Sometimes you think you’ve found the perfect place–it’s close to work, it’s sunny, the rent’s reasonable–only to discover after you’ve moved that there’s something about your place you just didn’t bargain on. Here’s what some readers had to say when we asked them to complete the following sentence: “I knew it was time to move . . . “
“When neither the management company nor the police refused to do anything about our noisy neighbors who would hold their band/musical rehearsals until 4 to 5 a.m.”
“When my butt stuck to the toilet seat. It was caked with my college roommate’s hairspray.”
“When my buzzer rang at midnight, because someone is looking for the drug-dealing prostitute on the first floor.”
“When my neighbor across the hall would peek into my peep hole.”
“When the rap artist wannabe blasted his surround-sound stereo in the apartment below me. It’s such a joy to feel my floor vibrate and to hear melodious thumping in the night.”
“When the local pizza franchise told me, `I’m sorry but we don’t deliver pizza in that area, you’ll have to come pick it up.”
“When we discovered dog poop in the hallway of our three-flat building one morning. To make matters worse, the dogs belonged to our landlord, and he refused to pick up the mess until 10 p.m. that night!”
“I heard a story from the college girls who rented our house before we bought it.
The former owners were a couple in their 60s who lived in Wisconsin. They would drive into town to do repairs on the house and visit his elderly sister, who lived across the street, once or twice a year. They would just move in with the girls and stay for a few days. It was so uncomfortable that the girls would just leave and stay with friends until they left. Also, they said sometimes they’d come home and the furniture would be rearranged the way it was when they first moved in. They were sure it was the elderly sister, who had a key.”
Susan Olsen, Lake Geneva, Wis..
