Construction & Renovations

We've been dealing with construction in our building for a year or so now. 

It sucks.

I regret that last August we signing the lease for one more year. We enjoyed the first year though.

The apartments around us, and the penthouse above us has been renovated. We have new neighbors on either side of us, and the penthouse will one day be an Airbnb. Our hallway is done. But half of the apartments on our floor still need to be worked on. It's so noisy. The walls are solid concrete, but hollow and the sound echoes. The power saws, the sledge hammers, and everything else they use sounding over and over again just banging around in your head. I've learned to wear earplugs to sleep, but that doesn't always work, and I find them annoying.

We're third shift people. They work during the day and it's brutal. I can't wait to move out of here just to get sleep. Once the workers wake us, then I'm aware of the jets that fly over our apartment starting at 8AM. I can usually sleep through them. It's not like they takeoff and leave, they takeoff circle over the Atlantic ocean, come back and land, or do touch and go's, and then do it over and over again. For hours. But 90% of the time I'm okay with the planes. We knew where we were moving, and about the jet noise, we expected it.

Can't wait to move somewhere that has already been renovated, somewhere luxurious. Somewhere that is just clean. Somewhere without roaches. The building was infested with them for a few months, but thankfully the property manager had the bug company spray the whole building weekly. Normally they'd do a few floors a week. But they nipped that problem, for now. That manager is gone. So we will see. 

Then the construction dust, ugh my allergies have been a mess for many months. Too many months. I just got over four months of sinusitis and ETD. 

We have to change the heat & A/C filter every four weeks! The photo to the right is the difference between four weeks and a new filter. 

I'm counting the days, and watching for a place to open up where we want to live in the next town over. 

Has anyone else lived somewhere they wanted to run from? 

They took our furniture out of the clubhouse, and shortly after put brand new things in there, they spent a lot of money and time on that project. Then one of the investors decided they didn't like it, and they took all but one couch and two chairs out. It's been bare for almost year. 

The entrance to the main lobby was renovated, an investor didn't like it, they tore it down, and also knocked down an office while they were at it to make the area bigger. Then the ceiling sprung a leak and they had to redo that. I'm not sure why these things weren't thought through before the first hammer swung. 

Honestly, I'd just like a clean building. It can look old, but be clean instead of look dirty and half-assed. 

Oh, and the water situation. They shut it off at least once per week for most of an afternoon to do the reno's in the different apartments. But that's not even the problem. There are always issues with the plumbing, and it has to be shut off to be repaired. It's a boiler system, and it's old as dinosaurs. (Side note: our building is so old we have screw in glass fuses). The water pressure is great! My complaint is the temperature; in a five minute shower you will freeze to death several times over, the water will hit you and you will lose your breath until you run out of the stream. The shower is bipolar so that's not all you get, in the next few seconds it will go from Antarctica to Hot as Hell. You will be lucky to keep the skin from melting off your bones if you don't move out of the water fast enough. It's like that all the time. Showers are supposed to be stress relieving. Not here, it's the opposite. 

Speaking of boiler system. Either the heat is on or the A/C. You can't have both. They always seem to switch the system over too early each season. So you either freeze or sweat as a result for days on end. And our bedroom window doesn't fit properly in the frame, so that room can be up to a ten degree difference than the rest of the apartment. When they switch over to heat and people try to use the A/C it causes pipes to bust, there have been more leaks than I can count in the short time we've lived here. And so much water damage to peoples things. 

BUT after all that bitching and moaning, this location gave me the chance to mark off living at the beach from my to-do list. I love looking out of the window and seeing the ocean, the beach, and gorgeous sunsets. I love being able to walk across the street and be on the boardwalk mingling with people from all over, and seconds later I can be in the sand, with the salt water tickling my toes, and getting exercise I otherwise wouldn't be.

But the time has come, it's time to go. 

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