Nice(ish) while it lasted.

Say you're a landlord and someone needs repairs done in their home, what do you do?
You fix it.
OR, if you're the Longmont Housing Authority, you tell them they have to get out.

But I'll back up a bit. Last Tuesday or Wednesday, I think it was.

They've patched the roof a couple times I believe. I'm not sure they're very good at it but since I haven't been up there I don't know. Someone came to give an estimate for the ceiling repair. We took down the shower curtain so they wouldn't have to. We're thoughtful like that. We didn't put it back up because someone else was coming the next day to give another bid.

Then comes 3am.

Jason: Do you hear that?
Me: Yes...
Jason: What is it??
Me: I think it's the shower.
Jason: *up and about* It's not the shower!!
(The rest I'll not share as it's not very suitable for a family audience.)

We hadn't put back any of the buckets because nothing had been dripping. We didn't put back up the curtain because we were just going to have to take it down again.

Jason did, however, start working on one of his paintings that somehow ended up directly under the dripping water.

Delightful. The subject of the moist painting? The key to hell. It was very fitting to the rest of the week as it turned out.

 

This has all led to us being told that we'll have to leave if code enforcement determines that our unit is uninhabitable. They're also saying that we'd have to "vacate" in June when the roof is being replaced. This was never mentioned before.
I've asked 3 times what their understanding of our lease terms are but we get no reply.
I guess the Housing Authority doesn't put much stock in signing a lease.
"I know [2 staff members here] explained that we wouldn't likely fulfill the year term on your lease because of the planned rehab." Um...nope. We signed a lease. They signed a lease. There was no mention of "oh by the way, this is completely irrelevant." We wouldn't have signed it if that was the case.

Yesterday when it was snowy and rainy I assumed we'd have a leak. We didn't. Pleasant surprise. We're hoping maybe the patch has settled. In the meantime they're offering us a unit we can't actually fit in so we'll see what they decide for us since apparently we don't matter in the slightest.

I've asked what exactly is going to happen to the rest of the people living here while they "rehab" the building but I have received no answer. We're in a shit spot but at least we're able to function a lot better than 99% of the people here. They can't just be told to "vacate" their homes.

“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” Prov 29:7

  

The love.

Today Ruby said that Jason and I reminded her of her daughter and son-in-law.
Why? "Because when you look at each other you can see the love & friendship between you."
And then she went to church. Of course. :)

Just a few minutes ago the stereo started playing for no particular reason. Interesting. 

Water water...nowhere.

I thankfully just got OUT of the shower but now...the water won't turn on in our apartment. So that's new. It's too bad the ceiling isn't overflowing anymore. Just kidding. That also sucks.
Nobody needs water on a Saturday morning, right? Sigh. I'll just brush my teeth in the parking lot or something.
If it was planned, a little notice would have been nice. But who knows what's going on.

The slamming of everything continues under my feet though. Old reliable. 

The way to a neighbor's heart

Despite the crap parts of the day, things turned out alright on this Friday the 13th. (Side note: We live close enough to the tire place to walk home. Convenient, eh?)
Jason made Eggplant Parmesan tonight. He doesn't cook often, but when he does it always turns out pretty wonderful. We found this bottle of wine when he moved in and we've been saving it for something special, so today was as good as any. It was good too!

A friend came over and had dinner with us but we still had more than enough to share so Jason took some down to our helpful neighbor Ruby. She had a guest, Paula (who lives right across from us), so he took some for her too.
A little while later Ruby was at our door with a thank you note from her and Paula, and a thank you plant. And of course....a "god bless you." She said nobody had done anything so nice for her since she's lived here. She's a peach. I suspect she does a lot more for people than she gets in return so I'm glad she enjoyed her food.

Living the Safe Life

After much bitching and phone calls (Jason's doing, not mine) someone finally came to check the electrical stuff today to make sure it's not going to burn the place down. What with all the holes in the ceiling exposing the moldy insulation and falling ceiling tiles, it was worth a look.
In our unit, the hole in the ceiling is near a hanging light. They said it was ok. No water mixing with the electricity.
I don't know what the verdict was with the hallway. Things aren't falling out of the ceiling as much now that things have dried up. Out of sight, out of mind, no doubt.
Pretty though, huh?

In other news, Sad Santa has gotten more vocal as of late. He tends to yell randomly and at nobody. Jason's impression of it sounds very much like the Tazmanian Devil.

He's less Santa-like lately because he's not been wearing his red coat as often. I can't understand a single word he says when I do hear him talk. The guy he was talking to at the elevator today said he was asking him for money to buy him a soda, which apparently he does for him a lot.  

There seems to be many disgruntled folks around here. Sometimes we can hear them talking out in the back where people go to smoke. A few people were discussing the lack of security in our secured building.
When we were moving in the LAST of our stuff a few days ago a couple guys waited by the door and followed us in. That's what people do when they want in. Doesn't take a lot of effort. Some will wait like they're waiting for someone but some will just stand there looking like they're waiting to be let in. We were carrying in the top of the god damn heavy glass table and the tall guy says "where's that goin??" I want to say "none of your business creeper!" But I did not. They gazed at us weirdly as we got in to the elevator and thankfully did not get in with us. Thanks huge table for taking up room. I'd prefer to have fewer people following us to our apartment when they are not supposed to be here. It would likely be a more secure building if it wasn't a "secure building."
They lock the bathroom and laundry room doors at night here because they had issues previously with people letting folks in at night to sleep in the rooms that were left open.
I don't mind so much if there are random people hanging out in the lobby but when people are walking the halls for no reason then I don't care for it. We have enough people coming and going for nefarious purposes without extras. If I wanted to start doing meth, I think this could be a good place to start looking.

There's also this...out in front of the building. Soo is there just a stop in the parking lot? Drive thru? I don't know. We live IN a hotel basically, why isn't this happening inside? Mystery.

Hmm...

It's a common wonderment around here to think "Hmm, I wonder if that person sells drugs out of here." or "Hmm...I wonder how many or what kind of drugs that person is on." or "Hmm...I wonder if that girl is of legal age." 

I don't know what that means!

When my mom used to pound on the floor it meant either turn down the TV/music/loud thing OR comes upstairs to eat/reach something on a high shelf.
When the dude (I assume) downstairs pounds on his ceiling, our living room floor, I don't know what it means.
The music isn't excessively loud and nobody is even moving.
So...piss off grumpy 2nd floor dweller.Get yourself together. Please.

Freaking quarters

I had 6 quarters. To wash and dry a load of laundry, I need 8.
Jason found 4 and gave them to me. I can't find them so I suspect he picked them back up.
So what to do? Already put the laundry in the washer. Can't leave it in there because most certainly it will be the time every clown in this place decides to do laundry.
Well I have $2. That's about it. I can go buy 2 sodas for 75 cents, save them for later, and I'll get 2 quarters back in change. I guess it'll work.
Funny thing though. When you push the button for A&W Rootbeer, you get Grape Crush. When you push the mystery button (because now you're just feeling adventurous) you get nothing but a thunk. But I did get my quarter. Just not the other 75 cents I should have gotten back because it gave me nothing.
This is what a $1.50 can of Grape Crush look like. The laundry is in the dryer.

Secondary story. 

OMG I thought the ceiling was gonna cave in! The lamp hanging from the ceiling FREAKED OUT COMPLETELY. Again. Jesus. 

Also, found my fiance. He's lost and keeps hanging up on me. Today has been neat. 

Faithful & gas masks

I can't believe I almost forgot Faithful! He seems to be our cleaning guy. He's a tiny older Asian man; I don't think he's got any teeth left. He looks Tibetan or something but that's purely a guess. So when he smiles, which is every second of the day, his little cheeks scrunch up and his eyes go all smiley. We saw him in the lobby the other day and Jason asked him if he ever gets a day off. He said that Sunday is his day off.
Jason introduced us and the the little guys says "I call myself Faithful." I don't know if he has a name that's too hard to say or if that's just what he wants to be called. Jason said "You always seem so happy!" Faithful said "This is what I want to do!"
He sweeps and mops and takes care of this fun house and that's what he wants to do. No wonder he's always so happy.


The next day....
We were getting some more loads of stuff from storage. Because it's never ending. (Almost done though.)
There was a big truck outside and some folks in dark clothes at the end of our hall with one of the night managers. I didn't really put the two together until I saw 2 large men come out the front wearing vests with POLICE on the front. They were also wearing gas masks.
They didn't seem to be, like, in a rush or terribly concerned about anything so....I guess that's fine?
When Jason saw them on our floor he asked if everything was ok and they said everything was good. But we didn't get any additional info. They later came back up with a big box of equipment or something.
I feel like if there was a meth lab or a body or something then there would be more people around than the two police with an unmarked truck. I know nothing else. But I did meet the other manager that I hadn't met yet. Jason wasn't with me so I told her he was my fiance and describing him went as such: My fiance's name is Jason. He's got tattoos on his face....well he's ONE of the guys with tattoos on his face....he's the NEWEST guy with tattoos on his face.
"Ooh, ok. The newest guy."
He's not the only one now. But he's the prettiest.

Today is also our 2 week move-iversary. It hasn't been dull. 

New addition to the cast of characters!

Big guy, round belly, white beard, little red hat. He will now be called Smee.
He drinks vodka and calls Jason "Boss." Pretty awesome.
His mother just passed away so best wishes to him.

Points of interest.

As we walked in the lobby there was a woman standing there in her bathrobe.
Lady to Jason: Hey, do you know where I can get a tongue ring around town?
Jason: Um....not really.
Lady: Ok, well I just pierced my tongue with a paperclip so....I need something.
Me: Oh my god!
Jason: ........

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The downstairs neighbors were either pounding on the ceiling or throwing things at the ceiling. It's not uncommon for them. (If you read the previous posts, they were the ones having a violent screaming match.) So we asked a person who knows more people around here if it was worth going down and talking to them or if it should be avoided. This person said there was a family down there so we'd be outnumbered and that he didn't recommend talking to them. He was more than happy to share his opinion about the place. They have new procedures here that they didn't have before and apparently it's not been for the better. So, basically, if there's really an issue we should just call the cops and not bother dealing with the staff here because they can't deal with it anyway. That's what we needed to know!

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Our closet generally smells of stale smoke because the people downstairs smoke in their apartment, which they're not supposed to do. I put an air freshener in there so if we smell like fruit then that'll be why.

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Someone wears bells. I know it's the same person every time they walk by because I can hear them jingling from the hall. Not sure who it is but it reminds me of my backpack bell from high school.

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On a positive note, we had our first real guest! An old friend of Jason's found him online and came over and hang out. Yay!

That's...better?

At least it seems to have stopped dripping. The insulation is all wet but they don't want to fix it properly, they'll just wait for it to dry and cover it up. They allowed us to at least cover it up though. We'll be able to tell if it starts dripping again.

We thought maybe we'd moved on from these things but that's not quite the case. Oh well. They're trying to fix it when there are less blizzard-like conditions on the roof. They continue to joke and imply that they can't afford to fix it anyway. So that's interesting. 

Meanwhile....this is happening in my cube at work. Again.