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| Outside my new apartment, on busy Ohio Ave in West LA |
It took awhile to fully settle into my new apartment, but I've been here for about a month and a half now so I thought I'd post a few pictures. Since I was squatting in my friend's apartment over the summer, and living in furnished grad housing last year, it's nice having a place that is my own again, but it hasn't come without a handful of issues. I like being in a different (although not as nice) neighborhood with new nearby restaurants to test out. Overall, I've gotten used to the apartment and it's a fine place to live, but thought I'd share some of the negative and wacky aspects of this place, since those make for more interesting stories.
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| Living room |
The biggest problem early on was with my landlord. Albert is a sweet, old, foreign man with an endearing, raspy voice, but he also might be senile and he's not really good at running a property. Communication is the biggest issue since he has no email address and rarely picks up his cell or office phones, and is very slow to return voice mail. Before moving in, I was supposed to meet him to pick up my apartment keys and give him my security deposit. I waited an hour for him, with him not answering his phone, before going home. He later told me he was waiting for me at a different property that he thought I was renting. I agreed to meet up with him again later that night, but when I got there, he said he didn't have the keys and we'd have to meet up the next day. He also said we should draw up the lease and sign it, even though we had already done that a few days earlier. I've requested new screens on the door and windows b/c they were pretty ripped and also the mailbox is supposed to get a new key and lock. But that was all 6 weeks ago, and the maintenance guy keeps saying he's very busy and will get to eventually. I don't see that happening any time soon.
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| Haven't cooked as much as I'd like so far, but the kitchen has potential |
Apparently the problems with the landlord go a lot further than lack of communication though. A few weeks ago I was walking to my apartment when another tenant introduced herself to me and promptly said how sorry she was that I decided to live in the apartment. This woman, who happened to have no teeth and later told me that she had brain damage in the past (seriously), went on to explain how she had an active lawsuit going against the landlord for charging too much rent for the amount of service he provides, and for being negligent. She also said there are a lot of plumbing and other issues that I should prepare to see (I haven't had any major problems yet) and that I should sue him too. So that was an encouraging conversation.
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| The master bedroom |
In addition to the toothless woman, the other neighbors I met have been kinda interesting too. There are approximately 15 Mexicans in the apartment next door (pretty sure their apartment is same size as mine), a couple shady people on the other side that are always taking their bikes out at all hours of the night, and then, of course, there is Crazy Carl downstairs (another old, possibly senile man). Carl helped me move a couch when I came into the apartment, so I appreciate that, but then he wouldn't leave my apartment. He was also especially proud to tell me that the landlord pays him $60 a month to organize the building garbage cans. Also, every time I pass by his apartment there is a very strong odor that reminds me of a specific, illegal plant. Possibly related to this, I see him wandering the alley behind our building and in other odd locations fairly often.
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| The home office |
And if meeting wacky people in my building wasn't enough, another effect of moving to this apartment has been to meet lots of even wackier people on the city buses. Since I no longer am in walking distance to campus, and decided not to pony up the hundreds of dollars for a parking pass for the quarter, I take the bus to campus pretty often. It's not too bad when I can find a seat b/c then I can do some reading before class. However, if its during rush hour, then I'm usually standing between two people competing to see who has the most toxic levels of body odor. And that's a game where truly no one wins.
