California Rains

Being native Oregonians, we get pretty excited when it rains down here in California. It washes away the dirt and grime, the smog clears, and it smells fresh out. It feels so refreshing after months of brown landscape and brown tinged sky. So we've been loving the rains the past few days! But word to the wise, stay off the roads if possible. As adept as Californians are at squeezing a SUV between two bumper to bumper cars at 75 mph, we can't praise their driving skills in the rain.

Outside Our Front Door in the Rain

You'll see what this has to do with California rains by the end of this commentary...

Let's just say a grand a month doesn't get you much of an apartment in LA. We quickly found upon moving into our lovely 700 square foot apartment that maintainence didn't seem to be a high priority with the management company. Let's just relate a few of the situations that we've encountered (that I'm sure will seem very funny as soon as we move out) since we have been living at Villa La Paz.

1) Upon moving in during the heat wave of July 2005, we found that our air conditioning was broken. We notified the company within hours of moving in. As we unpacked boxes in the scorching heat of our apartment (we really don't know how hot it got in there because the thermostat's little wand thingy couldn't move any farther to the right) for the next 5 days in our bathing suits, I, not Andy, began questioning the necessity of moving to LA. Our cat shed hair like crazy and we jumped in the swimming pool every few hours to try and cool off. And it gets better...

2) After spending so much time in the pool to cool off, I began to notice something unusual as I did laundry in the apartment complex's laundry room that just happened be right next to the pool. Whenever a washer would start draining the water, the pool would get a rush of milky white water flowing into it. I don't know how the plumbing was set up for this complex, but I do know that something is wrong with it.

3) Another laundry room problem is that sewage would rarely back up into one of the washers. But I think most would agree, sewage getting into where your clothes are supposed to get clean is never an appealing thought.

4) The water comes out of the tap yellow. The longer you haven't turned on the water, the more yellow it will be. Let's just say our whites are now rather dingy.

5) Early one morning, Andy and Michael Hoch were getting ready to go the Gilcher's when they heard a hissing noise. Shortly afterwards, water was pouring through our ceiling onto our table and floor. The water was an unusual color-sort of blackish brown. The water did clear up to the shade of a light brown, but it was left going for about 6 hours before the company turned it off. (When the water is turned off for one apartment, the water is turned off for the whole complex. The water is turned off sometimes weekly at Villa La Paz but we didn't really have a good idea why until this episode. We then started hearing stories from other residents about their burst pipes as well.) We had two large holes punched in the ceiling by the company to allow air to circulate to dry out the ceiling, allowing the oh-so-pleasant smell of mildew and mold to permeate the air.

6) Over the past month or so our electricity has been going out and we've been flipping the switches in our breaker box to get it back on. The other day a fuse blew permenantly and flipping the switch didn't turn it back on. We got ahold of the management company for it to be fixed, but were initially told that it is our responsibility. We didn't know how to fix it so we found out how through someone who did. Andy was given the advice to just work with one hand so his legs would act as a ground and if he messed up the electrical current would run from his hand down his leg to the ground, instead of if he used both hands the current would go from one hand to the other, straight through his heart. We then just double checked with the company to make sure that they really wanted a resident to be doing electrical work on their own apartment. They decided they'd send someone out.

7) Our phone doesn't work well. Our internet worked perfectly until we tried to get our phone fixed. Now they are both on the fritz. All companies involved has taken turns blaming each other. The phone company says it is the internal wiring of the apartment, so it isn't their responsibilty to fix. The apartment company says that it is the external wiring, so it is the phone/internet company's responsibility to fix. Then, the management said, even if it is the internal wiring, that would be the resident's responsibility to repair. The last time the phone company came out, they said it is our phone's problem and that the phone just isn't well made. All I know is that we can't get a signal half the time and when we do get a signal you hear a ton of static.

8) This isn't the apartment complex's issue, but I decided to include it anyway. Any time you spot one of those huge inflatable bouncy castles on our street, you know that you are in for an exciting night. The hours when you normally would like to sleep are instead filled with the sounds of laughing kids, mariachi bands, and intoxication. What a combo!

9) The complex has one central water heater for of the apartments. It breaks periodically. The complex fixes usually the next day or so, which really isn't a terribly slow turnaround. Try convincing yourself of that at five am when you are showering in the middle of the winter trying to get ready for work.

10) The latest adventure has been with the recent rains. It was raining so hard, and with the wind blowing, it was falling at an angle. This caused the rain to fall directly on one of our windows. Normally, a window would be sealed off to the outside, prohibiting anything outside from getting in. Not our windows! No, I think they are there for asthetic purposes only. We can feel wind from outside and rain comes in at its pleasure. Here's a little system my smart husband rigged to get the water to drip in a garbage can instead of run down the wall into the carpet. We collected four cups in about 5 minutes at the height of the rain. Below are pictures of Andy's rain catching creation.

Other "funny" stories from the complex...

A friend in a neighboring apartment needed her sink repaired. A few weeks later, the company sent out a repairman who removed the sink and said that he'd be back shortly. He did come back... a week later! And only after the resident called asking how much she could deduct off her rent for the inconvenience.

A woman was showering in her apartment when she heard the sound of footsteps on the roof. Suddenly, the roof broke over her head and a man's lower half was hanging through the ceiling in the shower with her. As he pulled himself up back on the roof, she ran out of the shower screaming into her family room. He was apparently getting the hint that the roof wasn't stable and he started running towards the ladder to get off the roof. He didn't make it all the way to the ladder before again falling halfway through the roof into this poor woman's family room where she was!