Monday, May 05, 2003
 

Cover your ears.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

That's better.

Now, I'll begin:

Around 1 AM last night, I heard a weird noise. This noise proved to be water pouring in from the ceilings in the bathroom and hallway. I deposited every trash can in my possession, along with my (large) mop bucket, under the leaks, but all of these containers overflowed quickly. I also salvaged all the stuff I could, since a lot of my things were getting soaked. I called the apartment answering service, waited ten minutes (of very bad elevator music), and finally got an answer. I was promised that maintenance would be there shortly. In the meantime, water was coming from a vent and a light fixture as if a bath faucet were running, the bathroom ceiling was beginning to sag, carpet was getting soaked, and the bathroom was flooding. Forty minutes later, no maintenance. I called back and was again promised assistance. The bedroom ceiling begins to get wet. Twenty minutes later, maintenance calls and tells me he doesn't think he can do anything that night. Besides the principle of the thing, I had soaked ceilings and carpets, plus the second great flood in my bathroom (Noah, paging Mr. Noah). He promised me that he'd be here first thing. Eventually, the water stops.

This morning, no maintenance. I go to the management office and raise Cain. The bathroom ceiling is sagging, I have containers of dirty water everywhere, a light fixture is full of water (what the heck am I supposed to do with that?), the carpets are soaked, water has drained out of the bathroom (presumably into the apartment below me), the bedroom ceiling is sporting wet spots ranging from the size of a silver dollar to the size of a dinner plate, water has seeped into the bedroom wall, the bathroom floor is filthy, and things stink to high heaven. I am promised that maintenance will be there in 15 minutes, max.

30 minutes later, two maintenance guys drop in, spend two minutes checking things out, and disappear. They are not seen or heard from again.

Two hours pass. I call the apartment office and again raise Cain. I am told that a carpet cleaning crew and a painting crew (what for? the ceiling doesn't need PAINT; it needs REPAIR) will be there shortly.

Several hours later, an extremely nice carpet cleaning dude from an independent firm arrives. He does his best to suction the carpets, but his machine isn't strong enough to cope with the mess. He leaves and returns with an industrial-strength fan, which is currently aimed under my hall carpet in an attempt to dry it. That sucker is LOUD. In the meantime, the dampness has spread into much of the bedroom and into the den as far as the coffee table (I've had to peel up my area rug).

The painters, needless to say, never show. Not that I'm sure what they were going to do anyway. Perhaps slap a fresh coat of paint over the sagging wall in the bedroom?

This place smells vile, and the bathroom in particular is filthy (the water was a lovely rich brown). Apparently, it's my responsibility to clean it. I'm normally more than willing to do for myself, but I think this is a little excessive. And I'm sorry, but this carpet is never going to smell the same again, no matter how dry it gets. And the bathroom ceiling is not going to repair itself. The water damaged the unit I have over the toilet, and I would think that that's the apartment's responsibility. All maintenance did in lieu of assisting me was to empty ONE of the many containers of water I had sitting around (I'd left them out to demonstrate the magnitude of the problem, that I was not being a hysterical little woman).

No one has told me what happened. No one has been in contact with me. No one has advised me of what to do. I'm so mad I can't see straight.

So I just thought I'd share.

Elvisette philosophized at 5:57 PM