Aug 26 2008
Frustration Reigns
Update in next post up! Some days. Some days. They can’t fix the air conditioning problem. He was told by the ac man that they can’t box it in (?) because units like that were previously boxed in - in installations he knew of - and had overheated or something…
The man that came today said he could add venting to one side of the turbine things, but there is no way he can get at the other side to fit venting (they are dual sided)… which is probably why Leon was surprised the man had said he could fix it in the first place. So….
All he did was change the old cruddy false ceiling in the tiny utility room and put a smaller air filter in — but it still does to just the opening above the ceiling in the bathroom kitchen and the false ceiling in the utility…. At this point could not come up with a way to at least close off the crawl space over the kitchen and bathroom… As soon as he moved the first panel, the dust just poured out the vents into the other rooms.
When he left — I walked in the bathroom and saw thick dust (and a few little bugs) covering the bottom of the white tub (that we had just showered in earlier and was clean! That all had to have blown out of the ONE louver open in the small AC vent in there. There is dust coating the ac vents… but I honestly can’t remember if Leon cleaned those when we moved in or not.
Yesterday chlorine bleach fumes filled the apartment - We had plastic over the back window from when they were sanding or whatever next door… so I opened the front door for the longest time and again.
Today, after he kicked up that “stuff” I feel like I am getting sick, I’m miserable enough as it is with it causing allergy like symptoms all the time and even Leon’s eyes start burning. I leave and feel better - come back and it starts again. It is in part because I am extremely sensitive to dust and dust mites and smelly chemicals, so some people who LOVE to dust every day, may not mind as much, but I prefer breathing well.
I feel for the landlord, she sent someone out to try to correct the condition quickly, she also is getting a permit to at least change out the back jalousie after whatever the contractor told her. She doesn’t (at last conversation the other day) want to let us out of the lease without proof that it is hazardous to our health.
We could pay to have the vents cleaned out (and would have had he been able to close the ac system) but if it is still open to the crawl space, why would we want to do that? If that is the case we need to be let out of our lease.
Leon and I had agreed (when we thought the ac was being fixed) to offer to pay more a month on the lease if she changed out both windows… (if she could afford it.) It could only help her if at the end of our lease she had to rent it again or put it back on the market, because some other units have new windows. And we were going to offer to pay to have a professional repaint the inside with no voc paint. (This is OK and old enough I can’t smell it; I just want a color I like for a change.) We (I mean Leon) already did little things here, like caulk around windows, foam around pipes, and change out the old slightly grimy wire coated shelving in both closets.
I mean, it is not that we want to run out on her or anything. We even just bought our end tables and a dining table and two lamps this past weekend. This place was almost “home”!
Do we unpack them or?
Mr. Murphy of Law fame, if you have anything to do with this, get out!
