Apartment Living

I've lived in various apartments in various states. One of the things that I've learned about apartment living is that sometimes you are going to hear your neighbors. Particularly when you live in a downstairs apartment, which is one of the reasons I'm glad we live on the second floor.

In the time that we've lived here in this apartment we've had 4 different families/individuals live in the apartment beneath us.

The first and longest was Mr. A. He was generally a nice man, and worked on the maintenance staff. He had a dog that liked to bark--at anything. And sometimes we could hear his music--loud and late at night. But I always shrugged that off as a fact of life of apartment living. The only issue that we ever had was when Michael was overseeing new carpet being installed throughout our place. It was noon-ish on a Saturday, and apparently the carpet being installed didn't agree with the hangover Mr. A had. Michael and Mr. A had a few words when Mr. A tried to assert his authority as maintenance man as reason to get the noise of the carpet installation to stop. But even after that Mr. A was as sweet as can be when it came to me and Marty. A few months later Mr. A was fired from the maintenance staff and had to leave the apartment.

The next tenants who lived below us, Family B, seemed nice enough. I said hi to them when I saw them, but I didn't really know them beyond that. They were most memorable because of the intricate chalk work outside their door and the distinctive smells when they cooked. One day after a couple months, they moved.

Then Family C moved in. They were there on a short term basis until they could close on and move into their house. Then they moved out.

A few weeks ago Family D moved in. Since they arrived, much to the disappointment of Cher and Razor, I no longer leave the door out to our balcony open because our new neighbors smoke right below it and the smoke comes right in. Again, not that big a deal. Part of living in an apartment.

Last Saturday Marty and I were watching a movie. I admit, it wasn't quiet, and at a particularly loud point in the movie we got a banging on our floor. We quickly turned down the total volume and turned off the bass completely. The next night Marty was listening to music and I was working out. I got a bang on the floor under me. Now, let me clarify "working out"--it wasn't high impact anything, it wasn't step aerobics, and it sure wasn't kick boxing. It was yoga-esque with some squats, lunges, and crunches added in. After the banging I asked Marty to turn down his music, and I was particularly aware of any movements I made during the last 10 minutes of my workout (since the pounding originated from immediately below me). But still a few minutes later we got a knock on the door--the neighbor. About the noise.

This morning I got a call from our apartment complex office. They've had complaints from our neighbors of too much noise. She mentioned loud music late at night every night.

In trying to feel out the issue I asked, "Is it just our downstairs neighbors?" But I realized that I didn't adequately express what I meant when she replied that complaints are confidential. So I tried again. "Have we had complaints from multiple neighbors?"

She said yes and then said something about a former maintenance employee. Ah. Mr. A. (when Marty called later he got a little more information on this complaint--completely second hand--one maintenance man said something to another maintenance man...)

And then she mentioned "They also complained of a loud alarm clock early in the morning."

We ended the call and we hung up.

I've never thought before that I'm a particularly bad neighbor. We don't throw parties (except for the occasional book club!). We aren't drug dealers. We don't play the drums (someone on the other side of the building does).

And I don't really want to be a bad neighbor now. I'll work to make sure our music and movies aren't too loud. But the alarm clock? Yes, sometimes I wake up early. And I wake up to a cell phone alarm. But I intentionally use what I consider the least loud and obnoxious ring, and it lasts about 5 seconds or less before I get it turned off. As for working out? I don't know. I'll try to be quieter about my crunches and stretching, I guess.

Here are some of the things that I just deal with because that's part of living in an apartment...
I hear my teenage next-door-neighbor's music through the wall or other music through the floor. I hear neighbors' dogs. I've had dog poop outside my door. I've had a puddle of dog pee outside my door. I've been smoked off of my balcony. I hear people running up and down the stairs. I smell their food efforts--good and bad. I wouldn't even think of complaining to either the neighbors themselves or to management. (OK, after the second issue of dog poop we mentioned to the kid who just got a puppy that he needs to clean up after it).

Like I said, I don't want to be a bad neighbor, but I kinda think these neighbors and their complaints are a little ridiculous.