More bitching about my apartment

One thing I forgot to mention in my post about Yahoo Answers, and something that has strengthened my addiction to it is that it has a point system. 2 for answering, -5 for asking, 10 for being voted the best answer, etc. I have reached level 2 (out of 7) in just three days. I've walked away just long enough to sleep, clean my apartment and get some work done.

My upstairs neighbors are moving out today, and while I'm kinda glad I can be as noisy as possible and not bother anyone...not that I would, but it's nice to know that I can...I'm kinda sad to see them go. They were good people. And, as I found out, they've been having the same problems with our landlord as I have...and then some. They've lived here a whole two days longer than I have, and now I consider myself lucky, because at least I have a working stove and a working gas heater...they haven't this whole time.

It saddens me that this place hasn't been kept up to its full potential. If the landlords only put a little money towards new appliances, better insulating doors and windows, and a little remodeling, this place could be great! The downside to that is they couldn't justify $300 a month after that.

I went in Friday afternnon to pay my rent and bring up a couple issues. First of all, the empty apartment next to me has had it's door unlocked for a while now, and from what I can tell by going in there, I think a couple bums have squatted (in all senses of the term) there. The second was the fact that my place doesn't have a smoke detector. Yet again, I need to buy it myself and they'll take it off my next month's rent.

Seeing as I can't afford to move just yet, I'm not ready to rock the boat and risk getting evicted, which is why I haven't mentioned them by name as of yet. However, if the situation arises, I've already got enough ammo for the housing department to get an investigation started.

If my credit was good enough, what I'd love to see happen is the Housing Department come down hard on the landlord, and I would offer to buy the place myself and fix it up. I'd put in some more modern amenities (I was lucky to have a cable outlet in this place)...like dishwashers, maybe a small washer/dryer, heaters and air-conditioners that are less than forty years old, etc. I see soooo much potential in this place, and it's just a slum right now.

I can dream, I guess.