difficult to describe what makes a place feel like “home”. Is it the
fetid air that wafts in when you open a window? The
charming view of the local gang corner? Or perhaps it’s the way milky
water bubbles back up from the drain each time you use the sink because
of that mysterious clog you never quite cleaned out. Whatever it is
that makes a home your own, eventually you’re probably going to have to
move. You might wish to try a different style of home, but which is
best? An apartment? Condominium? Townhouse? Trailer? Single family
home? It’s madness I tell you, MAADNESSS!
difficult to describe what makes a place feel like “home”. Is it the
fetid air that wafts in when you open a window? The
charming view of the local gang corner? Or perhaps it’s the way milky
water bubbles back up from the drain each time you use the sink because
of that mysterious clog you never quite cleaned out. Whatever it is
that makes a home your own, eventually you’re probably going to have to
move. You might wish to try a different style of home, but which is
best? An apartment? Condominium? Townhouse? Trailer? Single family
home? It’s madness I tell you, MAADNESSS!
Part I – Apartments
Part II – Houses
Apartments: Slightly Better Than Nothing
Certainlyyou are aware of apartment buildings. They’re the buildings you usually
see around with all the windows and a bunch of cars parked outside. If you feel like checking inside of
one, you should call the office to make an appointment. Or you
can do what a lot of people do: Stand outside the door smoking a
cigarette until someone enters or leaves, blow smoke in their face,
grab the door and mutter “Mmph” and step inside.
Minorities in the suburbs you
may have a bit of trouble with this, because a lot of the whites out
there are racists. If they see you standing out there they’ll probably
just get scared and use another door, or call the police. Don’t feel
too bad. Soon white people like me will be the minorities. I can’t
wait. For one thing, I probably won’t ever have to hear any country
music or corporate rock again. Stupid whites. But here are a few of the
things you can expect to experience when living in an apartment complex.
Strange & Wonderful Smells
Livingin an apartment building is an olfactory adventure! Whether it’s the
stench of burning noodles which inexplicably fills the hallway at all
hours of the night or the musty mossy smell of the dangerous mold which
grows in the dimly-lit laundry area, the air is always filled with some
objectionable smell.
Oh, and good luck getting any fresh air in the
summer, because the instant you open any window, acrid clouds of
mentholated cigarette smoke will simply come billowing in and fill your
apartment, courtesy of the chain smoker on the balcony below. Hope
you’re a fan of lung polyps!
Laws, Rules, And Regulations
Everyapartment complex has rules. Many of these rules have no logical basis,
and seem to be added in order to maximize the discomfort and
dissatisfaction of all residents. For example, if you have maintenance
problem you are usually given a number to call, but usually this number
is only available between the exact time you leave for work and just
before you get home at night. So you’ll leave a message and forget all
about it until a few weeks later when you’re lying on the couch staring
at the ceiling with your hands down your pants when you hear the
jingling of keys at your door and a bleary-eyed man in stained
coveralls comes barreling in and stumbles towards your bathroom
muttering something about a showerhead.
The rest of the rules
are easy enough to figure out. If you want to do something relatively
harmless, just assume there is a rule against it. Here’s a rule I would
like to see: The apartment complex may not greedily increase your rent
each year well in excess of inflation because they know most people
don’t want to deal with the hassle and expense of finding somewhere
else to live and moving. Aaagh.
Peace and Quiet (Ain’t None)
there’s one thing you won’t need to take with you when you move into an
apartment, it’s an alarm clock. The people around you are more than
happy to take on the responsibility of waking you up. Here’s the weekly
schedule for unrequested wake-up calls:
MONDAY:
The
clumsy guy in the apartment above you seemingly rearranges his entire
bedroom set at 5AM by dragging pieces of furniture around the room and
hurling them roughly to the floor. While bellowing the coarsest
profanities known to man.
TUESDAY:
The
woman two doors down owns a tiny dog and it hears the noise of someone
walking in the hall after she has left for work. Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
Yip! Yip! Yip! Yip!
One
of the school-age boys downstairs has a friend who comes to pick him up
for school in a large and pointless truck. When the accelerator of this
truck is pressed, the walls vibrate, pots and pans topple out of
cupboards, and pictures clatter from the walls while the bass from his
stereo compresses your eardrums so severely that they rupture, causing
a mixture of blood and pus to ooze out of your ears and onto your
pillow as you scream in hatred and agony.
THURSDAY:
One
of the families adjacent to you has purchased a new couch and doesn’t
feel like lugging it back down three flights of stairs. They saw at it
with an un-serrated kitchen knife and bash it ineffectually with ball
peen hammers for a few hours until it is broken up. They then proceed
to heave large pieces off of their balcony and into the parking lot.
The
building super pounds at your door, screaming accusingly about how a
room air conditioner she’s spotted in one of your windows is against
the rules, and that you’ll just have to roast to death in your sleep
like everyone else because whoever built the place foolishly placed the
single 12 watt air conditioning unit in the farthest wall of the living
room, down the hall and as far away from the bedrooms as possible.
SATURDAY:
All
of the small children in the building pound up and down through the
hallways outside your door scratching at doors with plastic swords and
bouncing large rubber balls against all the walls while screeching
delightedly.
SUNDAY:
The
couple next door screams at one another for a few hours until the sound
of a gunshot rings out. All is quiet for a time, and then you head the
sound of a door creaking open and the thump-thumping of a heavy object
being dragged down the stairs. From outside there is a thud, the sound
of the dumpster lid slamming, and then the soft tread of footsteps back
up the stairs.
So now you know mostly what living in
an apartment consists of. Check your newspaper today for listings. Next
up is condos and townhomes in a very special dual article. Yeah, I
know, who cares right?