So B has ‘fully’ moved out on the 15th of the month and I have until the end of the month to move into her unit. 15 days sounds easy, but this apartment is full of unwanted furniture, clothes and cat piss soaked carpet (and cat shit). Plus, B smoked inside so the air was a mixture of cat piss and cigarettes. Sounds pleasant! I don’t have a fully developed renovation plan at this moment but the first step is to get out all of the trash and the carpet from hell (plus dozens of empty peach twisted tea cans and a few empty plastic vodka bottles). I’m not judging, but B was a drinker. I get a dumpster bag from home depot and get to work. A friend from church offered to bring his 4 kids over to help with the ‘renovation’. But I had to decline because I didn’t want those kids walking thru a cat-piss and cigarette cloud on their Saturday. 5 extra helpers sounded AMAZING but I’ve got to get through this part on my own.
The underside of the carpet, I get PTSD from this picture.
It’s a couple of weeknights and a full Saturday to get the unit empty and the carpet out. The evening after ripping out the carpets, the downstairs studio tenant comes up and knocks on the door. C is a super nice guy and this is the first time I’m meeting him in person. He tells me that he B was an alcoholic and a terrible person, they never got along. He sympathizes with me and says he can’t believe that B left the apartment in such terrible condition. I told him that it’s unfortunate that B left such a mess and that it’s going to cost me a lot more than her security deposit to get it back to a livable condition. C then says that one night, B made him so mad that he went downstairs and punched a hole in the wall and then he hung a poster over it. He says that I should keep his security deposit to help cover the cost of cleaning up the mess B left me and fixing up his unit. I told C that I would do a walk-thru of his apartment when he moves out to be fair about the security deposit but will probably keep $100 to fix the hole in the wall. He then gives me a hug. This was kinda weird but I appreciate the kind gesture.
My favorite part of the conversation was when C said that he knew that I was removing the carpet earlier this day. He could smell cat piss in the vents when the furnace turned on throughout the day. I wore a respirator that day and my skin had mild break-outs from contact with the carpet (I wore long sleeves, but apparently didn’t stay 100% protected). What damage did I do to myself that day?