We're Moving Yet Again

We haven't even been in our current apartment for 9 months! We moved in in late October. But the owners sold the apt. which was fine with us. We need a bigger space.

I'll miss a few things about our current apartment including the sign and the red door. Luckily for us, our new apt will also have a red door.
There are also a few things about this place I won't miss. The beginning was promising. We immediately liked the woman we were renting from and some of our neighbors are really friendly. But there have also been a number of not so pleasant moments.

When we went in front of the board back in October (there are only 15 apartments in the building so the whole endeavor was pretty small) we were told that the building was more of a community than just an apartment. We were told that people brought up packages for each other (we've had one brought up for us), people held the door open for each other (the guy who said that doesn't bother to hold the door for either SHR or me even when we have 1 or 2 babies in tow), and that the building was making its own wine in the basement (we never were invited to imbibe because we are renters).

Basically that has been the biggest problem for us since the beginning - being renters and now owners. There is an email list for owners but not renters and despite the best efforts of our landlord, we were never allowed to be included on the e-mail list. Some e-mails we received, some we did not. Luckily for us, our landlord sent us pertinent e-mails if she happened to be at the computer. Like this snippet from a pretty urgent e-mail about bedbugs from the non door holding guy who lives directly below us.

As for our building, I strongly suggest everyone does a search of their bedrooms to look for signs of bloodstains, eggs, or bugs. I'll keep you posted. I have not included any of the renters on this email. I'll leave it up to the owners of those apartments to decide how to handle the situation.

Could there be any possible reason why we wouldn't need to be included on this e-mail right away? So odd.

When we moved in, there was only one other apartment occupied by renters. They happened to live right next to us. One day, I ran into one of them and she mentioned that she and her boyfriend were moving soon. She also mentioned how the owners were completely unwelcoming to renters.

There was another night when we first moved in when one owner came up to SHR as she was recycling to tell her, "We recycle in this building." Yeah, ok ...

Then there was this e-mail which luckily for us we were included on.

Hi all,
I hope you're all well. I was just outside and noticed some recycling was mis-sorted. There is a huge blue bag filled with plastic, glass etc in the paper recycling bin. Anyway, whoever's renters they are or whomever mis-sorted could you please go out and re-sort into the proper cans? The cans are labeled fairly clearly. I would have moved the blue bag but it's heavy and I just had surgery and am not allowed to lift anything for a couple weeks.
Thank you!
T

I love that she doesn't know that the huge blue bag can also be called a recycling bag. I must admit that I was the guilty party here but in my defense, the cans were not labeled properly - the top didn't match the bottom. The bag that she was calling people out on was full of baby formula bottles and baby food. Who else could it have belonged to other than us? Anyway, I immediately went out and fixed it.

Then there was the bike incident where my uncle was in the process of going to the basement to lock his bike. He and my aunt were staying with me during SHR's 6 night European jaunt in January. The Board President (I had already met Board President twice before this point and the third time we met, she inquired who I was) asked for my name and number from him so she could call me and scold me. She wanted to know if my uncle was who he said he was (not that she knew who I was) and let me know that she was worried because there had been some break-ins at the apt. Of course, I had no idea about these break-ins. Must have been on an e-mail that I wasn't allowed to get.

I was told that I needed to e-mail the entire building if I ever had visitors use my keys ever. Duly noted ...

BP told our landlord to tell us that no one should chain their bike to any water pipes outside or in the basement.

Oh, like this? Btw, that is the Board President's bike.

Then another e-mail from Board President (BP) to Awesome Landlord (AL)

Can you make sure your tenants know about tying up loose cardboard boxes? There were a few large boxes outside today addressed to them - they were broken down but not tied up, and we occasionally get tickets for that.

Thanks!
BP

This got SHR annoyed. She wrote to AL.

Sure. They were two large car seat boxes and tying them together seemed a little silly to me, especially as there was already a single electronics box roughly the same size by the cans, untied, that someone else had brought down earlier in the week. For future reference if we bring down a single box, does it need to be tied?
BP has our email addresses, right? She's more than welcome to email us directly about these things. I feel bad that you have to be the conduit.

AL wrote back, "Yes, BP has your email addresses but for some reason she feels the need to go through me."

Then the response from BP:

"Well, loose boxes need to be tied. So what they could do is just tie all 3 boxes together, even if one isn't theirs. That's what I would do, and I imagine others in the building would do the same. Renters shouldn't be an exception to this. Obviously a single box does not need to get tied up."

Renters are such freeloaders!

On a sidenote, a few weeks after this, I saw a homeless looking dude come untie the boxes in front of the buildling in order to steal the twine. Since I'm a renter, I didn't feel the need to say anything.

Also, I love that shortly after all this stuff, SHR ousted BP as the mayor of our favorite local bakery. Take that BP!

Perhaps my favorite e-mail from our entire stay here was from the dude who told SHR that we recycle in this building --

Early this morning, I was awoken to the continual sound of the Roof Door opening and banging shut in the wind. The person who left the door open, has left their key in the door, which I have. This is a danger to the building, as it leaves our hallways open to anyone that accesses the roof from anywhere on the block. The roof door should not be left open and unattended at ANY TIME. We need to add this to the agenda of the board meeting.
M

I wrote back to M stating that I bet the culprit was the broker who had been showing the apt next to ours to a potential client earlier that night. M didn't bother to respond to me. I found out later that my theory was indeed correct.

Then the new neighbors moved in. BP welcomed them to the building. AL forwarded it to us.

Hey everyone, Let's give a big welcome to our newest neighbors, H and K! I have invited them to the yahoo group as well They are moving in at the end of April but will be doing some renovations this month - so please keep everyone updated as to when you will have workmen in/out of your place. Thanks and welcome! BP

Why would we need to be included on this e-mail? I mean, we only live next door to the new neighbors and I'm the only one on the floor home all days with babies?

SHR sent an e-mail to the entire list welcoming the new neighbors and asking if they knew the construction schedule.

Recycling policewoman immediately responded

Hi guys!
They had mentioned renovations would be 9am-6pm M-F or business hours. I think they posted it to the yahoo group e-mail listserve which you might also not be a part of.
Thanks
T

SHR wrote me:

i want to reply and be like, "no we're not on the yahoo group. we're excluded from anything that might make living in this shitty building easier. don't you remember discussing it at a recent board meeting?"

too much?

She wanted to send this one as well:

Hi T,

No, we are not a part of that because we are not allowed to be. We do somehow manage to get included on random building wide emails when it involves people not recycling properly or keys being left in the roof doors, but not things like renovation schedules.

Thanks for the info.

Best,
SHR

She ended up going with:

Hi T,

No, we're not allowed to be part of the Yahoo group or any similar mailing list, either.Thanks for the info.

Best,
SHR

Anyway ...

I'm looking forward to getting settled in at our new place. I won't miss the crazy layout of this apt. I will miss the hallway playground though for the boys.


I will miss some of the people who have been extremely nice to us. And, of course, I will miss the roof. The glorious roof. Luckily our new place will have backyard access though!


Onwards and upwards!