No walls for you!
So we talked with Semen Breath about the apartment. He hastily agreed to install a lock on the closet door, so that the mattress thing would be less of an issue, and he assured us that the space beyond the mattress is only his basement storage area, not living space, so we don't have to worry about our tv sounds wafting over the mattress into their living room.
On the other hand, he stubbornly refused to see the poor quality of the wall's paint job. When I tried to point out how streaky it is, he just said we needed more light - when he opened the blinds, it was even more apparent, but he still claimed not to be able to see what I was walking about. He said no to a re-paint - even when we offered to do it ourselves. He said that he had let tenants do it before, and it had been a poor paint job. He said that was three years or so ago, and it had been repainted since that time. By who?? His blind uncle? The repaint (if it even exists- I'm inclined to believe that he lied about that, and this IS the shitty job of three years ago) is a half assed job. It is a lighter shade of yellow than the colour beneath, and is only one coat. It was clearly painted with a brush, not a roller, and many of the corners are not covered at all. I hate it. Anyway, he says he's worried we'll damage the carpet, and "maybe in six months". Yeah. When we've already moved everything in and it'll be WAY harder to do. I just feel like that's never going to happen. Even if he let us. We'd have to move the furniture out of each room while we did it, cover our life in tarps for a while. Right now it would be so easy - haul in the girls from work and have it done in an evening of laughing and pizza. But he's denying us that. Why? To save a hundred bucks on paint. Because apparently, a young married couple doesn't have the right to have a nice looking home.
Like when I asked him if I could put up curtain rods. He looked at me so blankly, and just asked "why? What's wrong with the blinds?"
Nothing is wrong with the blinds. They're just... BLINDS. I'd like curtains. Pretty curtains. But he couldn't understand why I would want curtains when I already have blinds. Just didn't compute for him. He wasn't against it or anything, he just didn't understand. Never mind that HE has curtains in HIS home. And his paint job is nice. But why would WE want these things?
Does it strike anyone else as odd that the landlord-tenant relationship has got to be just about the only business relationship where the provider of the service exerts power over the customer? In retail, in restaurants, in hospitality, the customer "is always right." They advertise. "Please give us your money - we'll make you happy" ever business advertises. But when it comes to paying someone for your own home, people are expected to put up with complete shit. This has got to be a WAY more important monthly expenditure than a dinner out or a weekend stay at a hotel, and yet it's all about trying to please the landlord, more than vice versa. This seems stupid and messed up, to me. I'm paying him for this place. If I want it to look nice, is that so strange???
But it's making me so unhappy, for some reason. This is my second late night, unable to sleep, torturing myself about it. The apartment otherwise is lovely. It's much more private than what we have now, it'll be MUCH quieter - no more beer brawls outside our window - it has a garden. It's bright. It has a dishwasher, and a kitchen that isn't a galley kitchen. But that paint job tortures me. I see it SO clearly, and I feel so impotent about it. I wonder how long we'll live with this shitty paint job. Years? Will my first child be born in an apartment, to parents who can't even provide it with a decent coat of paint for its new room? I've been sobbing my eyes out off and on all night on thoughts like this.
Walls are like carpets - when they look dirty, the whole ROOM looks dirty. I don't want people thinking my place looks dirty. I want my place to be pretty. Prettiness is so important to me. It's a big reason for our leaving our current place, with its overflowing dumpster and ugly browny red balconies. The inside of our apartment is quite nice - but I wanted to trade up for a nice OUTSIDE as well. Now, unwittingly, we have landed ourselves in the opposite situation - lovely outside, but an inside that makes me wince, instead.
The place looked fine when we toured it. We weren't shoving our faces up against the walls, but instead looking at things like light fixtures, layout, stuff like that. Maybe people visiting our house won't even notice... but maybe they WILL. It's certainly a change from the egg-shell tope of our current place. It's glaring to me. Maybe it'll be glaring to others.
Why won't he let us paint it?
On the other hand, he stubbornly refused to see the poor quality of the wall's paint job. When I tried to point out how streaky it is, he just said we needed more light - when he opened the blinds, it was even more apparent, but he still claimed not to be able to see what I was walking about. He said no to a re-paint - even when we offered to do it ourselves. He said that he had let tenants do it before, and it had been a poor paint job. He said that was three years or so ago, and it had been repainted since that time. By who?? His blind uncle? The repaint (if it even exists- I'm inclined to believe that he lied about that, and this IS the shitty job of three years ago) is a half assed job. It is a lighter shade of yellow than the colour beneath, and is only one coat. It was clearly painted with a brush, not a roller, and many of the corners are not covered at all. I hate it. Anyway, he says he's worried we'll damage the carpet, and "maybe in six months". Yeah. When we've already moved everything in and it'll be WAY harder to do. I just feel like that's never going to happen. Even if he let us. We'd have to move the furniture out of each room while we did it, cover our life in tarps for a while. Right now it would be so easy - haul in the girls from work and have it done in an evening of laughing and pizza. But he's denying us that. Why? To save a hundred bucks on paint. Because apparently, a young married couple doesn't have the right to have a nice looking home.
Like when I asked him if I could put up curtain rods. He looked at me so blankly, and just asked "why? What's wrong with the blinds?"
Nothing is wrong with the blinds. They're just... BLINDS. I'd like curtains. Pretty curtains. But he couldn't understand why I would want curtains when I already have blinds. Just didn't compute for him. He wasn't against it or anything, he just didn't understand. Never mind that HE has curtains in HIS home. And his paint job is nice. But why would WE want these things?
Does it strike anyone else as odd that the landlord-tenant relationship has got to be just about the only business relationship where the provider of the service exerts power over the customer? In retail, in restaurants, in hospitality, the customer "is always right." They advertise. "Please give us your money - we'll make you happy" ever business advertises. But when it comes to paying someone for your own home, people are expected to put up with complete shit. This has got to be a WAY more important monthly expenditure than a dinner out or a weekend stay at a hotel, and yet it's all about trying to please the landlord, more than vice versa. This seems stupid and messed up, to me. I'm paying him for this place. If I want it to look nice, is that so strange???
But it's making me so unhappy, for some reason. This is my second late night, unable to sleep, torturing myself about it. The apartment otherwise is lovely. It's much more private than what we have now, it'll be MUCH quieter - no more beer brawls outside our window - it has a garden. It's bright. It has a dishwasher, and a kitchen that isn't a galley kitchen. But that paint job tortures me. I see it SO clearly, and I feel so impotent about it. I wonder how long we'll live with this shitty paint job. Years? Will my first child be born in an apartment, to parents who can't even provide it with a decent coat of paint for its new room? I've been sobbing my eyes out off and on all night on thoughts like this.
Walls are like carpets - when they look dirty, the whole ROOM looks dirty. I don't want people thinking my place looks dirty. I want my place to be pretty. Prettiness is so important to me. It's a big reason for our leaving our current place, with its overflowing dumpster and ugly browny red balconies. The inside of our apartment is quite nice - but I wanted to trade up for a nice OUTSIDE as well. Now, unwittingly, we have landed ourselves in the opposite situation - lovely outside, but an inside that makes me wince, instead.
The place looked fine when we toured it. We weren't shoving our faces up against the walls, but instead looking at things like light fixtures, layout, stuff like that. Maybe people visiting our house won't even notice... but maybe they WILL. It's certainly a change from the egg-shell tope of our current place. It's glaring to me. Maybe it'll be glaring to others.
Why won't he let us paint it?