I like our new apartment in almost all the ways. The massive exception is the laundry facilities. I knew it was going to be a switch from a washer/dryer in my basement to one that uses quarters in someone else's basement, but I didn't know how bad it would be:
The basements at these apartment complexes get several inches of water in them after every rain. Somehow, I always end up doing laundry after a rainstorm. So I wade through the gross sitting water to even get to the machines (the first time I did this, I didn't see the water, as I was carrying laundry; I almost slipped on the slick tile floor and then I was upset/angry for the rest of the day--it's very scary to barely catch yourself from falling when there's someone else inside of you that you're trying to protect. That was, quite possibly, the most upsetting moment of my pregnancy thus far. I still get angry/upset when I think about it. I would have sued them to high heaven if anything happened to the baby. Actually, Sayers, my lawyer bff probably would have had to sue them.)
The laundry machines are small--compared to the normal-sized ones we used to have, it seems they fit only 2/3 of the amount of clothes. And the laundry machines are frequently broken: there are two washers and two dryers in the flooded basement; the one on the right leaves the clothes sopping wet after a wash; the one on the left is, today, utterly broken: it's sitting there half full of water. So I use the one on the right, and I wring the clothes out by hand.
The problem is that the dryers barely dry. On a good day, two cycles of drying will be sufficient. But when the washer doesn't ring the clothes out first, sometimes it's three cycles. (Plus, I dry half the clothes on drying racks on the porch, a fix that helps for now, but might not be effective in the middle of winter.)
Plus, whereas when we had free laundry in our own basement, Francisco and I found it most amenable to our marital bliss to each do our own laundry at the times we found it convenient (for him, it was sometimes late into the night). Now that we're using quarters for laundry and now that there's a baby on the way, I'm insisting that we combine our laundry. This means that there's just loads more to do (and the baby isn't even wearing clothes yet!). I'm not really sure that this insistence is in my interest, but I've won this battle, so there's no going back now.
I may give up and try a laundromat, which, of course, has its own issues.
2 comments:
Slipping on water in the basement... Oh my. I slipped (and FELL) on water that had been spilled on the white tile (impossible to see) at Target in the - oh, the irony is tangible - BABY aisle. I was 8 months pregnant. I put my basket in the middle of the water and went to find an employee. I told the first woman I saw and she cut me off and said, "Yea, I know. That's where I'm going." She was incredibly snarky and rude. She said nothing to me concerning the fact that I was obviously pregnant...nor did she even bother to ask me if anything happened. I was so tempted to do something about it. Instead I decided to just get my things and leave. I'm so glad you didn't fall! That can be a scary thing!
Oh my goodness, that's terrible!! I would have fussed at them for a good long time!
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