reasons to love apartment living

My apartment is one of about 5 in a house. 

When I was young, I always thought that living in an apartment would mean there were always people to chat with as you passed your neighbors coming in and out of your place, probably there would be that one kooky neighbor who always came over, and the landlord would often be around fixing little things or generally maintaining the property. 

I blame TV and movies for this.

In my building now, I couldn't pick most of my neighbors out of a lineup.  In fact, I don't think I have ever actually seen a person enter or exit the apartment across from mine.  Sometimes the door is ajar, and someone listens to music with a really repetitive baseline on weekends, and they do a lot of Spanish karaoke at 1am, but they could just be vampires who like Spanish music.  If that were the case, it would definitely make them the coolest neighbors I have.

The other apartment on my floor (the door is on my floor, the apartment is actually on the floor above) has an indeterminate number of people living there, but one of them is a small child who they bring in and out around 11:00pm and who is always crying.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that every time the child comes in or goes out it is throwing a tantrum of some kind.   When the child is not being dragged in and out screaming, it is running back and forth across the floor (my ceiling) at about 7:00am on the weekends, wearing combat boots or something close.  


The downstairs neighbors who share the main entrance are extremely unfriendly and they have a golden retriever who barks nonstop (pets are not actually allowed in my house) and the only contact I have had with them is when they first moved in and my shower leaked into their apartment and the guy came whining to me about it like I would be able to do anything for him.  I am still trying to determine if they're a married couple or brother and sister (they have the same last name, which I know from looking through the mail which all gets tossed on this little table in the front vestibule).  If they hear anyone on the stairs at the same time they are leaving their apartment, the door slams and the dog starts barking, and they wait there until whoever it is has passed.  If by some chance I do happen to pass one of them and give a little smile and nod, they give a look that says they'd prefer to punch me in the face rather than greet me, and they just keep walking.


The final neighbors actually live around the side of the house so I hardly ever see them, but at least I get a smile and a nod from the lady whenever we do happen to run into each other.

As for my landlord, they really only ever come out to the house when someone calls to tell them something is broken.  And sometimes not even then.  The dryer in the basement broke in April of 2007 and I'm still not sure it's fixed (I stopped going into our basement, it looks like a scene straight out of a horror movie and I know better than to willing walk into a space where someone is likely to come at me with a chainsaw).  It took over a week for me to get them out when my shower was leaking, which is when I really came to appreciate indoor plumbing (I had to use friends' showers, it was not fun).  It took over 24 hours to get an electrician in when my bedroom fan/light fixture fell out of the ceiling (which seemed like a fire hazard).  And after months and months of the lights not working properly in the public hallway, I finally called on Monday to ask them to fix it (yes, I probably should have called earlier, but I would argue that it's not unreasonable to expect someone to show up at least once in three months to check the place out).  

I will say that not only did they fix the lights, but they put in all new fixtures and a light sensor.  It's pretty great not fearing for my life when I come home at night because I can't see the stairs at all.

So I'm left to wonder, is it me?  Are other places more neighbor/landlord friendly?  Someday I'd like to live in one of those places.