly maintaining the roof, it never would have happened. Beyond that, we even notified them a week prior to the ceiling falling down on the 16th that there was a small leak beginning in that area. They never sent anyone out to look at the leak. Maybe if they'd done their job then, they could have avoided the subsequant substantial leaks. And then, when we were left without a bathroom that weekend, they didn't offer any sort of alternate living arrangements or compensation. How were we supposed to live in an apartment without a usable bathroom? So then they "fix" it, but later on that week (12/23) it happenes again. This time, they didn't fix it until the following Wednesday (12/28). Absolutely rediculous. And then two days later, a drip starts in the same place. They're notified of it, but again do nothing until two weeks later when we've got leaks all over the place. And, to tell you the truth, I don't even know what they supposedly did to "fix" it this time. It's stopped dripping, but, then again, it's below freezing out now. It will be interesting to see what happens when it thaws out around here again. I'm sure the leak will find another place to come into the apartment - likely the living room or the bedroom. I hope that we're out of here by then. If that happens and my furniture gets ruined, I think my head will explode.
Anyway... If you'd like to see pictures and videos of the leaks, I've got them posted here.
