Then the water thing happened. You remember the water thing, right? yeah. So we moved again. and I stopped keeping up with my paperwork on a massive scale. I just kept throwing stuff on a pile in my desk cupboard:

Today I decided to actually get started on fixing this problem.

I pulled out all of the unopened envelopes and laid them out on the table:

Then, I sorted everything by who it was from:

It helps when you have the proper tools – can you tell what is wrong with the opener on the right? It works as well as a finger

And now, this is what I have left:

I snapped this pic of the butt-can outside the front door of our building a few weeks ago. This has since been cleaned up, but by the maintenance guys and not the jerks who left the mess.

The trash only gets dumped twice a week. The week before Memorial day, they dumped it on Thursday.. this is how it looked by mid-weekend.

Last weekend, we came home and discovered this lovely park job. The green car is my Bonneville. The photo is a bit of an optical illusion, I could not have physically walked between the vehicles, nor opened the driver’s door of my car.

Yesterday, Barton caught one of the residents of our building using our patio area as his own for a smoke break.

Smoking... on our patio.

This time, it jars the floor so hard that the light fixture, that is above and slightly to the right of me, breaks loose. One of the rods that holds the glass bowl of the fixture broke free and it was left swinging by the remaining 2 rods.

Needless to say, this pissed me off. The glass bowl, while not completely broken, is in no shape to go back up there, even if the rods that hold it in place are able to be screwed back into the fixture. The holes where the rods go through the bowl are chipping away. While taking it down before it fell down on me, I got showered with little shards of glass.

Pictures to follow (once my camera battery charges).

CLOTHES. OMG clothes. I know, just offhand, there are 3 fairly large plastic totes full of just clothes. Some are mine, some are Barton’s. That we’re not wearing now. That we might never wear. In the fall we took a couple of boxes of clothes to my Dad’s (along with boxes of other Stuff).

I don’t know why this happens. I’d like to think I tend to be frugal in my purchases. I don’t go on “shopping sprees” very often, maybe twice a year. I spend hours in the store(s) looking for just the X thing that suits my need. I have a coupon or its on sale. I buy it, bring it home, BUT.. (like in the case of the damned clothes) I re-decide later that it doesn’t work. The clothes that DO work for me though. I keep wearing those for years. Looking at my ‘wardrobe’ now, honestly, most of the stuff I wear daily looks kinda shabby. :/

“Damn, the legs on these jeans I just bought are too tight. But they didn’t feel that way in the store? Well, shit. I washed them now, they probably shrank. I’ll throw them in the closet and maybe in 6 months I’ll lose some weight and they’ll fit.”

But does that ever happen? Fuck no. And so, the Stuff Grows.

We’re going to be in this new apartment at least until May 2011. Between now and then, the extra, unused, unnecessary Stuff must shrink, and be gone. Really gone. Donated, trashed, sold – not just stored, but really and truly gone. It will be my mission.

Well, Wednesday night they did it again, but on a much grander scale. I tweeted about this while it was happening, but for the full story, read on…
(Updated Dec 2)
(Updated Dec 3)

I got home from work at around 11pm, and was talking to Barton in his office (the second bedroom in our apt) when I heard a strange noise from the bathroom across the hall. I thought it was the cat messing around with something plastic like he likes to do, but when I turned on the light I was horrified to see a waterfall coming from the heating vent in the ceiling.

I ran upstairs and pounded on the neighbor’s door, but nobody answered. Then I paged the emergency maintenance number 3 times. He finally called back and by that time water was gushing from the hallway ceiling, and the light fixture above my desk in the dining area. The water in the hallway ceiling set off the ear-splitting smoke detector for a good two minutes before it became saturated enough to just quit working. I went up and pounded on the neighbor’s door again and still no answer.

The maintenance guy finally got there and he also pounded on their door before going in with his key. When he got in their apartment, they came out of their bedroom because they thought “he was a robber.” There was a ton of water in their apartment so he went up to the third floor to make sure that there wasn’t a leak up there, and there wasn’t.

The maintenance guy got their water shut off and assessed that it came from their toilet. As in, someone flushed, walked away, and then didn’t think it was weird that the water just kept running or didn’t hear it. He retrieved an ancient wet-vac and sucked up most of the water in their place and then in ours (including our kitchen where the water ran under the bathroom cabinets, under the wall, then under the kitchen cabinets), and set up a floor-drying blower. Awhile after he left I found that water even got into the closet where the stacked washer/dryer is and there was a puddle of water in the dryer drum.

So far we haven’t found any of our stuff got irreparably damaged. My office chair got completely waterlogged. The ceiling in the hallway, dining area, and especially the second bedroom is ruined. The hallway carpet, and the carpet by my desk was waterlogged.

We’ve been cleaning it up and dealing with it as best as possible because the office isn’t open until Monday due to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Once we have a chance to chat with the apartment management I’ll post more details.

Update Dec 2: Monday (Nov 30), the apt management, owner, and the head maintenance guy came to look at the damage. Their assessment is that the ceiling has to be gutted and repaired. This means we have to move out, since there is no way for them to do this while we are living there due to the extent of the damage.

Tuesday (Dec 1) I spoke with the complex property manager. She offered to transfer us into a comparable unit in another building. However, when asked what we are supposed to do for help in moving (ie, turn on/turn off fees for utilities, and physical labor/help moving our furniture and belongings) she indicated that our renter’s insurance should cover that and to call our insurance company.

I called our insurance agent (State Farm) and spoke to two different office staff members. The gist of the conversation was that our insurance does not cover moving costs for this kind of situation, and that the apartment complex should be helping us with it.

I have a sinking feeling that we are going to be left holding the bag on moving our stuff, when none of this situation was even remotely caused by us (in fact, we probably saved the complex from having to gut and redo the entire apartment).

Update Dec 3: Ok, so my sinking feeling was wrong. We’re getting a $400 credit on Jan’s rent to compensate the cost of hiring a moving company and our inconvenience. We signed the lease for the unit we are transferring to today, and got keys so we can start moving our things. The unit we are moving to has newer appliances but older cabinets, and rent for that unit is $20/month cheaper than the one we are moving out of. We also have the bonus of no-one living in the unit above us for at least a couple of months.

Oh yeah. The kicker about this whole situation from the apartment complex’s point of view is that they had just completely renovated the unit we were in prior to us moving into it in Feb. As in, dropped the ceiling (at least in the kitchen) and the cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen were all brand new. They’re going to have to re-renovate it now.

I visited a few places on Tuesday, found two I really liked, and decided on Chateau Village today. Free Washer/Dryer in unit, free carport, and February free (so we can move anytime) pretty much sealed the deal for me. The bedrooms are a little smaller than what I saw at the other place I really liked (Glen Oaks East), but I think it will suit our needs fine. Eventually we hope to have a house, anyway.

We could be moving stuff as early as next weekend, provided our application is accepted. Rent will be a little more expensive than what we are paying now, (~$650/mo) but the W/D in unit makes up for that, since I won’t have to spend $100+ in quarters every month. The kitchen has more counterspace, which I am extremely happy about.

• Work
  • Moved to the Secteam in Sept.
  • Back on 2nd shift (4pm-12am) in Oct.
• Car stuff
  • Bart bought a 2004 Tahoe in Aug.
  • Its been in 3 times for repairs. Over $1600 spent before 2 payments were made.
  • Tahoe now has pretty white letters on the side expressing our unhappiness. [pics forthcoming]
  • Contour is still running like a champ.
  • Bonneville had to have the upper and lower intake manifolds done AGAIN, to the tune of $1200.
  • Both Bonneville and Tahoe have aftermarket remote start/car alarms.
  • Bonneville has back windows darkly tinted.
• Other stuff
  • Still checking out apts in Grand Rapids, however moving to Marshall or staying in Lansing are now options as well
  • Apt building we are currently in had to have major sewer repairs a couple weeks ago