My apartment is a lemon. I’m currently living in short term furnished apartment. I’ve been here 9 days (5 work days) and a maintenance man has been here 4 of them.

When I arrived a week ago Saturday, the cable wasn’t working in the bedroom. The technician was in the middle of fixing it when I entered my apartment, which cause total confusion. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would be startled by a random stranger standing in her apartment when she was just given the keys for the first time! He left, saying it would be fixed Monday. No big deal, I thought, since there was a TV with working cable in the living room. Ha! How little I knew.

The TV in the living room died Sunday night. I could hear the cable, but had lost picture. I tried changing input to the DVD player, but nothing would displayed. A quick search on the internet revealed the problem was likely a short inside the TV box (apparently this particular model is prone to it), and that the TV needed to be replaced.

Remember the heater died something last Saturday night? I reported it via email on Sunday afternoon. By the time monday morning rolled around it was cold. So cold in fact that I had a headache and couldn’t wait to be out of the morning. I called in a maintenance “emergency” in the morning. The apartment was truly unlivable. I was told it may be 48 hours until the problem was fixed. I asked for a space heater if indeed the heater could not be fixed by the time I returned from work Monday. Fortunately, the heater was fixed, however, it was left off. I cranked it up as high as I can, hoping to have a livable apartment soon. The cable in the bedroom was still not fixed, nor the TV in the living room.

I decided to bake some chicken for dinner. I was figuring out the controls on the stove when suddenly the oven door Would.Not.Open. The stove had a “lock” feature – I kid you not – which had gotten stuck. Another internet search to find the manual for the particular stove. Apparently that particular stove would occasionally get stuck in “lock” mode if you accidentally hit the clean button, and then the cancel button before it had a chance to finish it’s clean cycle. The manual had the “reset” sequence which unlocked the stove. At least I didn’t have to ask maintenance for help.

By Tuesday morning the heater had finally had a chance to warm the place. I left again for work. When I came home, someone had left a space heater in the middle of the living room. Cable was still not working in the bedroom, the TV had no picture in the living room. I was talking with my husband when all of a sudden a load pop emanated from the TV which I thought was off. I nearly jumped off the couch. Something was definitely wrong with the TV. I sent an email to the maintenance people, reminding them of the TV/cable problems and letting them know my heater was fixed so I didn’t need the space heater. Maybe someone was confused as to which problems were resolved and which ones weren’t.

Wednesday, the cable in the bedroom is working. It’s a step in the right direction! Only it’s not cable, but some sort of Satellite and doesn’t appear to get many channels. I also found a random sweet and low packet of sugar on the bedroom floor. I know that the maintenance guy was in my apartment – he had fixed the cable – but it really weirded me out.

Nothing appears different on Thursday. I realize the reason the heater took so long to warm the whole apartment is it is only designed to work in the living room. There’s another one in the bedroom that isn’t working. Turns out there was a reason for the space heater, afterall.

Friday I get a note saying they had to replace the TV in the living room, but it is now working. Yay! Although, I still have the space heater, and the bedroom heater isn’t working. Whatever, I can deal.

Which brings us to today. Apparently the washing machine isn’t working. I can here it straining when it is on, but it has no water. I leave it on for a few minutes just to be sure. I give up. My apartment is a lemon.

Posted in Student Life | Tags: Summer Apartment