For all sweet and pleasant passages in the great story of life men may well thank God; for leisure and ease and health and friendship may God make us truly and humbly grateful; but our chief song of thanksgiving must be always for our kinship with him, with all that such divinity of greatness brings of peril, hardship, toil, and sacrifice.
--Hamilton Mabie.
I've always been a home owner until the year 2011. Ever since then, the world of apartment living has been my domain. There are many positives and negatives to living in an apartment. Here are some observations I have made in the last several years.
POSITIVE
1. Yard work
I do not miss shoveling snow in the Winter. We all love the first snow day and eagerly go outside with our shovels to clear the paths while our children make snowmen. Any snow that comes after that, we groan and moan s we head out that door. The same applies for raking, mowing or any other outside maintenance. I appreciate that someone maintains these chores.
2. Maintenance Inside
When something breaks down, all I have to do is call a landlord to fix it. I do not have to worry about looking for a repairman. I expect it to be done as part for paying my rent.
3. Neighbors
Some of the best people I've met came from being my neighbors. When I went through treatment, I cannot tell you how many times they brought supper over for Emily and myself. Or how many times they offered to do my laundry or bring my grocery shopping. I don't have problems with neighbors. We all can be loud or rude. We all leave the door open. None of us are the perfect neighbor. It's all about how we treat one another.
NEGATIVE
1. Maintenance Inside
I've listed this under both positive and negative. Just because we call the landlord, it doesn't mean the problem will get fixed. It all depends on the landlord.
2. The Landlord
I've yet to see the perfect landlord. I, myself have had three, but I've also asked friends and family for reports on their landlords. For some reasons, all landlords think they can fix things themselves when they cannot.
Some take several hours and even days to fix something minor like replacing a toilet pump/chain. This incident, he used a paperclip that worked for only a week. Another, told me to tap on the side and top of the stove in hopes of un-sticking the igniter to light. Usually the latter are the ones who attache the door on their hinges the wrong way and then blame the manufacturer for the malfunction.
Some landlords came over almost every day, knocking on your door for every excuse. Others were the opposite with multiple cancellations before he finally showed up. Even then, he would rush out the door with promises of coming back tomorrow to finish the job. He never showed. If there was a lamp in the dumpster, one of my landlords could tell you what apartment it came from. Creepy, huh?
I am not kidding, all of this has happened. So you can see my frustrations with landlords. The place I'm in now, I hope to stay until my retirement and then , I plan on being my own landlord. Every time, I look at that sink that leaks or that door that still has no lock on it. I think to myself, it's like being married to a man who never cleans out that garage.
Have a blessed day everyone.
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