Emily Miller
Emily Miller
ENG 091
6 December 2010
The Worst Apartment Ever
When my husband and I were first married, we were excited to find a centrally located studio apartment with rent that was just a little over four hundred dollars a month. We were starry eyed when we came home from our honeymoon to our own little apartment. It didn’t take long, however, before the rose-colored glasses came off. Our apartment at Bridge Point was the worst place I ever lived because of the broken appliances, because of the poor management, and because of the terrible location.
First of all, our apartment was a terrible place to live because of all the broken appliances. In just our first week living at Bridge Point, the handles fell off both our fridge and our microwave. Luckily, we were able to screw the handle back on the fridge without much of a problem, but the microwave was trickier. We ended up putting in a work order with the management to have it replaced, but it took months to get any kind of response. Also, our garbage disposal was a total disaster. Whenever I tried to put leftover food down the disposal, the food ended up falling directly onto the floor underneath the sink, which attracted all kinds of bugs. To make matters worse, there wasn’t a dishwasher. I had to wash all of our dishes by hand, and because of the broken disposal, all of the food scraps had to go in the garbage. Not only did this exacerbate the bug problem, we had to take out the garbage constantly or live with the smell.
The second reason I hated our apartment so much is that the management was terrible. Like I said before, when we put in a work order to have our microwave fixed, we had to wait months before the management did anything about it. Even then, I’d be willing to bet that the only reason they sent anyone out is that my husband complained to the front office religiously once a week. Another issue with the management was that they wouldn’t reimburse us for our hotel stay when the gas went out. In my previous apartment there was a flood, and the landlord paid for my roommate and me to stay at a hotel while he took care of it. The management at Bridge Point, however, refused—so we had to pay out of pocket. One final issue was that the management didn’t keep us well informed. During our seven-month stay, the water and gas went out three different times. The management never kept us updated on what was going on or when the problem was expected to be resolved. That was frustrating!
A third reason I disliked our apartment was that the location was terrible. At first, we really liked the location because it was close to where we both worked, but we soon realized that the neighborhood was not safe. It seemed like every time we turned on the news, there was a story about some terrible crime that had happened within just a few miles of where we were living. This was very unsettling, especially since my husband often worked overnight shifts and I was left home alone. Similarly, I sometimes felt nervous coming home late at night. I remember one night in particular when all of the lights in the parking lot and complex were out. I arrived home late, and I was a little frightened to have to walk from my car to my apartment in the dark. To make matters worse, some of our neighbors were what you might call “unsavory characters.” For example, we often smelled marijuana coming from the next-door apartment. One day when we were in the front office, we found out that he had been arrested for dealing drugs.
Faulty appliances, poor management, and a dangerous neighborhood don’t exactly make for a great place to live. That is why my apartment at Bridge Point was such a terrible place to live. I will never sign an apartment lease again without investigating more closely.
