may i ask you a question?
Exhibit A:
My superintendent seems to have a chip on his shoulder. When i first met him at the apartment viewing (last august), he was beyond pleasant and seemed to really like me. He put in a good word for us to the landlord and subsequently, we got the place and moved in September. On moving day, (also known as the morning following my return from china) my parents, along with adams parents had two full carloads of stuff waiting outside the apartment ready to go at 9 am. superintendent informs us that the apartment isn't ready (as it was being renovated) and he had to clean it before we could move anything in. Our parents were running on a tight schedule and had to be in Trenton (about an hour and a half away) at a certain time so we asked if we could do the cleaning ourselves and just get everything out of the car so they could be on their way. He says no, he has to do it himself, and that it will be ready at 1. He also tells us his wife just had a baby the day before so things were a bit hectic. fair enough, right? We are apologetic and sheepishly congratulate him on his new member of the family but again ask for the key (and stress that WE WILL CLEAN and its no problem at all). He says no. Somewhere along the way one of our dad's returned to his apartment and pleaded with him, as they had to get back home shorltly. He huffs out something like, "give me one minute" and reluctantly, walks out of the front door ten minutes later to toss us our key without so much as a second of eye contact. We thank him profusely and he sighs his way into our apartment, where he carelessly grabs his garbage bags and paint cans, not acknowledging (let alone apologizing for) accidentally bumping into us on his way out. we shrug this off as just bad timing and apologized more than we should have, and let it be.
Exhibit B:
there is a leak in the apartment below us and the superintendent has to come check out our bathroom. He knocks on the door and when i open it, i see that he is with another man who i soon find out is my Landlord, whom I hadn't met. I'm meeting my landlord for the first time and I am pleasantly surprised at how nice he is. Over the top nice! I'm pleased. They take off their shoes, enter the apartment and do their thing in the bathroom while i hold my curious cat. The superintendent asks me a few questions about leaking and i wonder to myself if his tone is actually condescending or if i just imagine it to be. the inspection is over soon enough and as they are putting their shoes on, my landlord chirps, "it was great to finally meet you devon! thank you so much for letting us inspect the bathroom! Have a great day!"
"its great to finally meet you!" i chirp back and before i can swallow the superintendent looks at me and says in that familiar "condescending tone", "Devon, has my wife left you a notice about your noise level?"
"No," I respond, "this is the first I've heard of it."
"Yeah, well the woman below you has been complaining about how loud your music is. so my wife was going to write you an official notice to ask you to turn it down."
"is it all the time?" I ask, confused.
"no, not at all the time. just turn it down a bit ok?"
Great timing, i think.
Exhibit C:
It is raining. Rachel and I are waiting outside a store, with a sign on the door that reads "Be back in a moment". We wait for at least twenty moments, when the door becomes unlocked and we start to head towards it. A man pulls up on his bike and grabs the door and opens it, motioning us for to go in ahead of him. I distinctly think, "well, that was nice!" and turn to see it is my superintendent. and he is smiling.
thats weird. i think to myself. he must not have noticed it was me.
Exhibit D:
I'm waiting for Rachel to come back from coffee time, and i have the door propped open with a piece of bark. The superintendent is coming down the stairs, walks past the front door and then returns. He opens the door and grabs the piece of bark saying, "You have a key, right?" And shuts the door. The thing is, I didn't have a key. we had lost them two weeks before that but neither of us wanted to go and tell him that. I also didn't have enough time in this particular run into tell him that piece of information before he shut the door.
Exhibit E:
My brother (adam), dad, adam and i are outside in the parking lot, loading our stuff into the car about to head home for Christmas. My brother is standing outside the passenger side and someone bumps into him from behind.
"Oops! I'm so sorry!" Says brother adam.
There is no response. the face catches my attention for two reasons. one being that i see it is my superintendent, the other being it is one of the nastiest looks i have ever seen.
"Whoa," says my brother. "that guy looked mad."
Exhibit F:
We get a notice saying the superintendent will be coming in to recaulk the tub the next day. At 3 pm that day, three hours later than he said he would arrive, he knocks on the door. I barely open it to see who it is and he pushes it open and walks past me without saying a single word. "Good morning!" I say, almost happy to throw some sunshine into his evil face.
not a word.
He walks in, with his shoes on this time. and spends an hour or two in the bathroom. he leaves just as he came, and thats that.
Exhibit G:
10 pm we get a notice saying tomorrow morning, at 10 am, the superintendent will be entering the apartment to re-tile the bathroom. The notice says that it should take about a week, and during this time we won't be able to shower in our bathroom, so we can use another apartment to do so. We can pick up the key at their place at any time. 'i thought they are supposed to give at least 48 hours notice for these types of things,' i think to myself, fully aware that I am just looking for something. anything about this person to piss me off now, despite the fact that arrangements had already been made for my friend carina and her boyfriend to stay with us that night. Adam and i have to work the next day, and when we wake up we inform our house-guests of our pleasant superintendent and his plans for the bathroom for the day. We go to work.
We come home and our bathroom is expectedly torn apart, and our friends have left. Later, during a conversation with carina, she tells me that the superintendent told them they had to clear out everything in the bathroom, while he curses at my cat for, likely just being the cutest most innocent thing in the entire fucking world. Guill probably brought a smile to his face which caused him to feel some sort of warm and fuzzy emotion. Anyways. I am getting off track. The superintendent tells them he'll give them 30 minutes to clear out the bathroom (none of these instructions were listed in the notice from the night before, by the way...and had it been any other day, there would have been nobody in the apartment, so he would have had to clear the bathroom out himself, no?). They do this, and he returns two hours later. later that night, adam goes to get the key to have a shower. While he's there he notices a sign on the door that reads, "on holidays until the 5th. Don't knock." We consider the irony of that statement and the fact that we, too are on holidays. the superintendent answers the door with a less than enthusiastic, "yeah?" and tells adam that "the guy" hasn't dropped the key off yet so he'll have to come back in the morning. We think this means we might actually be showering in an apartment that is actually being lived in, which kind of makes us feel icky.
The next day (today), we pack things up (including guill the cat) and head to rachels for the day, so we don't have to have any unneccessarily less than pleasant run ins with our dear old neighbour. And also so we can shower. We leave by 11 am, and return home by 7.30, only to see that he never came by at all.
So my questions to you, are:
- Is my superintendent an asshole?
- Is it too soon to suggest (not verbally suggest, but just to justify thinking) that he's taking his time with this bathroom thing?
- How long should it take to re-tile a small bathroom? (its actually just the wall where the shower head is).
- I get that he has two young children and this is his job and he is busy, but does that mean we deserve to feel like this?
- Do you think i should ask him (providing there is another event where i feel uncomfortable or a bit baffled by his negative behavior) what his problem is/ what i have done to deserve this treatment?
- Am i just overreacting in thinking this way?
the thing is, i don't trust this guy. and when he is in my house, making me feel belittled and just having someone be so rude (if this is considered rude, i can't say i know the live-in superintendent/resident etiquette all that well...but doesn't he technically work for me?) He's walking around like we owe him something, and yeah, i get the move-in day thing. But how many times can you be held responsible? I consider asking other residents how they feel about him, but the only time i ever usually see anyone is when I'm entering/leaving the front door, where his apartment overlooks.
The bottom line is I don't ever think its okay to have someone just be so rude in YOUR own apartment. do you? I told adam tonight (and i would like to tell him) that had i known this was his personality type prior to accepting this place, I would have found someplace else to live just based on that alone. Another important thing to point out is that anytime adam or I have had to go to his apartment, to drop off rent/ask a question, etc., there is always screaming profanities going on on the other side. This macho, "where the fuck is my blah blah fuck fuck shit shit fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUDIFJKD" bullshit. Fuck.
what do you think i should do about this? or do you think I am crazy for caring?