Tag: #neighbors

Living in Apartments: Navigating Noise and Privacy

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Lately I’ve had some different living situations, they have mostly been apartments. What I have learned is that I appreciate a neighbor who knows and obeys the apartment guidelines. I like neighbors who remember they share a wall. They understand someone doesn’t want to hear any arguing or loud music after a certain hour. It would be nice to have a neighbor that you trust. If you are away, they will keep an eye out.

Apartment buildings with outside front doors – my preference.

Just over the past 5 years I have moved 4 times. My current apartment isn’t bad as far as noise is concerned this week. We live on the second floor and have neighbors on each side and above. My current upstairs neighbor is pretty quiet now that he’s all moved in. He moved in about 2 months ago and has been moving things around ever since. It’s finally gotten quiet this week. The people that lived there before were so loud, they had a dog and a cat. They were constantly up and around and I call them hard walkers because it was always so loud. We would wonder if they ever sat down because the stomping around was constant.

I live in apartments, so I expect a certain amount of noise. Still, I also remember I have neighbors below me and on each side. I don’t stomp, jump or run the apartment. I keep my t.v. down if I am up watching t.v early. My boyfriend and I don’t yell, we try to keep our voices at a normal level. I can hear my neighbors on each side. If I am in the room next to them, I can hear their conversations. They need to be loud for me to hear them. I personally just like to keep my stuff a little more private. I don’t mind keeping my quiet voice in place.

Apartment Buildings with inside front doors, no, thank you.

Before we moved back to the west coast, we lived in Ardmore, PA. The apartment building we lived in had no privacy! It was one of those buildings where you walk into a main entrance and all the doors are inside. As you walked through the hallway, you hear the people in each apartment. Their voices were audible as you passed by. You smell what they were cooking. The worst part of that apartment, though, was the bed’s location. It must have been right under the person above’s bathroom. Every time they urinated, we heard the sound of it going into the toilet. It was crazy.

I have come to the conclusion I would be happiest in an apartment community. This community should be respectful and trusting of each other. This environment helps the feeling of having your apartment be your castle.

Daily writing prompt
What makes a good neighbor?
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Apartment Life – The hillbillies

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My bedroom window overlooks one of the parking lots in our building and there is way more action there than if I am looking off of the lanai. The bummer is the window has glass slats and a screen so my view isn’t ideal for pictures and some of this stuff has to be seen to believe. I can see all the lanais of the people that live in the building next to mine from the bedroom window too. Most of the people are pretty mellow because they are old. The only thing that happens with them is the ambulance/fire department are here a few times a month.  In the building next door, ground floor and the closest to the street there are some people living who we call the hillbillies.  The apartment is the same size as ours and we live in studio/1 bedroom. So basically a large room divided by wood doors with a kitchen and bathroom attached. I always know the dad is coming home because his car is super squeaky,  It’s actually an SUV but it’s only 2 doors. The first time we saw all of them pile out of the car was funny, like 10 clowns coming out of a mini car. Their family consists of the dad and mom (she was gone for about 1 year,  she’s back now). Two older kids (a young man (his girlfriend) and a young lady) prob 19-20. Twin boys about 11, a daughter about 10 and the baby (she’s like 3 now). They all live in the apartment. I heard our landlord is letting them stay there till the dad saves enough money to move the family out. The older son doesn’t work, his girlfriend does and so does the older daughter. We are always so curious where they all sleep. The dad pulled up the other day in a Chrysler 300. He has to park it on the street so he’s feeding the meter for it. So now they have two cars, he keeps driving the squeaky car so maybe he is watching it for someone? The dad works construction and they all seem pretty happy. It’s very “family” over here and I like it.  I appreciate it, I miss mine.

The apartment they live in is the same size as ours and we live in studio/1 bedroom. So basically a large room divided by wood doors with a kitchen and bathroom attached. I always know the dad is coming home because his car is super squeaky,  It’s actually an SUV but it’s only 2 doors. The first time we saw all of them pile out of the car was funny, like 10 clowns coming out of a mini car. Their family consists of the dad and mom (she was gone for about 1 year,  she’s back now). Two older kids (a young man (his girlfriend) and a young lady) prob 19-20. Twin boys about 11, a daughter about 10 and the baby (she’s like 3 now). They all live in the apartment. I heard our landlord is letting them stay there till the dad saves enough money to move the family out. The older son doesn’t work, his girlfriend does and so does the older daughter. We are always so curious where they all sleep. The dad pulled up the other day in a Chrysler 300. He has to park it on the street so he’s feeding the meter for it. So now they have two cars, he keeps driving the squeaky car so maybe he is watching it for someone? The dad works construction here in town. He’ll come home and they will all pile into the car to go grocery shop together. I think it’s pretty cool to see how other people live.  It helps me accept and appreciate the differences.  The dad is always smiling and I never hear them yelling or fighting. That’s a lot more than I can say about other families I know who don’t even live together.

Apartment Life – keeps things interesting.

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I haven’t been losing any sleep lately from the paper lady. Only because the fan is on all night right by my head. The landlord put a note on her door that said she needs to park elsewhere (if she’s working) from 10pm-6am. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request. Apparently, she does since she isn’t following the rules. The real test will be Sunday, if that shit wakes us up again, it’s not going to be good.

There are 2 apartments on the top floor of the building, I live in one with my boyfriend, Dallas and this guy,  John,  lives across the way.  If I open my front door, I see his front door.  When we first moved in, our landlord was concerned we might not want the apartment because of John. We already knew John from around town. He rides his bike around yelling obscenities and talking to himself. He scares people. My landlord told us he is the only person on the island that will rent to him. Dallas heard (from one of the delivery drivers at work) that when John was young his dad lit him on fire. He has burns all over his body. We don’t think it’s strange that he’s mad at the world because he’s been given a shitty ass card in life. I say Hi every time I see him on the stairs, he never says anything back.  Once he came to the door and asked if we had any aspirin, I gave him some and figured he would say Hi after that but he didn’t. Sometimes he looks out the window and just talks really loud about strange things and it bothers the neighbors. Interestingly enough, we don’t hear him. I don’t know if it’s because he’s next door or what but I’m glad we don’t hear him.  Anyway, last week Dallas overheard some guy talking to another one of my neighbors, he was saying if he finds out who is dealing drugs to his kid,  he’s gonna kick their ass.  I know a few people in the building sell weed so we were curious who it was.  So today Dallas comes home and tells me he heard that John is selling his prescribed oxycontin. Apparently one of the kids who he sold to is not doing well at all and that’s why the guy who was talking to my neighbor is so angry.  WTH? How did this even happen?  I find it baffling because he is so scary and unapproachable. I try to remember how I was when I was young and do recall some shady ass people we would hang out with for drugs. I hope the guy’s kid recovers.

 

 

 

Apartment Life

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We moved into our apartment building 11/2015.  I love it here. It’s close to everything in town and it’s a very interesting community.  This was a last minute find, we were 30 minutes away from signing a lease in Honolulu.  I told our previous landlady, Jen we were on our way to sign the lease in Honolulu and she almost had a coronary.  She wanted us to stay in Kailua and so did we.  She had me hop in her minivan and we drove down the street to the building her mom lives in.  Jeff, the building owner was in and after Jen talked to him for a few minutes we had a place to live. Our place is small but we have a large lanai that looks over Kailua Marsh and the Ko’olau mountains. The rent is also $600 less than we were paying before and water is included. Jeff is a great guy and helps out a lot of people. Some of the people he rents to are people who have fallen on hard times and need some help to get them back on their feet. There are also some really old folks, it’s not unusual to see an ambulance. We also have a few people that are not supposed to be drinking.  All in all, we have a lot of interesting people who live here. We have given some of the people nicknames because we don’t know their real names. The apartments are small 1 bedroom places, some have lanais and the ones that don’t have a little more space inside. We get along well with everyone and Jeff tells us we are his “normal” tenants.

The apartments are small 1 bedroom places, some have lanais and the ones that don’t have a little more space inside. We get along well with everyone and Jeff tells us we are his “normal” tenants. We don’t complain, we are quiet and we pay our rent on time.

A couple weeks ago Jeff asked if I could move my parking space down one, closer to the street. Everyone who was parked moved their space over to leave an open spot because he needed to have a spot for handicap parking.  The wife of the guy on the bottom floor who was parked on the other side of the building moved her car into the handicap space. She uses a cane and she is a rather large lady, super jovial and friendly.

All was well until one morning last week.  Our bedroom overlooks the parking lot and on this particular morning, I was woken up about 3:15 am by rustling outside the window. We are on the 3rd floor so noise carries. I look out the window and see our friend, in her minivan putting newspapers into plastic bags. A few minutes later, ding, ding, ding from the car door because her seat belt isn’t on. I know she has a paper route. We used to see her on Saturday night (on the other side) getting the papers ready for the next day. The next morning, I have woken up again. Same rustling and the freaking car door ding.

So the next day I see my neighbor Steven, his apartment is on the ground floor, the nose of her car is facing his windows. He looked like shit and let me know he had been woken up every morning because she sits in her front seat and puts the papers in plastic bags and then takes off to do her route. He also told me he asked her if she could do the papers the night before or park somewhere else to put them in the plastic. He also told me (and Jeff confirmed) that they only reason she had to move her car is because the neighbor on the other side complained about the same thing.  He asked her if she could go back to doing the papers the night before. She didn’t. He ended up having to get a restraining order and the cops came out to serve it and that’s why she’s now parked on our side.  I am in shock because I can’t believe someone, who we thought was a nice person would be such an asshole. She has NO intent of moving her car in the morning and won’t do it the night before. Saturday the papers were in the car all day and Sunday morning at 3:15 am she is at it again.  She told Jeff she “doesn’t give a rat’s ass” if it bothers anyone.

I am not sure what we are going to do. We may have to do the restraining order too. It’s unbelievable to me that she is so disrespectful.  Her adult daughter and grandchild are living with her and her husband. Great job on being an example.  I am a food broker and I have given her and her family so much free food over the past year.  Now it just makes me angry so I try to avoid seeing these people and it sucks because her husband is so nice.

 

 

Illegal fireworks, I think not!

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This is the second year at our current apartment. Last year we* sort of saw the fireworks in Honolulu through the Ko’olau mountains. This year it was insane, they started early.  Loud ass booms that seriously made me scream and jump. My neighbors** were lighting them off in the parking lot next door. They had been selling fireworks out of the back of their white Bronco (which has tags that expired in 2015) so they had a ton of them. Our back window looks over the parking lot and we are on the third floor so I’m always checking out what’s going on out there.

Anyway, they started early and lit off a ton of fireworks.  I was sitting on our bed working and the smell of sulfur totally came up into our place. I seriously thought my clothes were going to smell. At midnight we went onto the lanai and watched a bunch go off and by 12:30am, it was quiet. I guess you can get a permit to light them even though they are illegal.

Today was uneventful. We went out to get coffee and all the food places were full of people. I live with my boyfriend in a beach town where tourists visit. Most of the year is busy but winter and summer especially. The town is growing and new stores are opening (and closing) often. I love living here because I feel comfortable being far away from the dog-eat-dog environment on the mainland. In our last place here we didn’t even lock our front door.  That’s not saying nothing happens here, theft is huge, especially cars (on an island!?) there are a ton of homless and mentally ill people roaming and living on the streets because there are no facilities for them. They shut them down and meanwhile (I read somewhere yesterday) welfare recipients here average $29 per hour and the state minimum wage just got raised to $9.25 per hour. It was $8.25!!!  I have never lived in a place where the state is so sloppily run before but I enjoy the weather and people are beyond friendly.

I am going to prepare for tomorrows work day so I start the new year off right. I’m glad I woke up today. I have a place to live, a positive bank account and food in my fridge. A lot more than some people have.

*When I say we I am referring to my live with boyfriend, Dallas.  We’ve been together about 9 years even though I am still married to someone else. We broke up way before I met Dallas and have both been lazy about the divorce.

**I have a bunch because I live in an apartment building. These particular neighbors we call the hillbillies because they have a dad, two adult children, a girlfriend and 4 kids living in a large studio. The mom used to live with them but she left about 6 months ago. My landlord  knows but he likes to help people and they are saving to move. They had the money but got robbed. That’s a whole ‘nother story.