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I just got this idea from another thread. What's your worst apartment or other housing experience?
My first apartment was one I shared with my older brother. They had been built in the 50's by GE, and used a (new at that time) all-electric heat. No A/C though. The electric bill was about equal to the rent each month. There were at least two domestic-dispute related stabbings while I was there. There were less parking spots than there were apartments, and you were horribly screwed if you didn't grab one before the night was over. Both of our cars were broken into multiple times. Glad we were able to get out of there.
A few years later, after a relocation where there just wasn't a lot of rental housing options, I found a small, basement-level apartment that I could do three-month leases on. Everytime it snowed, it would melt outside on the ground, and since this was below grade, would flood the apartment. A few months after leasing it, the circuit breaker box shorted out, starting a fire in the adjacent linen closet, and completely burned that unit and the rest above it to the ground.
I stayed in a complex that was built in the 50's. There was a common entrance , which led up a dark staircase. The neighborhood itself was good , but there were a few knuckleheads in the complex. Matter of fact , exponentially more than a few!! When I first moved in , I was awakened at 6:45 to what sounded like a party above. I mean my walls rattled. I started beating on the ceiling , then this brat comes down and apologizes. Each subsequent morning , it continued , like clockwork. It reached a head when I hit the ceiling and she had the audacity to yell for me to 'take my a$$ to sleep'!! I complained , and it soon picked back up. It seemed hopeless. I waited until I got my own stereo , and while they were hanging on the steps , I treated them to a hefty dose of Star Wars theme music!! It was hilarious!! They left , and I never saw them again!! I'd arrive from work at night to find people always asking for rides to Value Lodge , which is on Independence. Before I got hip to what was really going on , I gave a guy a ride over there. Turns out they were all crackheads! The apartment had wooden floors , a cavernous livingroom , kitchenette , and a large bedroom. I enjoyed it - the only thing I didn't like were the roaches that seemed to appear from nowhere once it began warming up. It was like 'Joes Apartment' , they were so bad!! Whenever I'd cook , they would smell it and start peeking from the crevasses with their antennae waving frantically. I had to resort to bombs daily , eating out , and keeping the AC on. It had no effect!! Finally winter came , and they were no more. I moved shortly thereafter and the complex was razed.
Last edited by etacarinae; 06-10-2010 at 11:48 PM..
Reason: missing information
I lived in an apartment that the wind would blow through, and I am not exaggerating. And this was in Boone, NC, in the worst winter one can imagine. The snow and ice were so bad that the local authorities were giving out fines if you did not have studded tires or chains on your tires.
The apartments were built for summer rentals and so essentially no insulation. I was a very poor grad student but I had inherited quilts from my grandmother. My mother gave me a few more, and I tacked them to cover the window in my bedroom and the exterior walls! The quilts were sometimes actually BILLOW b/c of the wind coming through the walls.
We only had one big parking lot and we were at the top of a "hill" (read that small mountain). We had nowhere to take our cars b/f a big ice storm, so all of us were iced in for six weeks. Yep. The ice kept accumulating and at one point, there was over four inches of solidly frozen ice around our cars. If the sun came out any, snow would melt from the hill behind the parking lot and glaze over the already accumulated ice, and then re-freeze.
It was hell. Hell frozen in ice.
At first, we used cross country skiis to get to the campus. I had to start out very early to "ski" down the hill and then had to lug my skiis to class. I decided I hated Boone and never wanted to see the place again, lol.
Of course, Spring finally arrived, the ice melted and Boone is still one of my favorite spots on the planet. :-)
I think my worst housing experience was living in the barracks on MCAS Tustin when I was in the Marines. The rooms were about the size of a dorm room (maybe smaller). The worst part was that there was no air conditioning. There was one little transom sized window near the ceiling that could be opened. Since it was way up there, there was no breeze to speak of.
Plus, we were very close to the flightline so we had to listen to Frogs and 46s all day and night.
Back in '05, I was ready to leave South Carolina (not that my commute was far, anyway...I'm originally from York County!) and went to a popular roommates site to find someone to live with. One of my specifications was I didn't want to live with kids. I found a great roommate in what I considered to be a nice neighborhood on the NW side. Out of nowhere, 2 days before I was to move in, she called and said she knew I didn't want to live with kids, but she was moving her 13 or 14-year old nephew in with us because he wasn't acting right in his hometown in a Midwestern state. I didn't want to go through the home search again, so I decided to bite my lip and moved in.
Overall, I thought the roommate was okay, but she was extremely cheap. We got two significant ice storms that winter and it got very cold after I moved in in November. Gas prices had skyrocketed after Katrina, and as a result, she refused to turn on the heat in the house. Instead, she turned on the oven and opened the oven door in an effort to heat up the 2-story house. I could see my breath every morning. My heater fan could only do so much. I got very sick about that time. I was miserable.
Not to mention, her nephew would sneak into my room and look through my things. He took several of my VHS tapes and a lot of my snacks. I had to go into his room to get my stuff. I wouldn't have minded had he asked me for them.
I couldn't get of there fast enough. I could never do the roommate thing again after that!
Once I rented a room in a house from a family that was from another country (India). The owner and her niece lived there plus me. They had lots of family in the area. They were the nicest people you would ever know but living there was difficult. The bathroom I used had a broken lock on it. A few times I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and a visiting male guests would barge in on me without knocking (the door was closed). After the 1st time whenever I took a shower I would dry off and dress behind the curtain in case someone barged in.
Every year she had a big weekend party to honor her husband who passed away a few years before and about 300 people would descend on the house. She even had to go to the county to get a permit to do this party. Well that was way to many people and to much noise for me so I always left and stayed somewhere else for that particular weekend. The owner told me to make sure I move my stuff out of the kitchen and into the garage so nobody would accidently take my stuff (because they didn't know if was mine but may think it belonged to her).
I rarely ever got to prepare my meals in the kitchen because 7 days a week there would be about 4 of them using the kitchen the whole evening, so I had to get takeout after work if I didn't want to cook and eat at 9:00 at night. The refrigerator I used was next to the garage entry, about 20 steps from the kitchen. They had a frig in the kitchen but it was packed and no room for my stuff. So I got to use the garage frig, which was so old and clunky it would freeze my lettuce and everything else I had. The only time I got to use the kitchen was at 6:00am before I went to work--I prepared a chef salad everyday to take to work and I had to carry all the salad ingredients those 20 steps back and forth.
And then the roaches came. Not sure how they got there (it was a single family house). So every morning at 6:00am when I made my salad, I would turn on the kitchen lights and usually there were about 10-15 of them that would scatter away. They didn't seem to be that bothered by the roaches and didn't do anything to remedy the situation.
My rental bedroom was on the 2nd floor, right next to the gigantic prayer room she had built onto her house and there was a big TV right outside of the prayer room, which some nights they would watch late into the night and I had to listen to the TV noise and lost a lot of sleep. Also, every Sunday morning she had a worship service and about 40-50 people would arrive and they would be singing and making all this noise. I remember one Sunday morning I got all dressed up myself to go to church (makeup, hose, skirt) and went outside to my car and realized they had me blocked in and I couldn't go anywhere. It wasn't appropriate to barge into their worship service to complain, so I was stuck.
Once the owner decided she was going to India to visit family for 2 weeks. During that 2 weeks the house was nice and quiet, people were not coming and going all hours of day and night, I got to use the kitchen--it was wonderful. Then she got back and all the commotion started again. That's when I decided I was going to take a week vacation on The Outer Banks by myself, because I wanted to get away from them haha.
It was blissful--I rented a cabin near the ocean all to myself and it was wonderful to be able to wake up to quiet (there was always loud chattering in their native language every morning), use of kitchen, use of bathroom with no fear.
The final kicker for me (as if the above wasn't enough already right?) a few days after I got back from vacation, I was asleep about 10:00pm, and was awakened by rocks hitting my window and someone loudly calling my name over and over. I woke up and knew immediately it was the owner. She wanted me to come downstairs and let her in the house because she forgot her keys. That's when I knew I WILL find my own apartment and make it work because I couldn't take it anymore. This was in Northern Virginia (DC area) back mid-90s. I did find a cute studio which I absolutely loved and stayed there until I moved back to NC. Money was a little tighter but it SURE WAS WORTH IT!!!!
Once I rented a room in a house from a family that was from another country (India). The owner and her niece lived there plus me. They had lots of family in the area. They were the nicest people you would ever know but living there was difficult. The bathroom I used had a broken lock on it. A few times I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and a visiting male guests would barge in on me without knocking (the door was closed). After the 1st time whenever I took a shower I would dry off and dress behind the curtain in case someone barged in.
I would guess you were getting the room pretty cheap since you didn't move out.
Also, I don't think mentioning the ethnicity of the people you were renting from was necessary, it makes the whole post sound a bit racist.
I would guess you were getting the room pretty cheap since you didn't move out.
Also, I don't think mentioning the ethnicity of the people you were renting from was necessary, it makes the whole post sound a bit racist.
That wasn't racist. If she was racist, she wouldn't of lived with them in the first place. It sounds they weren't very considerate of you as their roommate.
I would guess you were getting the room pretty cheap since you didn't move out.
Also, I don't think mentioning the ethnicity of the people you were renting from was necessary, it makes the whole post sound a bit racist.
I disagree. If anything it goes to show just how differently people do things in another culture.
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