I suppose it's time for an update.
We finally have new laundry machines. At least they are reliable, which is a plus.
There was some major snafu upstairs in the management side. We had a couple of staffing changes, and apparently no-one bothered to renew my lease. There was a paniced 'please renew' a few days ago; I compared the new lease against the old and helped them fix a bunch of the typos and missing sections in it.
They finally turned on the building heat, to discover that my girlfriend's apartment had a major pipe break in it (the building is hot water heated.) I've had three days of wet stinky carpet as a result, but it's finally starting to dry out now.
If it wasn't so cheap (I'm on grandfathered rent) and such a pain in the ass to move, I'd be living somewhere else. The only thing that keeps me here is inertia.
That's about it.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Laundry
The laundry room has sunk to new lows in terms of available machines. There's 9 washers, but only about four of them seem to be functional at any given time. Most of those are obviously damaged in some way.
In some ways it seems like we're making progress, but in others not so much.
In some ways it seems like we're making progress, but in others not so much.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Vacation
I've been out and away from blogging for a while, and a lot has happened in that time.
For starters, I had a meeting with the building manager shortly after my previous post. She's a nice lady, very personable and charming. I'm sure she's well trained in how to convey positive impressions, but even so, I got the feeling she's up to her ears in stupidity when it comes to building maintenance.
She actually had my laundry list of issues in one of those stand-up wire paper holders when I got there. It looked well used and had been highlighted and scribbled on extensively. We went over most of the stuff on it and she talked about the plans and progress on each.
The real problem though is that the building needs money to be renovated, but it needs renters for money, and needs renovation for renters. This is one place where I could see raw capital investment making a big difference.
Since then, various other problems have arisen with the building, but other issues have largely been fixed:
- the heat finally appears to be under control. Except for the coldest days, the heaters are finally cranking out enough heat to keep my apartment warm, though this is with massive cold barriers still in place.
- I had a massive kitchen sink drain and overflow issue, where the pipes draining my kitchen got completely fouled up for a couple of days. I didn't lose anything important, but the cleanup sucked. The maintenance staff did a good job, but even they were near wits end with it. I know how bad plumbing can be; I don't envy what they had to go through to clear the system.
- the elevators have been working properly for the last two weeks. The elevator company replaced the cabling for one of them, but there's still some mechanical weirdness that crops up from time to time. My girlfriend got stuck in one for 20 minutes until maintenance could drop down from above and manually force the door open.
- the laundry room is still hosed up, with a couple of washers having been dead for the last month or longer. The laundry room flooding issue appears to have been resolved for the moment.
There's still a long uphill battle ahead, but there seems to be forward progress. The worst part of it is going to be regaining the faith of the inhabitants; quite frankly, attitudes about the building are not positive.
I think the worst part for me is that I don't see an easy way out of it for the building owners - they're going to have to spend money, and that's all there is to it. I'd personally recommend that they begin renovating one empty apartment per month on the upper floors. Install double pane glass and rework the outer walls, and redo the kitchen and bathroom.
Granted, it will be expensive, but this adds one very rentable apartment per month. These upgraded apartments will also have about half the heating bill of the others. The only problem with this is that I'd guess the payback time to be 2-3 years if you could keep the apartment full; in short, it requires forward investment. There's also the risk that you couldn't keep the apartment full due to things like hot water failures.
I guess we'll have to see.
For starters, I had a meeting with the building manager shortly after my previous post. She's a nice lady, very personable and charming. I'm sure she's well trained in how to convey positive impressions, but even so, I got the feeling she's up to her ears in stupidity when it comes to building maintenance.
She actually had my laundry list of issues in one of those stand-up wire paper holders when I got there. It looked well used and had been highlighted and scribbled on extensively. We went over most of the stuff on it and she talked about the plans and progress on each.
The real problem though is that the building needs money to be renovated, but it needs renters for money, and needs renovation for renters. This is one place where I could see raw capital investment making a big difference.
Since then, various other problems have arisen with the building, but other issues have largely been fixed:
- the heat finally appears to be under control. Except for the coldest days, the heaters are finally cranking out enough heat to keep my apartment warm, though this is with massive cold barriers still in place.
- I had a massive kitchen sink drain and overflow issue, where the pipes draining my kitchen got completely fouled up for a couple of days. I didn't lose anything important, but the cleanup sucked. The maintenance staff did a good job, but even they were near wits end with it. I know how bad plumbing can be; I don't envy what they had to go through to clear the system.
- the elevators have been working properly for the last two weeks. The elevator company replaced the cabling for one of them, but there's still some mechanical weirdness that crops up from time to time. My girlfriend got stuck in one for 20 minutes until maintenance could drop down from above and manually force the door open.
- the laundry room is still hosed up, with a couple of washers having been dead for the last month or longer. The laundry room flooding issue appears to have been resolved for the moment.
There's still a long uphill battle ahead, but there seems to be forward progress. The worst part of it is going to be regaining the faith of the inhabitants; quite frankly, attitudes about the building are not positive.
I think the worst part for me is that I don't see an easy way out of it for the building owners - they're going to have to spend money, and that's all there is to it. I'd personally recommend that they begin renovating one empty apartment per month on the upper floors. Install double pane glass and rework the outer walls, and redo the kitchen and bathroom.
Granted, it will be expensive, but this adds one very rentable apartment per month. These upgraded apartments will also have about half the heating bill of the others. The only problem with this is that I'd guess the payback time to be 2-3 years if you could keep the apartment full; in short, it requires forward investment. There's also the risk that you couldn't keep the apartment full due to things like hot water failures.
I guess we'll have to see.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Plumbing Redux
Today has not been a good plumbing day. I've narrowly averted disastrous overflows several times using either the bucket or garbage disposal method; there's no point in calling the maintenance guy, because it would just take him away from fixing the actual problem, and he'd just do the same thing I'd do anyway. I consider it my small sacrifice to help out.
I was not so lucky a few minutes ago, and I ended up with probably a gallon or so of stinky sludge water on pretty much everything in the kitchen. I've got it mostly mopped up and taken care of for the moment, but I'm pretty sick of it. So, being the MacGyver that I am, I have a temporary workaround.
I put the plug in the drain, stuck a tin can on top of it, and put a weight-lifting weight on top of it. The hole diameter is about 3 inches, and the weight is about 12.5 pounds, making for about 1.8 psi rejection, or about four feet of water column. This isn't a huge amount, but it should stop incidental seepage and should at least limit the impact when a surge hits.
I really hope this shit gets fixed soon.
I was not so lucky a few minutes ago, and I ended up with probably a gallon or so of stinky sludge water on pretty much everything in the kitchen. I've got it mostly mopped up and taken care of for the moment, but I'm pretty sick of it. So, being the MacGyver that I am, I have a temporary workaround.
I put the plug in the drain, stuck a tin can on top of it, and put a weight-lifting weight on top of it. The hole diameter is about 3 inches, and the weight is about 12.5 pounds, making for about 1.8 psi rejection, or about four feet of water column. This isn't a huge amount, but it should stop incidental seepage and should at least limit the impact when a surge hits.
I really hope this shit gets fixed soon.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Plumbing
Maintenance spent the majority of the afternoon trying to snake out the plumbing that leads to my kitchen sink drain. Apparently things are pretty bad; it really has been all afternoon, and they only started making progress a few minutes ago. For a while, I was concerned that it might overflow the boundaries of the sink; I had the trash can ready to start bailing to the bathroom if necessary.
On the downside, my sink is full of sludge that really does not smell very good.
On the plus side, this will hopefully clear up the weirdness with the sink occasionally gurgling itself full of foam for no apparent obvious good reason.
On the downside, my sink is full of sludge that really does not smell very good.
On the plus side, this will hopefully clear up the weirdness with the sink occasionally gurgling itself full of foam for no apparent obvious good reason.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Power Failure
Louisville recently got hit by a major snowstorm (major for here, a 'light dusting' for most other places I've lived) and the temperature dropped substantially. As the temperature dropped, people got cold - so they turned on the electric heat.
As a result, the power went out last night. The hallway lights were still on; but the apartments in multiple floors were out. Too many electric heaters were on, and the mainline breaker downstairs tripped. After about an hour, the power came back on.
Half an hour later, it went out again.
An hour later, it came back on. Half an hour later, ... you probably get the idea at this point.
Some time around midnight, it came on for good, though what they had to do to manage it is unclear to me.
This afternoon, maintenance was going around to each apartment to clean the filters in the hot water radiator headers. The plan is to improve the hot water heat, so that there's less load on the electric heaters. So far, it seems to be working, in that my apartment is a good 2-3 degrees warmer than it used to be.
None of this takes into account that the patio door is drafty as hell, and sheets of ice cold air slough off the windows to practically cover the floor in a layer of ice. While improving the heaters will help, the core problem of the windows being insufficient remains unaddressed.
As a result, the power went out last night. The hallway lights were still on; but the apartments in multiple floors were out. Too many electric heaters were on, and the mainline breaker downstairs tripped. After about an hour, the power came back on.
Half an hour later, it went out again.
An hour later, it came back on. Half an hour later, ... you probably get the idea at this point.
Some time around midnight, it came on for good, though what they had to do to manage it is unclear to me.
This afternoon, maintenance was going around to each apartment to clean the filters in the hot water radiator headers. The plan is to improve the hot water heat, so that there's less load on the electric heaters. So far, it seems to be working, in that my apartment is a good 2-3 degrees warmer than it used to be.
None of this takes into account that the patio door is drafty as hell, and sheets of ice cold air slough off the windows to practically cover the floor in a layer of ice. While improving the heaters will help, the core problem of the windows being insufficient remains unaddressed.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Louisville New Year
It is freezing in here. A steady stream of cold flows from the windows down the inside of the blinds, and coats the floor in a two foot thick layer of 40 degree air. The heater points upward, and toward the ceiling the temperature is a balmy 70 or so. It's not even windy out; it's simply colder than the operating capacity of the building.
Ironically, this is a better situation than if I turn on the overhead fan. Within an hour, the fan would have the temperature equalized pretty much floor to ceiling; yet at that point the entire place would be below 60 degrees. At least as things are now, you don't freeze when you're standing, and my bed is about four feet off the ground so I sleep well. If you wear thermal underwear on your lower half, it helps tremendously.
On the plus side, I can do most of my work from the bedroom, and the bedroom is buttoned up a lot tighter than the living room. It has a lot less glass, and the curtains I have are very solid and drag the floor. Coupled with a barrier of storage boxes and furniture to keep the cold air overflow contained, I can actually keep the bedroom at a reasonable temperature. If I keep the door closed.
Ironically, this is a better situation than if I turn on the overhead fan. Within an hour, the fan would have the temperature equalized pretty much floor to ceiling; yet at that point the entire place would be below 60 degrees. At least as things are now, you don't freeze when you're standing, and my bed is about four feet off the ground so I sleep well. If you wear thermal underwear on your lower half, it helps tremendously.
On the plus side, I can do most of my work from the bedroom, and the bedroom is buttoned up a lot tighter than the living room. It has a lot less glass, and the curtains I have are very solid and drag the floor. Coupled with a barrier of storage boxes and furniture to keep the cold air overflow contained, I can actually keep the bedroom at a reasonable temperature. If I keep the door closed.
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