What are my neighbours like?

Where do I even start?!  We moved into this condo in July of 2007.  It’s in a good area, and when we moved in here, I didn’t think we would have any problems with our neighbours.  It’s a very secure building, with a concierge and I just didn’t think the type of people who lived here were the type to cause any trouble.  Boy, was I wrong!

We noticed right after we moved in that the people above us thought nothing of throwing their trash down onto our patio area!  I really liked the fact that we have a nice big area outside instead of a tiny balcony at first.  In fact it’s one of the reasons we picked this condo.  We traded the high floor for more outside space.  It turns out what we really did was trade a high floor for a huge outside dumping ground for everyone else’s trash! 

We know who is doing most of this, and even went to the management about the problem.  Nothing was done.  We pick up around 200 cigarette butts a week and we don’t even smoke!  There are always bits of envelopes, and wrappers to various food items blowing around outside.  I can’t even open the balcony door on days when there is enough wind to blow the cigarette butts around because they blow into the living room and ash gets all over the carpet.  Some of the other items dropped onto our patio include lighters, dead leaves from plants, a mat that goes around a toilet, a broken mirror, a dirty towel, long pieces of wood, and a used condom!  Just to remind you we’ve been here less than a year!

Most of the trash seems to come from the people living directly above us.  There are a lot of cigarette packages stuck between the railing of their balcony.  I guess they got caught when someone tried to kick them off of the balcony.  We can’t even go outside and enjoy the space because it’s so disgusting out there. 

The same neighbours are loud and don’t seem to care about anyone who lives around them.  They seem to leave every noisy thing they have to do until late at night.  I’m not the least bit surprised anymore when I hear drilling at bedtime.  They use to have quite a few late night parties too, until I went downstairs and reported them one night.  It was after 11 pm, we had to get up for work the next morning and all we could hear was the music they were playing and people talking loudly and laughing.  Their balcony door was open and people were outside making a lot of noise and not caring one bit that there are other people living around them!  The balcony is right next to our bedroom window.  I finally had too much, and went downstairs in my sweatshirt and pyjama pants to speak to the concierge about the situation.  I had let them off plenty of times before, and that night they just stepped over the line! 

When I got downstairs there was a guy waiting to be let upstairs.  I think he was on his way to the party, but that didn’t stop me fro complaining about it.  I just couldn’t handle it anymore.  The concierge got into the elevator with both of us, and as I was climbing back into bed, I heard the people upstairs get a lot louder, before they all cleared out, leaving the guy who lives there to clean up the mess.

Did I feel bad?  Not at all!  This is the same guy that left a nasty note for me taped onto my door with the writing (excuse me, typing) facing out for everyone to see.  It was all because my guide dog had a bit of an upset stomach and had pooed outside of her litter box.  He informed me that it was disgusting having to look down at it and told me to clean it up.

Now, to go back a bit when we moved in here we knew there were a lot of other dogs in the building.  We also knew there had to be somewhere for them to pee because there were so many of them.  There is a park a short walk from here, and we thought that if there was no spot closer to the building I could take my guide dog there when she had to go.  This plan didn’t quite work out because it turns out the other people who have dogs take them out in the planters near the enterance to the parking garage.  They are not suppose to do this.  Another option is to cut across the street and take them to a parking lot, or to take them to the park.

In order to get across the street to the parking lot I have to go all the way to the end of the block, cross the street, come all the way back towards the building and get over grass and gravel.  Sounds simple enough, but when you are a blind wheelchair user, it’s not so simple.  The park was also not an option because there is a huge chuck of sidewalk that is raised and cracked.  Some tree roots have uprooted it, and it’s too steep and cracked to get over safely, even when someone is helping.  If I do manage to get over this there is an open hole where a cover came off, that is just big enough to catch a wheel in and send me catapulting head first into the sidewalk just past the “sidewalk of death”. 

To get around this issue, I built a Lab. sized litter box and put it on our patio.  My guide dog uses it, and I clean it out, but if her stomach is not feeling well, and she has to get out in a hurry sometimes she will miss the box.  I can’t get out onto the patio, but I can sit on the floor in the living room and reach to the end of the box to clean it up.  If anything goes outside the box my boyfriend cleans it up.  It works out great, because when either of my dogs have to go out, I just have to open the door, put them on their leash and let them out.  It’s great in the winter when there’s snow on the ground!  Since moving here, I got a Siberian Husky puppy to train as my new guide/service dog.  She uses the litter box also.  She will gradually take over the work my current guide dog does whenever she wants to retire.

I’ve talked to the girl that lives down the hall from me and she has no problem with this.  Our patios are connected.  She couldn’t believe that the guy upstairs left the note on my door the way he did.  At the time my boyfriend wasn’t here, and I had to wait a few days to get the little spot that was outside the box cleaned up.  Anyway, enough about that neighbour, lets talk about the girl across the hall!

This girl has absolutely no respect for anyone!  The trash chute is right across the hall from me, and right next to her condo.  She usually gets home at odd hours of the morning and decides to take her trash out at 2 am!  Why it can’t wait until a sensible time of day is beyond me.  She gets home, lets her door slam so hard it can potentially wake everyone who lives around her, lets her door slam again while she hurls her trash down the chute and lets those two doors slam, before letting her own door slam once more.  She leaves her trash on the floor behind the door in the room the trash chute is in, so the door wont open, and leaves bags of trash stuck int he chute.  She never bothers to even try to stop her door from slamming shut, and will talk really loudly in the hallway no matter what time of day or night it is!  Then when she opens her door she will stand in the hallway talking in a loud baby voice to her barking dogs!

This was the worst I had to put up with from her, or so I thought!  Earlier this month, she had a loud argument with some guy she had brought home with her.  I have no idea who he was, but I assume he was her boyfriend.  They were arguing inside her apartment loud enough that I could hear them all the way in my living room.  There’s a long hallway and a kitchen between the hallway and where I was.  They continue arguing as they came out into the hallway a few times and went back into her apartment.  Her dogs were barking, and I was seriously considering calling downstairs.  Not so much to report the argument, but I was getting worried.  She was crying rather uncontrollably, and the guy wouldn’t give her her phone.  If I could have read the number on the side of the fridge, I would have let someone know, just to make sure she was ok.  Sure, she’s an annoying neighbour, but no one deserves that.

Anyway, things seemed to calm down, and I settled in again on the couch to watch some TV until I fell asleep.  I didn’t even have a chance to get comfortable, when there was a loud knock on my door!  I froze for a minute trying to decide what to do.  My guide dog was already halfway to the door, and my puppy was freaking out in her crate.  I grabbed one of the cordless phones, got back into my wheelchair and nervously pushed my way past my guide dog.  I thought it was probably my neighbour needing to use a phone or something.  I thought the guy had left because I herd the ding of the elevator when it stopped on this floor. 

I opened the door a crack, shaking from the adrenaline, only to find two Police officers in the hallway!  I invited them in and they asked some questions.  The male officer even changed a burnt out light bulb for me while the female played with my puppy.  They spoke to the other people at this end of the hallway, and I heard them say something about something “being evidence” as they left on of the apartments down the hall from me. 

I thought the girl would take it easy after this whole fiasco, and at least try to be quiet for the next few days.  The Police had come around 1:20 am.  It was only about 15 minutes after the argument had taken place, and by 8 am the girl had come back home and was slamming her door as usual!  She hasn’t stopped since!

With any luck we wont have to put up with this for too much longer because we are thinking about moving to The Netherlands this summer!  It will be a huge move, but I’m looking forward to it!  Let’s just hope we find better neighbours there!