The Food Cop

At present I live in the Apartment Complex From Heck. Mind you, it's not Slum Central, but it's pretty dismal -- even after the baby diaper combo color paint job effected on it by its slumlord owner this past fall.

It used to be a pretty cute little place, tree shaded, where tenants were encouraged to plant their choice of flower gardens around some basic landscaping which had a LOT of rhododendrons, cream buildings with cute white shutters, a place where we had quarterly yard sales and used the proceeds on a tenant party, where most of the folks there had lived there a decade or longer and everyone got along and looked out for everyone else.

Well, no more.

The first week after the property was no longer in escrow, the property owner brought in an unskilled crew and a flatbed and logged out THIRTY full grown Noble firs, which paid her first year's entire mortgage on this 84-unit complex. Without permit. MATURE straight trees, none of which was in danger of damaging the buildings, none of which was diseased or aslant. There went 90% of the shade on some of the buildings. FEW apartments in this state are air conditioned. Now all the upstairs apartments which used to be livable in August will be hell in June, July, August and September. Then she had all the healthy plantings landscaping the buildings ripped out. It's just dirt now. Ugly.

Everything that was previously done somewhat on the cheap to maintain this little complex in the past is now done on the REALLY cheezy cheap. It's all about maximizing her income and putting as little as, or next to nothing, into the property. For example, the management thugs she uses, illegally raised our rent more than 10% and forced us to sign a lease or, if going month to month, we would pay 25% more than we had been paying (and that could be done only for 2 months. Sign lease or move.) So while we went in to sign a 9 month lease a month or so ago (I wanted to make sure we had a good window in order to build without being forced into another lease or huge bucks going month to month for maybe 3 or months while the house was completed and I effected our move) -- I raised hell about the garbage condition of our place, mostly wanting ONE set of new blinds in our bedroom. I mentioned the refrigerator ran at least 12 hours a day which meant IT was worn out, but I didn't expect a replacement.

The next day, the doorbell rang well before we get up (Hubs telecommutes and works an after-hours shift), and there are these two Russian or Ukranian guys who work for the management company with a refrigerator on a dolly WAY too small for it.

We scrambled to box the contents of our fridge and freezer, and they wheeled the old one out. Underneath the fridge was goo, scum. I I refused to let them wheel the other in until I used a commercial industrial warehouse degreaser in order to get the crap up and scraped off. They were pissed about having to wait for that. Remember, we didn't get a phone call, this is hours before we normally wake up, and no one consulted us about whether or not wanted a replacement.

Tough.

Next, wheel the new fridge in, forget to take the plastic off the coils on the back. I had to make them wheel it back out and get them to take the plastic off the back. I had to make them take the plastic and foam out of the interior -- and it was everywhere. They INSISTED it didn't need levelling and left with the old one.. which held MORE than the new one does.

They didn't leave us a manual for this Hotpoint (GE) bottom of the line piece of crap with 2 less shelves than theother had and NO ice maker, and it had no ice tray in it, either.

Erek and I monkeyed around and figured out how to level it, more or less.
I filled it and discovered something.

It skreeks every time one opens or closes it. There's NO place to lubricate it, and no way to get the door off the hinges to do so, either.

We've had it a month now. The cats are in heaven. Now they know immediately if there's something going on in the kitchen. They're EXTREMELY fond of the thing.

Me, I HATE it. It SCREAMS if I'm getting milk to make us a latte. It SCREAMS every time I open or close it making a meal. It SCREAMS UUUUUUUUUUP and then dowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn, like a whiney four year old pretending to cry in pain, but really crying for attention.
Forget to get out an onion? SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeammmmmmm.

Putting away groceries?

SKREEEEEEEEEK. SCREAM, screeeeeeeeeeeeeeam! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL!
Ad nauseam.

I've discovered every one of these damned things makes the same noise and there's frak-all anyone can do about it. Every neighbor with this model of "new refrigerator" in all the "retrofitted" apartments has the same complaint.

And we're all losing weight.