We’re home. Generally speaking, this is a good thing: the wedding was wonderful, the experience at the resort was good (though not really our style, as we ended up deciding), the camping was incredible, and even traveling home was surprisingly pleasant (and I’ll get to all of those in more detail in due course). The actual arrival home has been one of the most traumatic we’ve yet experienced, however.
While we’d done a pretty good job of staying close to Seattle time during our camping, going to bed as soon as it got dark around 7:30 PM and getting up at first light around 6 AM (both times local to Hawaii, 10:30 PM and 9 AM respectively Seattle time), our flight home left Kona at just after 9 PM (local, midnight Seattle) and arrived in Seattle at about 5:30 AM (Seattle). Neither of us sleep well on airplanes, so by the time we landed, we were running on about twenty-one hours without sleep. By the time we collected our luggage, caught a shuttle to the parking service’s lot, picked up the car, and then fought our way through the construction on I-5, we didn’t get home and into bed until right around 8 AM, at about twenty-four hours straight without sleep.
Three hours later, the banging of construction in the apartment next door woke me up. Prairie had earplugs in, so she made it for another hour, but then she was up, too. And here’s where the real fun begins…
Last week, just before we left, Prairie and I had both been awoken at 8 AM on Saturday morning by an incredible racket as workmen started — quite literally — physically ripping off the outer shell of our apartment building. They weren’t working directly outside our apartment, but even working outside the apartment next to us, it was loud enough to freak both of us out. We were more upset by not having received any advance warning of the work (if we’d known that it was coming up, we’d have been able to write it off as annoying, but expected), so we ended up dropping off a note with the landlords as we were leaving letting them know that we’d have appreciated a little advance notice.
This morning after waking up, we stopped by the manager’s apartment to pick up our mail, which we assumed they were holding for us as our mailbox door was open. They didn’t have our mail, so we’re a little concerned that it’s been stolen by a neighbor — and part of the mail was the just released DVD of Kenneth Brannagh’s Hamlet, a present to me from Prairie — so things were already off to a less than auspicious start. Then we got started talking about the construction.
They apologized for the lack of warning (apparently the construction is being handled by the parent company, not the local managers, and it happened to start while they were off on vacation themselves), and then started letting us know what was going on. Apparently what started off as a relatively simple project of replacing the windows in a couple vacant units has turned up a lot of rotted wood, structural problems, and other building issues. This is when warning bells started to go off in my head.
“Is this going to affect us in our unit?” I asked. And, of course, the answer is a big old yes. Not only is there the noise issue, which is going to be a daily thing starting at 8 AM with no known end in sight, but they are eventually going to need to attack our unit, and due to the severity of the issues they’re finding, they can’t wait until we decide to leave (which we weren’t planning on doing for at least a couple of years yet).
So, to recap:
- Just back from a wonderful vacation (good),
- running on very little sleep (ugh, but expected),
- missing all our mail for the last week (if it’s junk mail, eeh, but if it’s financial statements, could potentially be very bad),
- including a present from Prairie to me (boo!),
- and being told that we need to move (so. not. good.).
Now, they are willing to move us to another apartment in the complex, and they’ll use some of the construction muscle to help us with all the big stuff. This will certainly help, but moving is still going to be a royal pain (packing, transferring utilities, changing addresses, and so on). We’ll probably take a look at the apartment they have available for us sometime tomorrow, and if it looks good, we should be able to move over within the next couple of weeks. Not exactly how we were planning on spending the tail end of our summer break, but we don’t exactly seem to have much choice.
The other alternative, if we don’t like the apartment they have for us, or if we just decide that if we’re going to move, we might as well move, would be apartment hunting — also not something we want to have to do, but we’re keeping it open as an option.
So, that was our return home. Instead of coming back to relaxing and enjoying the last few weeks of summer, we’re being plunged into a morass of stress and worry trying to figure out where and how soon we’re going to move, when we hadn’t been planning on moving until I had a degree under my belt (and not just the AA degree that I should have at the end of this school year). Not how we wanted to end our vacation, but it’s what we got.
Whee.
It could have been worse.
We were renting a house many years ago, and our landlord contracted to have some work done at our house (what the work was I’ve long since forgotten).
The workers arrived at 6:00 am, which upset us AND upset our next door neighbor, who had to listen to the racket.
On the other hand, the work only took a couple of days, and we had gotten adequate sleep before the work began.
Good luck in your decision.
I say leave most of your stuff in your old apt, keep you address where it is now and move the basics into the new apartment (in the same building) with the managers understanding that you will move right back into YOUR apartment just as soon at the construction is done. That way you don’t have to MOVE just relocate for a bit
The apt management should pay for the temp relocation of cable, net and phone and be thankful they have an understanding tenant.
Um….sukko
On the bright side, you don’t work grave shift.
As an apartment manager…they had notice. They were just late in notifying. Especially if it’s a bigger company. It’s good that they’re willing to help you move but you shouldn’t have to, aside from your own sanity, of course. Contractors generally don’t like working in occupied units BUT in this situation, it can’t really be helped now, can it? This isn’t a simple cosmetic fix. It’s something that by law, they are required to do, within a reasonable amount of time. I beleive work needs to be started within ten days of the problem being noted in your unit, whether by you or management. Especially structural issues. You have rights under Seattle Landlord-Tenant laws, which I have plenty of extra copies and if you’re with a good property management company, you should have recieved a copy with your lease. Good luck and I second Rick, at least you don’t work a grave shift. Erik does, and when work needs to be done here, it SUCKS bigtime for him. Anyhow, get a hold of me with any questions I might be able to help with.
Hugs to both of you!