Officially Put Out of My Home

Yes... that picture was taken in my apartment this morning at 10 a.m. There are 7 workers replacing our WALL. Yes, the wall to the outside, 5 stories up over a major highway in Atlanta (400N). So... as you may remember we've been dealing with construction at our apartment and it's been awful.... AWFUL. I've already given you a pretty big hint but here is a....

Short Story of Why I'm Not At Home

Last night when we got home from work there were three holes in our walls. I mean holes like windows without glass. Yes. Holes about 8" high and 2-5' long underneath our windows and around our outlets. So our apartment is freezing because air is coming in the three holes and there's enough plaster to fill 10 dustpans. Basically, we call, no one comes, we clean it, patch it with trash bags and tape and leave to go to a friend's house to chill & spend the night.


We get home this morning and there are 7 workers in our home and our wall is gone. They've come to fix it.... but it's 10 a.m. on a Saturday and we're hungover with our dog who hates people and there are literally 7 people in our place hammering, drilling, and our wall is GONE - like to replace the three holes they have taken out the whole wall. Yes. So Austin goes down to the office and the girl (LeAnn) tries to be a bitch ("I talked to your wife earlier this week. I understand you're frustrated by the construction but it's out of ourhands/must be done/blah.") Austin's like i don't think you understand and drags her ass to our place.

She is apalled. She freaks out, gets her camera, comes back and takes pictures, puts us up in a "hotel room" in the apartment complex and tells us that she'll (finally) make it right and she'll be in touch. So, admist workers moving our furniture, plaster flying all over the place (i'm not exaggerating), Reuben freaking out and drilling/hammering/etc. - we eat Jimmy Dean d-lights, pack our things and GO. I'm now blogging from a random place that has a funny odor. Can't put my finger on it. And i'm waiting to see what she's going to offer us in return...

If you're still interested...

Back Story of Why I'm not at Home

Here are some notes of what i've been documenting....

6 Days out of December We Couldn’t Sleep/Be at Home as of 12/12

Monday, December 1 Kelly Vacation Day – hammered all day long
Thursday, December 4 Kelly Work from Home – hammered/yelled all day long
Monday, December 8 Kelly Vacation Day – hammered/yelled all day long
Tuesday, December 9 Kelly Home Sick – hammered/yelled all day long
Thursday, December 11 Kept us up all night because of tarps in rain & wind
Friday, December 12, 2008 Austin Home Sick with flu- woke up by hammering. See below.

Video From This Morning:


Aside from the above:

• We’ve been unable to open our windows because we see either A: Scaffolding; B: 20+ workers staring at us or C: Tarps. Basically we’re in a windowless box with no light, no view, no nothing.


• Their work is taking entirely too long. Should it really take 2 weeks+ on one section of such a large complex?


• I’m sure there were many other days when this was going on/would have been disturbing – but I’m only asking to for something for the days when it impacted us.


• We’re unable to use our balcony. It has been covered in plastic and tarps since Monday, December 1. On December 12 we checked on it and it’s not even bolted to the wall anymore.

Friday, December 12 Timeline

8 a.m. Austin Home Sick with flu- woke up by hammering, buzz saws, etc.

10 a.m. I called LeAnn, the office manager, at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 12, and she offered to do nothing. She said they were sorry about the noise, kept talking about other apartments that had damage, etc. She just kept saying, “Yes, that’s awful that you can’t be there and that you’ve been sick. We’re sorry but we must fix the structure.” I said I understood that – but would like something in return for the amount of sleep I’ve lost and the fact that I’ve been unable to work, rest, etc., in my house that I pay $42/day to stay in. ($1,300 a month; 31 days in December). I’ve already lost 7 days in the house (aka $300). I’m not asking for you to put me up in a hotel, although you should offer, but at the very least you can give us a rent break this month since we’re not getting what we pay for – we’re getting construction and noise and lack of sleep. She said no, sorry, not going to happen, and I could talk to Carla on at 404-846-6182 on Monday. I asked her if Carla thinks it’s acceptable to pay full price for a month of rent when I’ve already had 7 miserable days here to do their construction – I’m not asking for the month free- I’m trying to do this fairly through a prorated rate and really – I shouldn’t be asking THEY should be offering. She said I could take that up with Carla, the corporate office district manager, on Monday.

10 – 3:30 p.m. Walls shaking, banging with hammers, more buzz saw, etc.

3:30 p.m. Austin got out of the shower and noticed light coming through the walls. He walked over to the pool table area and moved the speaker and saw a large, 2’ x 8” hole in the wall. Like – a hole – you could see outside, throw a softball through it, etc. Then he walked along the hole wall, and saw another hole by the outlet – you can see daylight around the outlet. The floors were covered in plaster along the entire wall of windows. He immediately put up our dog and went down to the office. They’re supposed to be open until 6 p.m. They were closed early for a holiday party. He called answering service who said maintenance would call.

4 p.m. Maintenance calls and says he talked to the onsite guy and they would fix it before they left for the day. Austin asked if the guy was sure- since it was already 4 p.m. on Friday. The guy insisted that the onsite guy would come and fix it. Austin said okay.

5 p.m. Austin sees construction workers leaving. He asks if they’re going to fix the holes (through the holes mind you), but they don’t speak English. He called the answering service again asking where they are, when they’re coming to fix it, etc. Mind you the cold air is just pumping through our place.

5:30 p.m. We give up. We clean up their mess, get out trashbags and duct tape and seal each of the three holes they made. (5’ of baseboard in total)

6:30 p.m. Maintenance calls and says it was the first he had heard about it. That he talked to the guy and they were coming tomorrow (Saturday) to fix it. He wouldn’t give a time, and Austin asked if the guy was sure – they’re definitely coming Saturday. He didn’t offer to come to the apartment or do anything – he simply said they’d be here tomorrow…. Some time.

7 p.m. There is cold air coming through the holes. We get our dog, turn off the heat and leave for the night to go stay with friends.

THAT was friday. We were already LIVID and then we show up hungover and hungry this morning... and you know what happens. So, LeAnn finally gets it now. The best was seeing the look on her face when the guy was like, "We've been on this section since last Monday." She turned BRIGHT red. I was like yeah - we know - we were HERE. She apologized and said she felt really bad so i'll start calling her a bitch now.

So - do you think we should pay rent for the month of December? I think i'll keep my $1,300 thank you very much.

I'm too mad to post about food and in the midst of the demolition I forgot to weigh in... bastards! So... i'll do a normal post about yesterday's shenanigans later.