Last Post

Barring any other major developments, this will probably be my last post on the 800 building. Amazingly enough, this weekend (the 10th of December), I received my deposit. I moved out in July.

It was even more impressive for my girlfriend; she moved out in April, and got her check on the same cold December day. I suppose the final point of the story is that not everyone at the building is bad, or a problem. They just have, how shall I say, "administrative issues" in the office.

I was seriously considering filing a lien against the building for my deposit though, if only for the comedic value. Who in their right mind files a lien against a twenty million dollar building over a $250 deposit? Alas, I won't have the chance now.

You don't know what you've got...

... 'til it's gone. In the case of the 800 building, a more appropriate version would be "you don't know how bad you had it until you leave". Even having lived in a lot of other places, it still surprises me just how many niggling irritations I had to deal with that I never noticed before:

- the shower has water pressure

- I can actually adjust the shower water temperature, and have yet to be frozen out or overheated

- the front door has a deadbolt, and it's impossible to lock your keys in the apartment

- there's a nearby tennis court I can safely practice kung fu forms in

- the workout room actually has working equipment in it

- there's never a line at the laundry machine

- I don't have to take an elevator to get to the laundry room

- I don't have to take an elevator to get to my car

- There are no drafts and I have central AC/heat

- it's quieter. Much, much quieter.

- basically instant freeway access to I-71

- no bums asking for change

It's not all guns and roses though:

- at the new building, I have to walk half a block to take out the trash

- my girlfriend is a block away, instead of two flights of stairs

- the kroger is not within walking distance

Nevertheless, I'm really glad I moved.

Deposits

It's been over two months since my girlfriend moved out, and she has yet to receive her deposit back. Apparently it was 'in the mail' some time last week. Perhaps the postal service here is unusually slow, after all we're talking about at least three miles between the two apartment buildings. Or perhaps there is a more mundane reason.

YMMV.

Moving

I'm moving out next month, across town to a place that actually has a pool, pool table, and weight room. Yes, it costs more for less space; but not tremendously more, and not tremendously less space. My girlfriend already lives in a different apartment at the complex, and so far things seem to be more than fine.

In some ways I'll miss this building, like I've missed most of the places I've set up camp at for an extended period. All things considered, it's been pretty good to me - I've not had any major explosions or issues that really screwed things up. There have been plenty of inconveniences though, and I don't look forward to another chilly winter here with heaters that aren't up to spec.

On the plus side, the smaller location means I get a head start on reducing my footprint. I gotta start throwing out useless crap now, which means there will be less to deal with for the big move next year.

Flooding

As if on cue, the pipes several floors up have exploded once again. My girlfriend's apartment was waterlogged this morning, so she came down and cooked breakfast on my stove. She moves out next week.

Temperature Regulation

I've always dimly registered that it was a problem, but I'm starting to come fully to terms with just how big a deal it is to have proper temperature regulation in an apartment. Every spring and fall, when the temperature falls and rises chaotically, there's a few months where my sleep suffers. These apartments have only wall mounted units (and we're not supposed to run the electric heat if we can avoid it), so there's not a huge amount of temperature regulation available.

Most of the other places I've lived had solid central heat/cooling. I'm starting to long for that again.

Blackout

We had another set of power failures last night due to the cold weather. The building isn't very well insulated, and on really cold/windy nights the hot water heat simply can't keep up. To keep from freezing, people turn on the electric heaters in the window A/C units.

The problem is that the building was not wired for electric heat. So everyone turns on their A/C heaters, the transformer in the hallway overheats, and the breaker for the floor trips. After half an hour or so, the transformer has cooled off and they can reset the breaker.

This really wouldn't bother me a whole lot but for two things: 1) Rebooting my computers sucks - a lot. And 2) I never use the electric heat because I actually took the time to insulate my apartment, so I'm being unfairly penalized by those who do.

Really though, what needs to happen is to redo all the windows and A/C unit junctions so they don't leak cold air. Ideally, I'd like:

- all double pane windows
- fix the seals on the sliding doors (and fix the sliding doors)
- change the window separators from solid, thermally conductive aluminum to something that at least stands a chance of being insulated
- reseal and/or rework the A/C units so that they don't bleed cold air into the apartment

Honestly though, they probably won't bother even fixing up these apartments, as we're on the lower floors and there's less money involved. Basically, the rabble live down here where I live, and I gather there's not much incentive for them to improve things.