Tuesday
Jan022007
Cough cough hack hack
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 at 11:49AM
I'm not sure why exactly, but the lady who lived across the hall---remember her? The one who listened to her TV really loud and loathed slamming doors?---she moved out recently. I'd like to think it was a move completely independent from anything to do with us, but I'm pretty sure she moved because of her neighbors. Although we tried very hard to stay out of her way and not get involved in the problems she had with the others in this building, I think she inevitably grouped us in with them and considered us pesty and even conniving. She only moved to another building in this complex, so she obviously wasn't trying to escape the area, the city or the state. She was escaping this building.
I have to admit, we were pretty happy about the move. Things really quieted down around here once she left. No more midnight pounding on doors, no more yelling in an indecipherable language, no more accusations of a conspiracy against her. It was peaceful.
And we held out hope that maybe a nice young couple would move in across the hall. I went so far as to have fantasy dinners for four over there---I imagined us bringing a bottle of wine to go with their fettucini alfredo, we'd play games, tell jokes, talk and laugh. Even if it wasn't a young couple, maybe it would be a young single that we could befriend. Or even someone older who wanted to bake us cakes. Anything is better than a questionably sane woman causing a raucous. Right?
Wrong. Obviously, or I wouldn't be telling this story.
We got our new neighbor last week. It wasn't the sounds of large furniture being slammed against door frames that tipped us off; we heard none of those. It wasn't a polite knock on our door with a happy introduction. None of that either. The thing that told us that there was a new kid in town? It was the smoke! The god awful smoke that we choked on in the hall one day when we returned home.
Yep. He's a smoker. And for two people who not only don't smoke but also very passionately loathe everything about the act of smoking, this is really REALLY! bad news. Bad. Really bad.
Now, not only do we have to walk through a smoky haze every time we enter the building, but the awful scent has begun to seep under our door. His smoke is invading OUR apartment, the one WE pay money for. Which is totally unacceptable. I can respect this guy's decision to smoke in his personal space, but if I'm going to pay good money to live here, I am not going to live in a place that smells like a scummy bar.
I know with apartment living comes the chance of crappy neighbors, but everyone else in this building is normal, can't the landlord find one more? Maybe it's too much to hope for the nice young couple of my fantasies, but I'd at least like more than the choice between a raving lunatic (I hope that doesn't get me in trouble someday) and a chain smoker.
I have to admit, we were pretty happy about the move. Things really quieted down around here once she left. No more midnight pounding on doors, no more yelling in an indecipherable language, no more accusations of a conspiracy against her. It was peaceful.
And we held out hope that maybe a nice young couple would move in across the hall. I went so far as to have fantasy dinners for four over there---I imagined us bringing a bottle of wine to go with their fettucini alfredo, we'd play games, tell jokes, talk and laugh. Even if it wasn't a young couple, maybe it would be a young single that we could befriend. Or even someone older who wanted to bake us cakes. Anything is better than a questionably sane woman causing a raucous. Right?
Wrong. Obviously, or I wouldn't be telling this story.
We got our new neighbor last week. It wasn't the sounds of large furniture being slammed against door frames that tipped us off; we heard none of those. It wasn't a polite knock on our door with a happy introduction. None of that either. The thing that told us that there was a new kid in town? It was the smoke! The god awful smoke that we choked on in the hall one day when we returned home.
Yep. He's a smoker. And for two people who not only don't smoke but also very passionately loathe everything about the act of smoking, this is really REALLY! bad news. Bad. Really bad.
Now, not only do we have to walk through a smoky haze every time we enter the building, but the awful scent has begun to seep under our door. His smoke is invading OUR apartment, the one WE pay money for. Which is totally unacceptable. I can respect this guy's decision to smoke in his personal space, but if I'm going to pay good money to live here, I am not going to live in a place that smells like a scummy bar.
I know with apartment living comes the chance of crappy neighbors, but everyone else in this building is normal, can't the landlord find one more? Maybe it's too much to hope for the nice young couple of my fantasies, but I'd at least like more than the choice between a raving lunatic (I hope that doesn't get me in trouble someday) and a chain smoker.
in So Annoyed
So Annoyed
Reader Comments (6)
Maybe you can try really really hard to annoy this person and get them to move out.
Uggg, this is a major bummer!
I had this same problem in an apartment I lived in a few years ago. I went to management with the complaint that the smoke was endangering my health. Their response to was to offer to let me move to another unit (which I declined, because they could not guarantee there would be no smokers there either) or to heavily insulate around my door and put an air purifier in the hallway (which I accepted). I have been reading that apartment buildings are now beginning to have separate buildings for smokers and non, which is an excellent idea.
Repressed Libranian--- did that work? The insulation and air purifier? Because I was thinking that our only options would be to move or install some kind of purifier in the hall. I don't want to move, what a pain! So please tell me the other things worked!
We had a problem with that in our last apartment. The only bad thing is that they were already smoking outside. It would creep in through our sliding glass door in the summertime. It sucks. Susanne and I are also both very sensitive to the smell of smoke. We just can't stand the smell. I hope that you guys can figure out a non moving solution. I can' t wait till they ban smoking everywhere, but your own personal car. And even then the smokers piss me off when I see their 'butts' come flying out their window right at me. Ahhh.........I hate smoking!
I wouldn't say the insulation and air purifier made the problem go away entirely (I still smelled like smoke from walking from my door to the building door), but it did help keep the smoke from infiltrating my own apartment.
The lady downstairs from me at my apartment smoked. We could smell her on occasion too. I would have to say though, the yelling and fighting every night at about 3-4 am from upstairs had to be the worst from my apartment days. The guy up there threatened to kill his girlfriend more than once. Ahhh, the joys of apartment life.