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The 2-Year Apartment Rule

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Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#131

Post by tartoran »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #118
yardie wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roaches in a clean, maintained apartment means there is a problem elsewhere in the building. We had a small infestation. And no matter how many times we called the exterminator they kept coming back. Found out one of our neighbors was a hoarder. He passed away, they deep cleaned the apartment, and the roach problem stopped right away. Roaches still need to feed and breed. Once you take that away no more roaches.

I guess it depends on where you live. Baltimore is a tough town. The roaches have a reputation to maintain.

Do you actually believe roaches in Baltimore have evolved in a different way or is it the locale?

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#132

Post by rubenvanwyk »

lucastamoios wrote: post #74
tasuki wrote: post #9

> Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. When I started reading the article, I thought the whole point was gonna be that the author doesn't take care of the apartment. The recurring leak might not be the author's fault, but the mold in the bathroom and roaches in the kitchen definitely ar…

Yeah, I think that is the case: the 2 years may be a reflection on the level of care they give. We built a house and after 2 years it started to need more maintenance, it is normal. I fixed it and every now and then I need to do more. Just regular adult life.

Agreed, when I was reading this I thought "but this is normal adult life?"

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#133

Post by the__alchemist »

Similar experience. What as a "decent/nice" building is now of middling to ill repute. Hallway carpets soaked in dog excrement and garbage water. More vagrants outside. (Not inside yet as in the article), amenities broken, gym equip is what it started with minus the gradual stream of equip that's broken since then; aging appliances, elevators always broken etc.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#134

Post by serial_dev »

tasuki wrote: post #9

> Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. When I started reading the article, I thought the whole point was gonna be that the author doesn't take care of the apartment. The recurring leak might not be the author's fault, but the mold in the bathroom and roaches in the kitchen definitely ar…

It could be the author's fault, but IMO more likely the apartment's, the landlord's, and/or the neighborhood's fault.

With mold, I guess the people living there have some influence, they might never open the window, they might shower 50 minutes, etc... but there are some places where no matter how careful you are, mold will show up. And even if a perfect tenant with the perfect process for preventing mold might be able to keep it away, you can't be expected to meet those standards. Some buildings are just more prone to mold than others.

Same with cockroaches... Sure maybe OP never cleans up in the kitchen and leaves chinese take out in the sink for a month. It can also be that their neighbor is extremely messy, or one window is next to the trash, or that the pipes have something nasty in them that never got cleaned out, so no matter how clean your room is, the roaches still get in somehow.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#135

Post by buellerbueller »

collabs wrote: post #60
sn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a relatively easy technological solution to mold: buy a dehumidifier. We bought two after moving to Ireland. Both have drainage hoses. One has a pump and empties into the kitchen sink, the other has no pump and the drainage hose empties into the shower. No more mold problems.

Thank you for sharing. Do your dehumidifiers run all the time? Do they have some kind of auto on / auto off feature? Do you run them on some schedule? As necessary? I am thinking it would be very easy for me to forget unless it is a set it and forget it kind of thing.

I have two humidifiers running constantly in my unfinished basement; they drain into the sewer line.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#136

Post by inglor_cz »

stefan_ wrote: post #61
W3zzy wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but no. We have historic, sometimes even mediaeval buildings. They weren't built with the current energy efficiency in mind. Leaving the bathroom door open after showering. Not putting furniture flus against the wall are simple measures you could take that don't need structural adaptations. I know there are plentiful of technical options but some common sense goes a long way.

It infuriates me to no end that we are expected to put up with building design and technology from 1900 as a consequence of the obsession with "property values must go up" (notwithstanding the property ) and a healthy helping of "regulations are only ever added to, everything old is forever grandfathered". Like, central ventilation is not magical unobtainable technology. Simple heat recovery even vastly improves heat…

A large-scale overhaul of the entire country's housing stock is not realistic for multiple reasons, including shortages of qualified people.

There is a lot of old buildings out there.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#138

Post by npilk »

IMO people in this thread have missed the point. I, too have moved about every two years as an adult (even though I've never had mold problems). Or when I haven't moved, I've made a job change.

Perhaps there is something in my nature that gets complacent after a couple of years and looks to make a change. It seems like that's what the author was trying to grasp towards.

I expect this tendency might go away as I get older, have a family, etc.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#139

Post by skyberrys »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #129
skyberrys wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe everyone here can help me. I bought a house with an accessory addon already built, but it's walls and roof are very cheap aluminum. It's a constant source of mold. I'm at the point where I want to demolish it and rebuild properly. Some contractors I've spoken with instead encourage me to just frame out inside the existing aluminum box and get double pane windows instead. I don't think that will solve the proble…

The walls are aluminum? Where do you live?

Trailer park in California. It's a prefab kit built accessory room. The main part of the trailer is normal, just this accessory room is built out of aluminum panels (about 3' x 9' per panel) and then plenty of single pane windows.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#140

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

haritha-j wrote: post #21

> The hell? Call me a wuss, but I don't want to worry about who I'm riding the elevator with, not when I'm paying as much rent as I am. Frankly, I wouldn't want to ride the elevator with the author either.

What I found amusingly about that paragraph is that the author laments encountering "the crackhead" while paying exorbitant rent.

That implies the crackhead can also afford said rent. In which case, they have just as much right to be in the elevator as the author. Fuck off!

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