Part One – Two Days
to Kick Things Off
BE SURE TO CHECK THE BLOG ARCHIVE TO THE RIGHT
AND START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY!
NOTE: I went looking for pictures of this apartment, specifically of the problems we dealt with while we were there, but I've apparently deleted them in an attempt to erase the memory. I did manage to find one video I hadn't deleted that I hope I can get uploaded and stuck in the post. So, if some of the pictures in this entry seem a little less than directly tied to the story, you'll know why. UPDATE: My roommate did save a couple of pictures unintentionally, so, they're scattered throughout the post.
We returned to our apartment on
Monday morning to unload some items from the truck. We had packed everything in
such a way that the items we needed were in the back, easily accessed. The plan
was to unload only what we needed for the first night, and we would spend that
night cleaning. After dragging two beds, one queen and one double, into the
apartment, along with a few small boxes, a couple of neighbors came over and
offered to help. It was only the roommate and I, and there was a lot of stuff.
We took them up on their offer, but in hindsight, I wish we had declined and
stuck to the original plan. It would've saved a lot of work in the long run.
 |
See how nice the model makes it look?
That's what they show you in FL. |
Within only about 45 minutes of
having started with the neighbors helping, the entire truck was unloaded. We
were far from organized, obviously. There were boxes stacked everywhere,
nothing was in the room it should've been (at least it seemed), none of the
furniture was accessible, and we still hadn't had the chance to clean like we
wanted. The only places that we could get to were the kitchen and bathrooms,
so, that’s where we started.
The complex was a few years older
than what the model we’d been shown appeared, so, the kitchen cabinets were a
little older, too, making them a little harder to clean. The pantry was small,
and after starting to clean and wanting to remove the shelves for better
access, I realized that they had been painted into place. That’s right; they
didn't even bother to take them out of the pantry when they painted… This is
only the beginning. The painted-in shelves and aged cabinetry was the least of
our worries. We initially took a bunch of pictures of the apartment and the problems within it, but I was so disheartened by them, that I deleted them all after the ordeal was over.
Now, I know I’m a bit more of a
neat freak than most, but when I move out of an apartment, I always keep in
mind that someone else is going to have to move into it, and that person will
have to deal with whatever mess I left. When I moved out of my last apartment
in
Huntington,
the girl from the leasing office told me it was the cleanest apartment she’d
ever seen anyone leave. I’m pretty sure the people that moved out of this
apartment we were cleaning were exactly the opposite. I made this discovery
upon pulling the refrigerator out from the wall. Remember, now, not only did
the people who lived here leave it this way, but the leasing company pays
people to come in and clean, and
they
left it this way, too.
On a side note, anytime you move somewhere like this, you
need (yes, I did bold, underline, and italicize that word, and yes, I hate it when people do that, but it's that important) to check out apartmentratings.com. These reviews are sometimes back and forth, but the overall rating for a complex will tell you a lot! Plus, you can judge the believability of a review based on how well it's written and thought out before writing. Trust me! The apartment in which we wound up living had good ratings, and it's been good so far. They even worked with us when we moved into the complex to help us get set up with the lease. I wish we had taken a harder look at the ratings site before making out initial decision. Anyway...
 |
That's a screenshot of the rating Lake Jasmine
currently holds on apartmentratings.com.
Yes, that's out of 100%. |
I spent the biggest part of the
afternoon working on the kitchen, and the roommate spent time in the bathrooms.
After a while we left to go find some dinner, and by the time we returned, it
was already getting dark. We had no intentions of quitting early, though; we’d
gotten very little done. So, we went right back to it, mainly cleaning but
beginning to organize some, also. It was about 6:30 PM or 7:00 PM when we got
back, and within an hour, it was pretty much dark in the apartment, so far as
natural light goes. That’s when we discovered we weren't alone.
Coming from an area of the
country that experiences all four seasons, there are certain things you worry
about and certain things that don’t really become a huge problem. That idea
changes in a place like Florida.
I've learned a lot of things since moving, and I feel like whenever I move
again, I’ll be far more prepared. There is one topic on which I've gained a
significant amount of knowledge, one I never would've thought to study before:
roaches.
If you've heard the stories and
were wondering about bugs in Florida,
there is some truth and some exaggeration. The truth is that insects in general
grow quite a bit larger here than in an area like West Virginia, because the winter season
doesn't exist to kill off the bugs, so, they live longer and keep growing. The
exaggeration is about the number of them you experience, at least generally.
In the specific area of roaches,
there are two different types you’ll typically encounter. One is the American
cockroach, which is also commonly referred to as a palmetto bug. These roaches
prefer to live outdoors (favoring palm trees, hence palmetto), and the only
time you’ll really seem them inside is if they've slipped in when you had the
door/window open, and they’re typically dead when you find them. They won’t
survive inside for very long. The other type is the German cockroach. These are
the roaches most people picture in their minds, and the ones that inhabit
unclean living areas in search of food. Almost everyone, regardless of
cleanliness, will see a palmetto bug in their home from time to time. German
roaches are another story. What we had at Lake Jasmine Apartments were German
roaches.
We attempted to go ahead and
clean, killing the first few we encountered. It’s not unusual to see one or two
in an apartment that’s been empty for a while. As we cleaned, we saw a few
more, and a few more, and a few more… Eventually, after cleaning ever so
lightly between bouts of roach murder, we gave up the fight. It was around 2:00
AM that we locked up the apartment, took what we needed, and we headed down the
road to a motel, both being unwilling to sleep in the roach infested apartment.
At the point which we left that night, and remember, we didn't even start
counting at the beginning, we had killed somewhere between sixty-five and
seventy-five roaches. You didn't misread that, between 65 and 75 roaches. Even
with the understanding that they’re more prevalent a problem in Florida, that’s an
excessive, serious infestation. The video below is of the dishwasher in the apartment...IN THE DISHWASHER!
Not only that, but upon closer
inspection of the apartment, it was easy to see some of the contributing
factors. There as a large hole in the ceiling of the water heater closet, none
of the plumbing was sealed around the wall properly, kick-boards were missing
under parts the counters, and the apartment had not been cleaned to any kind of
a standard I’d set myself if I were in charge of a property like this one.
We headed to the closest location
that was affordable and would allow pets. The Roadway Inn was only about five
minutes from the apartment, and we were pleasantly surprised with the
accommodations after checking into the room. Over the course of our stay, just
to give you an idea of the bug problem, we saw one roach in the motel, a
palmetto bug, and we were there for the week as we battled the complex
management.
Tuesday morning saw us up bright
and early, ready to state our case with Lake Jasmine’s
management. We had taken pictures and some videos as proof of our situation.
You can’t just walk someone down to the apartment in the middle of the day;
roaches are nocturnal for the most part. The leasing agent with whom we had
been working was as polite and helpful as always.
 |
This was the state of cleanliness
when we moved into the unit. |
I basically told her we wanted to
do whatever we needed to do in order to be released from the lease. I was
basically told, as I expected, that there was nothing she could do, but that
she could go speak with the manager. I told her I’d appreciate that and waited
patiently at her desk. She returned after a few minutes to tell me that the
manager, who I had yet to meet I might add, had nothing different to say. The
only recourse I was offered was to have the pest control agent come out and
spray the apartment.
If you don’t know how the pest
control at an apartment complex works, I’m happy for you. Basically, the guy
comes out and sprays around the edge of your apartment, not really doing any
good, and in extreme cases, ours was one so we got this extra treatment, he
will apply bait that the roaches pick up, carry back to their nest, eat, die,
and infect the others. Also, if you didn't know, the first thing newly
born/hatched roaches eat are the dead bodies of their fallen elders, so, in
this process you kill the nest on site. Jut a little roach info for you! Back
to the story…
I told her to go ahead and have him
come; it wasn't going to hurt anything, but that wasn't going to satisfy the
current situation. At best, it would be three days or more before that cleared
up the problem if it did clear it up at all. Then, we both suggested almost at
the same time that I speak with the manager myself. As you can imagine, at this
point, I’m pretty aggravated with the situation, but I’m keeping my cool. I’m
pretty tactful overall, and though I’m not afraid of confrontation, I try to
explore all other options before starting an argument with another person. I do
have my limits, though, and the way the past few days had played out were
testing them. The proverbial camel was about to suffer serious back trauma.
 |
| That's about how I felt. |
The leasing agent returned to
inform me that the manager, the person who is paid to oversee the facility and
deal with tenant problems and concerns, situations just like this, was too busy
to speak with me. She didn't say that she’d have to get to me in a little
while, that she’d contact me later, or even that she was sorry; she just didn't
have time for me. Well, I kept a level head with the leasing agent, because she
had been nothing but helpful and nice to us. I told her that if her manager
didn't have time to speak with me that I was going to need the contact information
for someone else who would make time whether they wanted to or not. I was given
a number for the complex’s corporate offices, and after walking back out to the
car, chilling out for a minute, and deciding on how I would play this next
course of action, we drove back to the other end of the complex, and I made the
call standing in front of our apartment, with hundreds of tiny eyes most
assuredly watching me from the darkened corners of the building.
The lady that answered my call
was as polite and helpful as she could be, and she connected me with someone
named Steve. I’d change his name to protect his identity, but I honestly don’t
remember what his real name was, so, we’ll just call him Steve. Well, Steve
listened politely and patiently as I explained our situation. At the same time,
one of our neighbors, Nick, who had helped us move into the apartment, was
hearing the same story from the roommate. Steve was very understanding, but
explained that he was located at the company’s corporate offices in Miami and there was
little he could do from that distance. He gave me the number for the regional
director, Fred, also not the man’s forgotten real name, and I thought I
understood that he was also going to have Fred contact me ASAP.
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| That's the ceiling of our hot water closet. |
I left the call and returned to the
roommate and Nick. Apparently, from Nick’s story, this whole nightmare was a
pretty common thing, and that’s basically what we heard from everyone else in
the complex with whom we spoke. There was even a guy in a neighboring building
to ours that was moving out before his lease expired to escape the bugs. Again,
I can’t stress enough that this was not just a “well, you live in
Florida, now, get used
to it” kind of a situation. These were conditions in which I wouldn't expect
anyone to live, but whether it because of their financial or family situation,
many people did anyway.
Not much time had passed when a
golf cart (all the property managers use them to get around down here) pulled
up in front of the apartment. We were sitting on the porch waiting to hear
something. We had not only informed the management of the bug problem, but we
also hit on the disrepair, too. The golf cart was driven by the property’s
assistant manager – this was the first I’d heard that she existed – and the
maintenance supervisor. We did a walk through of the apartment, pointing out
the things I mentioned earlier, as well as a faulty light switch and a couple
other select trouble areas. We were told all the problems could be fixed, and
that the regional manager had already contacted the office about our situation.
I informed the assistant manager, Amy (probably not even close to her name),
that I was also expecting a call from Fred.
We parted ways, and the cart
headed back in the direction of the main office. The roommate and I spent the rest
of the afternoon sitting on the front porch, leaving to get food at one point.
The visit we received earlier would be the last we would hear from anyone that
day. Around 4:00 PM, I decided to go ahead and call Fred myself since I hadn't
heard from him. As it turns out, I misunderstood Steve. Fred had been expecting
a call from me, not waiting to make first contact himself. I let this
mis-communication slide, and I explained the situation for what felt like the
tenth time that day. Well, Fred was right on top of things, and he wanted to
make sure that he did whatever he needed to do to make things right. He even
expressed sympathy, telling me that he always imagined his daughter moving into
the situation whenever he got a call like mine. He wasn't sure what exactly
could or would be done, but he wanted to come out the next day, first thing,
and see the problems for himself.
I explained that we wouldn't be staying
in the apartment, but that we’d be back to meet him in the morning. We headed
back to the same motel, spent another night’s rental fee, and waited to start
again on Wednesday. Needless to say, we both felt aggravated, tired, and
helpless. I’m not a person who often creates problems or causes a “scene”, but
those who know me best know that the way I just described myself is not a state
of mind in which you want to have to deal with me. The management of Lake Jasmine
would discover that over the coming three days.
