This is a post full of complaints. If you don't want to hear me whine, don't read it. "Pirates, ye be warned."
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After waking up around 4:15 this morning, due to something crawling on my face, my brain just started going. It has been ridiculously HOT this last week - I'm talking dripping sweat while just sitting still. The one beautiful thing about our apartment is the gorgeous plumeria trees on the East and South of our house... which got butchered to near stumps last week. Last night, as Dave pointed out the lush foilage surrounding every other unit minus ours, it occurred to me that maybe our axed arbors are the reason it's been so bloomin' hot - no more shade! Our unit is now fully exposed to the blast of the sun, 24-7. And since the breeze seems to come from the West - the side on which our neighboring unit is connected... erego we have a paper-thin wall instead of windows - it's been hot as hades.
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Then my mind really started running. We forked out a chunk of cash to have some rewiring done, because we couldn't hook up our dryer. After finally being convinced to shave that amount off our rent for the month, our landlord told us to keep it quiet, because "Everyone else had to pay for it themselves." Um, no. If Bob and Betty pay to have it done, then they move out and Joe and Judy move in, do Joe and Judy pay for it again? I don't think so.
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My next and biggest qualm is our floors. They're hideous, and in a couple spots, holes are "patched" with tape. The cheap tiles were so badly laid in the bathroom, there were huge gaps between them, where water was constantly getting in. Dave spent money and time on laying new tiles, and said that it was pretty ugly when he pulled up the old ones. But the ugly floors wouldn't bother me so much if we weren't practically the ONLY UNIT whose floors haven't been replaced. (I haven't toured everyone else's place, but as far as I know, we're the only one that hasn't been updated.)
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When Dave mentioned updating our flooring to our landlord last month, he came by to assure us there was nothing wrong with our floors, and the deal he made with everyone else was that, if they wanted to replace them, they'd have to pay half... because, like he assessed, nothing was wrong with them. I don't have the D.A.'s record on this, but I'm pretty sure I remember our friends saying that he just came in and updated their floors... out of the blue... at no cost to them. Uh, were we just lied to? And again, that Bob and Betty thing - what about Joe and Judy who move in after they pay for these updates?
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No microwave, no washer or dryer, no dryer hook up, no ceiling fans, a ridiculously awkward parking space, crappy floors, no shade, a "you've-got-to-be-kidding-me" paint job when we moved in, our oven heats up 100 degrees hotter than the knob says, one of the burners doesn't work on the stove... I'm not talking about granite for our two square feet of counterspace, or fake hardwood for our entire apartment that can fit in my parents' living room. (I honestly like the size of our apartment, really. I'm just saying...)
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I understand that these apartments are a great, low price. They're $450 less than we paid at our last place. I am so thankful for that. But I have a big problem with us paying the same rent as everyone else and getting short-handed, and possibly lied to by a member of our ward. I'm seriously wondering if he has something against us... no joke. And I'm wondering what to do about it, if there's anything I can do. There's no contract, so he's not legally bound to do anything. But if my suspicion's right, and there is a bias, what can we do? Am I just supposed to live with this? (Please say no, because this really sucks.) If he's unfair to us, should somebody else say something? Would somebody else say something? Help!
