Tumbled Words

I have never deleted a post, but i just deleted this one and rewrote it with the update. We thought we were going to have to move. Leon finally realized that the dust in this condo was just never going to abate and it was affecting my sinuses and my eyes — and his to a lesser degree, but I am more sensitive.

We discovered yesterday that the air conditioner was not a closed system, the air return filter went to a false ceiling and included the crawl space over the bathroom… no vent from the filter to the unit… it was pulling old construction dust and whatever else was in the crawl space into the air conditioning system. I was feeling worse everyday as I am allergic to dust mites anyway and was becoming not so pleasant about it, that is what made Leon start nosing around the ac system… By all indications it was going to be a difficult fix… Leon was just as ready to move as I was (and he usually is the type that would not react like that - especially to my constant complaining)

Well, a not-overjoyed-with-us-landlord did, after a phone conversation, however, send a general contractor over this afternoon to both fix the bathroom fan (in about two minutes!) and to look at the ac problem. He came up with a workable solution! Leon knows a lot about venting pressures and stuff from venting huge commercial dryers the size of a room in hotels and hospitals and stuff, so the contractor explained to Leon what he came up with, it made sense to Leon and would solve the problem. If she (our landlord) approves the job, he will most likely have it done Tuesday.

The contractor believes there is another reason for some of the dust, but that is not something the landlord would be required to do - and is expensive…. so we aren’t holding our breath on that one. Just to have the air conditioner now be a closed system with filtered air is enough! Though, new hurricane windows might be nice if other storms come through, grin. I certainly would put up with dust a little while for those.

So, assuming she will OK, the job, we are going to stay put. Leon may offer to pay to have the vents cleaned out after the contractor finishes. Guess we will wait and see how much dust flies out of them once the system is sealed off.

Imagine, I may actually have some more energy once this is solved - fewer sinus headaches - eyes that aren’t so dried out from reaction to the dust in the air, and energy, genuine energy. How cool will that be?

Brian and Shelby, I do appreciate your verbalized concern, thank you! Y’all must have sent us some good luck with it.

Tags: condo living, health

• I love the internet. We lost touch with a friend because we misplaced his address and then we moved. We had been searching off and on for years, but were not successful — but he was! He found my blogs. Definitely brought a smile to our faces, he was one of our favorite people - and Leon found him great to work with as a fellow actor as well!
  
  It was so cool to see a comment on my blog that gave me enough of a hint I knew! We have since been in contact by email.
  
  Yes, I love the internet- both for meeting new cool people - and for finding the old, among other reasons.
• Leon is going to introduce himself to the complainer — nicely, not puff up his chest like an animal and rant… after all, it must be hard living beneath someone when the floors are tile - but then, if this condo wanted extreme quiet they should have made carpeting mandatory.
• I am pacing like a caged tiger, but trying to pace with a dancer’s gait rather than my foot landing hard on the floor — seems the harder I try the less dance like it gets… And, no, I did not put on spike heels to dance-pace in — I’m trying to put myself in his shoes, but in the shoes I normally wear, thongs or hiking boots with quiet soles, I would just think, oh, they must be doing something, and I would turn up the volume on my TV or go back to my blogging.
• If we stay, we are going to try to mitigate the noise of the desk chairs rolling across the tile out of courtesy - not because he is a complainer, but would for anyone who lives beneath us for I cannot stay still unless I am lost in reading. I saw plastic pieces for tile floors, not sure if they would dampen the sound enough — if I get rugs, it will have to be bath mats laid together so I can wash them weekly in hot water — I don’t do chemicals — and I am allergic to dust mites.
• Our downstairs neighbor will get quiet this morning — other than I bumped the wall sweeping. I am not doing a thing until Leon gets back from his meetings; the slat sets for the bed are both stacked a bit precariously on a set of wire drawers with other stuff stacked around them - and if I bump them –well, you know. So, I’m just going to imagine the floor plan if we stay. And, yes, I could stretch that thought process all day if need be.

Tags: condo living, friends, internet

This is a rant, overreaction? Maybe.

If this place is indicative of most condos, I’ll live in a tent and I don’t do tents. I don’t mind being quiet, I really don’t. I have headphones if I get the urge to rock out to music. I understand they don’t want anyone to move in on a Sunday, so we didn’t. The tile floors are the comfortable ones, so I walk barefoot most of the day, I don’t wear spike heels. Though Leon has never understood how I could belly dance with light foot and walk with such thundering steps; neither have I.

We were told one specific person beneath us complained about the woman that lived here before. We were also told that he wanted to date her and she wouldn’t and it was insinuated that was why he complained about her so often: took too many showers and vacuumed too late at night. An alert went up in my little head, but the lease had been signed and he had been “made to seem an old man who wanted to date a 30 something and was spurned - and he didn’t like it.”

Last night we dropped something. Today we got up after 7, turned on TV quietly, put light bulbs in the bathroom (she only left us one that worked out of four), later he unscrewed the grungy shower head and screwed our new one back in. We did not even take a shower because we were going to the old apartment to clean and were taking a shower afterward there. Then we got dressed, grabbed our stuff and left. Tonight we were putting a few things away, knocked something over. Phone rang, the landlord.

She had been told we were hammering at 6:30 this morning. We were still in bed then and no hammering of any kind was going on. We were reminded we can “do what we want” during the week, but not on the weekend. (*That is only partially true, rules say this is a quiet place, so anything we want would NOT fly.)

Leon is the more temperamental of us under normal circumstances, though I am catching up, and this is one time I am the angry one. I sincerely would prefer to just get out of the lease and move now — before we get our love seat and dining stuff, before we get things put away, before the man really makes me mad and I say something ruder than I intended (or really meant, but another person would have left unsaid).

Poor Leon did not want to hear me say that. He can only see having to move this stuff again, plus the desks, bookcase, and filing drawers we had delivered that still have to be assembled. He sees that and dollar signs and hunting for another place to live.

I see a year of pure unadulterated misery if we stay and have to watch our every move twenty-four hours a day. I may love the beach, but since I can’t take the heat out there except for daybreak on the cooler days of summer, I am more than willing to give it up, it is not like it is my primary dream, not like it is the only choice we have — but how do you get out of a lease…

Maybe we will go downstairs and introduce ourselves, but I would want unbiased witnesses present since I heard he used to come up and bug the woman repeatedly to go out with him; who knows what he would accuse us of saying.

Cynical? Me? Yes. I suppose many condos and apartments and housing associations have their resident complainer, but did we have to move above one?

Yes, I am ranting and perhaps overreacting, but we really don’t need what this other woman went through on top of the stress of the house not selling. And even as I write that, I feel guilty for saying it. At least we have the money to pay the house payment… I know how lucky we are in so many ways. I know that we may actually eventually be able to put some money away for real retirement. I know that I have many dreams and am content with just a few of them. I know that above all I am so lucky to have the relationship I do with Leon. So, I’m going to TRY to deal with this without constant ranting, but tonight, I just haven’t got it in me. I’ve heard too many stories about condos…

And once we buy lamps so we can actually see in this room, is he going to complain I am lighting up his window too much at 8:00 p.m. — from the light spilling out our window above?

And just for the record, we won’t go out of our way to frustrate him, so he should count himself lucky some of the people I’ve met over the years aren’t living here, because they would.

Tags: condo living