Chapter Two: A Week-Long Ordeal - Part I

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.

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.