I used to live in an apartment building called Briarwood. I loved living there and had a very good relationship with the owners. Fast forward a couple years to when the owners have decided to semi-retire, sell the building and spend more time with their kids…
I couldn’t really stand the new owners or their building manager. As you probably already know, I had many problems and issues. I tried to take care of them in a respectful and professional manner, but things didn’t really work out. Then, due to some negligence in snow removal my apartment flooded. They knew it could happen, but were just crossing their fingers that it wouldn’t. I say this because that’s what the building manager told me. The flooding resulted in our apartment molding over and after being home for about an hour the next day I ended up in the ER and missing a month of work.
I was pretty pissed off about this. That happened at the end of February and it’s now almost September. I’m not back to 100% yet. After even more drama, we finally moved out of there. The owner said we shouldn’t be able to get out of the lease and the lease didn’t apply to me because I had “pre-exising medical conditions.” You may also remember my asthma doctor declaring that “bullshit“. We talked to the county and the health department and this information is what I think “scared” the owner into somewhat compromising with us. I kept saying I was going to type up a big rant and try and discourage everybody from living there and doing business with these people. Sort of like what I did when that tux shop screwed me over. I decided against it and don’t really regret it.
Fast-forward to today when I found out Briarwood has been recently sold. I wasn’t really surprised and I found it kinda funny. Yes, I’m taking pleasure in someone else’s misfortune. Am I a bad person? Maybe…but I’m ok with it. I had to immediately text Liz and inform her of this new information that had come to light. Supposedly the new owners, I have no idea who they are, are taking a personal interest in their investment like the owners I had when originally. It’s amazing how people can buy a thriving business, run it into the ground and ruin its reputation so quickly.
Liz and I submitted an apartment application and it’s being processed today. We’re hoping this works out cause we really need to get our stuff out of Briarwood. We’ll also have to get everything cleaned before I can even be around stuff.
The breathing keeps getting better. I’ve just been sleeping a lot and taking it easy. Hoping to get back to work soon.
No sleep last night. That’s what happens when I mix prednisone and a nebulizer. Crazy stuff. I’m sure I look a little crazy and every once in a while I think I see something out of the corner of my eye.
Also talked to Jim today about electricity and rent for March. He’s going to look into it and get back to me. I’m really interested in seeing what my electric bill is going to be because of all the fans plugged into the outlets for days on end. Plus, the carpet people cranked our heat for at least 4 days. I’m sure that didn’t help the mold grow.
For now, it’s back to the couch to me so I don’t have a coughing fit. Hopefully I can get back to work on Monday. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Yesterday I found out too late my doctor appointment had been canceled, but luckily they got me right in today. You know how sometimes you go to the doctor and you have to wait forever? Well, today I was one of those people making the mildly-sick people wait. I told him I had been doing great up until this week. How I had started lifting 3x a week again and doing cardio stuff 5x a week. Then the apartment got water in it and after being in there a couple hours was so sick I could hardly move. He listened to my lungs and even after 4 days of taking lots of medicine and laying down, there’s still wheezing all over, on both sides, of my lungs. He asked where I’m living and I told him we were with Liz’s parents.
He said my landlord needs to provide me with a new place to live.
He said I shouldn’t go back into that apartment for 3 weeks.
He said they need to tear everything out and replace stuff.
He said, “If they give you any trouble about getting out of there, not receiving your security deposit, anything - I’ll screw him.” I said, “[chuckling]Uh, ok.” He said, “No, I’m serious. He gives you any problems let me know. I’m putting something down in your chart about this so it’s documented. We’ll do another breathing test to have that documented as well. You need to be in a different apartment that dry and clean so your lungs have a chance to work properly.”
So there you have it folks. The doctor is gonna “screw them” if I have problems getting out of my apartment.
Well, not really. When you’re not at work and can’t really enjoy your time off, I don’t think that really counts as vacation. For the past few days I’ve been chillin in Funcie and watching TV. Right now, I’m watching a special about modern pirates on the History Channel. Heading to the doctor today and Liz is going to check out the place to see how it is. I guess we’ll decide what to do after that. Today it’s raining and it’s supposed to continue, then pick up again in a few days. That kinda makes me think more water might come in.
Well, not really….but sometimes I feel that way.
As some of you know, I have asthma kinda bad. Most of 2006 was spent feeling like crap for me. At the end of last year I found out part of that was due to a medicine mishap. Way too many doctor visits, hospital visits, medicine taken and weeks off work made it not too enjoyable. As of yesterday at 4pm I would say I was feeling pretty good. I had been feeling pretty tired all day, but didn’t think much of it. After I had been home for about 15min after work I felt so bad I had to turn off My Name is Earl and move 3 boxes off my bed so I could chill. Next thing I knew Liz was waking me up. I could hardly talk and hardly move.
So that started the exodus to Muncie. As of now, about 24hrs later, I’m finally able to sit up and make my way to a computer. All I know is that my apartment is still definitely unlivable and it’s supposed to rain this week. That means more melting snow and better possibility of water coming in. I need a new place to live.
Usually Sundays are days filled with rest and relaxation for Liz and I. Today wasn’t one of those days. We got a knock on our door from one of our neighbors asking if we were getting water into our apartment. We checked in the other room and we definitely were. All the melting snow and rain from last night had created a mini-lake outside. The water wasn’t coming in from the exterior wall though. The water was seeping into the interior hallway and then coming into our apartment from the interior wall. So we spent our afternoon trying to move and re-arrange boxes and other various items. Luckily nothing was destroyed.
After we stemmed the tide, we took a break by heading over to Robby’s for some Oscar action. Matt and Liz were there too. We got to enjoy some snacks, good conversation and a very dry floor. Oh, and we also learned that some friends of ours are going to have a baby. For now, I gotta get some sleep so I can get up early and lift in the morning.
So after a couple more emails, Jim came knocking on my door Sunday afternoon. Gunner happened to be over watching Barton Fink with me and Jim seemed quite comfortable saying everything in front of him. Well, I don’t know if I’d definitely call it comfortable for him since his hands were shaking so much, but anyways…
I wouldn’t say everything started off as a “conversation” because it started off with Jim spouting off about how I’m causing trouble, sending nasty emails and getting my fellow neighbors riled up. I basically had two options at this point: One - I could give in to my human nature and be a dick. I could throw all the accusations back into Jim’s face and respond like those sub-class citizens you see making fools of themselves on daytime talk-television. Two - Or I could try and diffuse the situation, try to act diplomatically and reason with Jim.
Thankfully, God gave me the wisdom to choose choice number two. Jim was so ready to be yelled at and basically it was like he was reciting Kyle’s tone and thoughts that I read from the emails he sent us. Then I got Jim to calm down and converse. I apologized for any miscommunication I had done and had tried to explain the situation from the start and re-state my actions. I tried to iterate to Jim that in my mind things could be bigger than they are because precedents exist in my mind from how things were handled over the summer. Jim apologized for not returning my phone calls in a timely manner and for not really informing me in when it would have been appropriate. We both agreed that we could improve the communication between ourselves in dealing with matters concerning the building. Jim also mentioned that I’ve been a great tenant. I always pay rent on time, no tenants have complaints about me and they have no complaints about how I treat the property. That part was a little confusing though because if I’m such a good tenant then how come I’m accused of being a “fabricator of stories” and “creating a hornets nest” when I asked a couple neighbors if they had a copy of their lease?
Anyways, I think my original goal was achieved. Jim miraculously found copies of leases. I’m guessing people started calling the owner because why else would they say that I “created a hornets nest”? All I wanted was for some of these college students to better understand what it means to rent a property and what their rights are. I hope things will get better and I think they’re starting to realize that I have realistic expectations and am easy to get along with as long as they’ll just give me an honest answer.
I’ve been getting a lot of advice today on the apartment problems.
Smitty suggested I call the city to see if there’s an ordinance about snow removal.
Joe suggested I talk to the Muncie Landlords Association to get advice on what to do.
I also called up Tom and Sue, my old landlords, and talked to them about it.
Right now Liz and I are continually trying to communicate with Kyle and diffuse this big situation that seems to have arisen out of us asking when the snow will be shoveled. My gut feeling is that nothing will really change, but time will tell on that one. The good news is that I at least have one idea of a place to live if I decide to get out of here.
I just called the city to see if there’s an ordinance about snow removal. Unfortunately, no luck there.
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