To the mattresses

So this has nothing to do with working out, I just have to vent about my apartment complex. PS - this is kind of long so you might want to grab a wine/coffee/coco or whatever your bev of choice may be.

So, last Saturday (12/3) as I was doing laundry, I noticed a funky smell.  I thought it was the cat box, but C said he just emptied it.  I figured Bert had just done what he does and moved on.  Sunday, we notice a lot of water in the basement.  Our water heater has leaked before, so we assumed that was it again and called it in.  We also called in that the tiles in our shower were coming off.  Turns out, it wasn't the water heater.  At the time, we assumed it was water getting behind the shower tiles and and making its sweet way down two floors all the way to the basement to form some lovely puddles.  Maintenance Man comes by on Tuesday to fix the problem.  We put our own fans on the puddles in the basement and MM call the job done.  Please note - he does nothing to sop up the water or dry our basement.  Wednesday, we still have some large puddles and we still notice an active drip so we call it in.  Turns out, it's not our shower, it's our neighbor's and it's not the tiles, it's a whole friggin pipe.  I come home Wednesday night and there's a whole in both bathrooms - floor level in the upstairs and in our poweder room ceiling on the main level.  By looking up the hole in pwder room, we can see the wood in between the walls is completely saurated, actively dripping, and there's some lovely white stuff starting to form - aka, mold.  To be honest, it looks like the middle logs of our wood pile after a ton of rain when they don't get the chance to dry. 

Thursday or Friday, they send out "contractors" to patch up our holes.  The ceiling looks ok, but the patch job in the upstairs bathroom is horrendous - there's a 1-2" gap between the bottom of the patch and the floor.  They also left both bathrooms an absolute mess and I stepped on a screw hidden under our shower mat when stepping out of the shower Friday morning.  So, I'm a little concerned at this point, because I know that, other than the fan c & I put out and pointed up in to the ceiling, they haven't done a darn thing to dry things out other than fix the leak.  If they patch it up completely, shutting out any air circulation to aid in drying, I have a very strong hunch that mold will form.  C has mold allergies, our neighbor's toddler has repiratory issues, & our neighbor is pregnant.  Mold would be very bad indeed.  I've been reassured over and over that they sprayed bleach on the area, but according to the mold remediation company I contacted, that's not going to cut it - especially if they wall up the area before it's dry.  I speak with the neighbors to see if they're walling up their side, and, lo and behold, my fears are well founded because they're going to town patching things up with nary a fan in sight.  Neighbor tells me they've contacted a family lawyer, so C & I may have to jump on that wagon if it comes down to it. 

They don't do anything over the weekend, but, we figure, it's the weekend - let's see what happens Monday.  Monday comes and goes without anyone coming to clean up their mess in the bathrooms, or in the basement.  The damaged dry wall has also not been replaced.  BTW - you can't clean mold out of dry wall; it's too porous.  The whole piece needs to be replaced.  I call the office today, speak with the office manager and just avoid the front office monkeys all together, and offer my complaints.  For some reason, I'm still trying to be nice.  I tell her I want a professional mold remediation company to come out and do an air quality assessment.  If that comes back negative, I will shut up and everything will go away once they clean up their messes (and our water heater- turns out the fucker is leaking).  She lets me know she has to get it approved with the VP.  I let her know that's fine and give her both my work and my cell numbers so she can call me with updates on when/how they're going to go about fixing everything.  I also tell her I need to be present when this air test is going on, because I honestly don't trust them to hire an actual professional.  For all I know, they'll get some cheapo detector, hand it to Maintenance Man, and have him do it.  I don't care if he's been certified - he's not a pro.  I'm certified in CPR and First Aid, but does that mean I'm an EMT?  No!  I didn't say that because I was still trying to be nice, but I wish I had.  At the very end of the convo, I tell her that I will contact the VP if necessary, and her parting shot is this "Let me do my job first and we'll go from there".  She's lucky that was the end of the conversation because if she'd said that earlier and if I'd had time to process that, oooooh nelly would she have been in for it!  If she'd do her job, I wouldn't be on the phone with her asking her to!  We wouldn't need to be thinking about taking legal action, we wouldn't be wanting to call coporate, & I wouldn't be looking for new apartments if she'd been doing her job!  Let her do her job indeed.... BLERGH!  That's what I have to day about that!

This brings us up to date on our current saga.  Tune in tomorrow for our next episode.  If she doesn't call me back today, she'll be getting daily calls and they will be less and less friendly.

PS, did I mention that the first day this started, I found out I had a large crack in my radiator as well?  It was a wonderful week, let me tell you!