When we originally looked at the place they told us A/C was a $285 fee, with no mention of a per unit expense. I guess a per unit expense makes sense, and is the law, but it also doesn't make sense. I can install one 18,000 BTU unit for half the price of two 6,000 BTU units, and not only do the smaller ones together use 2/3rds the energy, but I may turn one off from time to time using 1/3rd the energy.
Anyway, today all residents got fliers saying management has gone around photographing all the buildings and will be billing the residents $338 per installed unit. Further, they state that the charge will stand even if you uninstall a unit or a unit stops working. Further, they say you have 10 days to contest the number of units installed at your residence or waive your right to contest it (this part I don't think is legal, but the rest is).
So, moral of the story is buy the biggest unit you can find and some fans to push it into other rooms. Also, run the sucker 24/7. Unless you care about the environment, then maybe turn it off from time to time.
And if you want 3 units, you better start saving, because that's over a thousand dollars. They will however charge you 1/12th of that per month to help you afford it.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Some things I really like.
I'd like to point out a few things about this apartment that are great (especially things you may fear wouldn't be great in a "cheaper" place).
1. There is always plenty of really hot water.
2. The bathtub is deep (I do like the occasional bath).
3. Really thick walls (low to no noise).
4. Pretty nice and cheap washing machines at the central location.
I'm sure there are others.
1. There is always plenty of really hot water.
2. The bathtub is deep (I do like the occasional bath).
3. Really thick walls (low to no noise).
4. Pretty nice and cheap washing machines at the central location.
I'm sure there are others.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Note about repairs.
They made some repairs on 7/22. Almost three weeks after we moved in, and two weeks after we made a request for repair. That seems like a long time, and it is. However, I will point out, that I get the feeling if I had called them every day or every other day to ask about the status, it would have happened much faster. It would be nice if it happened right away without follow-up, but you get what you pay for. I'm still holding out hope that future work (including the rest of my list) is a little faster.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Safety, as a single female.
A short interview of my ex-roommate.
me: if someone asked you your detailed opinion about how safe you feel at Flatbush Gardens, what would you write?
Ex-Roommate: i feel safe inside the complex, walking home from the subway at night i get nervous but it is more of a personal thing rather than by what i see as it feels safe each time i have walked from the subway home...now if i had to pass by the basketball courts or another block or two i am sure that would change - a lot.
me: why?
Ex-roommate: why? the basketball court has gangs that hang around there, so that obviously makes it a bit more unsafe and regardless of how nice everyone is overall some people are still going to resent a little white girl living in their area - i am sure there are some that don't want the changes that are slowly happening there..so..it's always a risk.
me: there aren't gangs that hang out there.
Ex-roommate: uh, yea, there are.
Note by me: Other than this one car that was painted up with the name of a gang, etc... I've not seen any evidence at all of any gang members, gang activities, gang hangouts, or gangs in general. Are they there? eh, probably, but I've not seen it.
me: if someone asked you your detailed opinion about how safe you feel at Flatbush Gardens, what would you write?
Ex-Roommate: i feel safe inside the complex, walking home from the subway at night i get nervous but it is more of a personal thing rather than by what i see as it feels safe each time i have walked from the subway home...now if i had to pass by the basketball courts or another block or two i am sure that would change - a lot.
me: why?
Ex-roommate: why? the basketball court has gangs that hang around there, so that obviously makes it a bit more unsafe and regardless of how nice everyone is overall some people are still going to resent a little white girl living in their area - i am sure there are some that don't want the changes that are slowly happening there..so..it's always a risk.
me: there aren't gangs that hang out there.
Ex-roommate: uh, yea, there are.
Note by me: Other than this one car that was painted up with the name of a gang, etc... I've not seen any evidence at all of any gang members, gang activities, gang hangouts, or gangs in general. Are they there? eh, probably, but I've not seen it.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Note about repairs and safety, as requested by some folks.
They did have the ex-roommate's key today (7/20), and it may have been ready sooner, but she's been busy in the evenings for a few days now. We went to the leasing office today to pick up the key and ask what the deal with the repairs is. The girl at the desk, Amy, is very nice, and seemed quite surprised no one has called us yet. Perhaps they misplaced our complaint letters/lists. It is a huge complex. I won't fault them for a few mistakes. She said she'll look into it tomorrow when the repair/renovation guy comes in, and personally call us to let us know when we can expect him to call. So, so far nothing is fixed, but I'll decide how annoyed I am with that tomorrow after an update from them. Had I been following up with them on a bi-weekly basis, I'd be pretty annoyed right now, but nothing is urgent, so I just let it go for two weeks, and maybe they just lost my letter and will be responsive once they're reminded I have issues. We'll see, and I'll post.
As for safety. I'm a single guy, so that's a little different. I feel very safe. I feel like everyone is super nice. People say hi. People offered to give a hand when we were moving, etc. Most evenings the courtyards are full of kids playing, and parents socializing. I rode my bike home from Manhattan Thur. night at about midnight, and wasn't concerned at any point. I mostly hang out in my apt., but I go to church, the subway stop, the store, etc. and feel very happy with the area. I've noticed a higher rate of people failing to "curb" their dog, so your shoes might be less safe if you don't watch your step, but that's it.
My ex-roommate is a single female. Perhaps I'll solicit her opinion for posting.
As for safety. I'm a single guy, so that's a little different. I feel very safe. I feel like everyone is super nice. People say hi. People offered to give a hand when we were moving, etc. Most evenings the courtyards are full of kids playing, and parents socializing. I rode my bike home from Manhattan Thur. night at about midnight, and wasn't concerned at any point. I mostly hang out in my apt., but I go to church, the subway stop, the store, etc. and feel very happy with the area. I've noticed a higher rate of people failing to "curb" their dog, so your shoes might be less safe if you don't watch your step, but that's it.
My ex-roommate is a single female. Perhaps I'll solicit her opinion for posting.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Broken Elevator
My elevator broke on 7/7. It was fixed 5 days later. I have two things to say about that. (1) when we were looking at the place they touted "totally modernized elevators so that repairs are quick, if needed." I'm not super concerned about the elevator. I need the exercise, but 5 days seems like a long time. Even my cheap place in DC never took more than a day or two. (2) Thank God it broke after I moved. If they had shown up to a broken elevator and 5 flights of stairs, they would have charged at least $1,000 more, if not much more.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The good, the bad, and the clogged.
So I’ve moved. The place looks pretty good. I really think it’s pretty much exactly the quality I had in DC (but much bigger, more expensive, and less “safe”). Safe is a term I use in a very stereotypical way. “Safe”, as I use it here, is “word on the street” rating of the safety. Because, honestly, I feel very safe, and everyone seems very nice. Unfortunately, safety is not a majority vote. It only takes one person to make a place “unsafe”. They gave us our apartment keys, but not our mail keys.
They clearly did not finish the place. There are several things wrong such as:
The kitchen window is broken (though only one of the double panes, so it’s still closed).
The security gate on the kitchen window was removed and not put back up.
The entry light has no cover on it.
The front door is missing two locks and a working peep-hole.
There is no phone-jack in this apartment.
The dinning room electric outlet does not work.
One outlet in the living room barely works.
The bottom hinge of the smaller bedroom is not properly installed, which means the door does not close.
The bathtub is missing the drain ring and stopper.
I requested that the child proof window guards be removed.
The radiator in the small bedroom is missing the control knob.
The bathtub does not drain.
Dirty laundry was left in the built in hamper thing.
Debris was left in the bathroom.
There was less wrong with the ex-roommate’s place, but some different things. Like the smoke detector isn’t working. The paint job was ok. A little sloppy around the edges (i.e. windows). The grout job in the bathroom is less than great, but that’s ok. The floors look great, and are certainly better than the floors I had in DC where the wax would chip up in big yellow flakes. However, it is pretty easy to scratch the floors, and initially, some things were sticking to them. I think they’ve mostly dried now.
The only thing on the list that is an emergency is the fact that the bathtub does not drain. The referb guys thought it would be brilliant to let all the grout and construction powder/dust debris go down the bathtub drain. At this point the office is closed though. Fortunately the lady from last night gave me security’s number, and I called that. They were very nice, and said that the apt complex has 24/7 “emergency” maintenance. She put me on the list. It took about 3 hours for him to come, but that’s fine. They installed the sink in the wrong place, so he couldn’t open the drain access port all the way. He got it open a good amount though and sent this snake down. It took about an hour for him to fix it. Not his fault though. He was excellent. He gets a full five stars, all around. He was nice, friendly, hard-working, didn’t give up and say he’d have to call a plumber Monday. He even cleaned up the construction debris left in the bathroom. Emergency maintenance gets my highest rating.
So, we’ve started unpacking. We’ll go to target tomorrow. Good times.
Do I like it? Very much so. Will you like it? No idea. It's not luxury. It's not for everyone. But I'm a simple person, who likes functioning and adequate over fancy and luxury. I'll take some pictures later.
They clearly did not finish the place. There are several things wrong such as:
The kitchen window is broken (though only one of the double panes, so it’s still closed).
The security gate on the kitchen window was removed and not put back up.
The entry light has no cover on it.
The front door is missing two locks and a working peep-hole.
There is no phone-jack in this apartment.
The dinning room electric outlet does not work.
One outlet in the living room barely works.
The bottom hinge of the smaller bedroom is not properly installed, which means the door does not close.
The bathtub is missing the drain ring and stopper.
I requested that the child proof window guards be removed.
The radiator in the small bedroom is missing the control knob.
The bathtub does not drain.
Dirty laundry was left in the built in hamper thing.
Debris was left in the bathroom.
There was less wrong with the ex-roommate’s place, but some different things. Like the smoke detector isn’t working. The paint job was ok. A little sloppy around the edges (i.e. windows). The grout job in the bathroom is less than great, but that’s ok. The floors look great, and are certainly better than the floors I had in DC where the wax would chip up in big yellow flakes. However, it is pretty easy to scratch the floors, and initially, some things were sticking to them. I think they’ve mostly dried now.
The only thing on the list that is an emergency is the fact that the bathtub does not drain. The referb guys thought it would be brilliant to let all the grout and construction powder/dust debris go down the bathtub drain. At this point the office is closed though. Fortunately the lady from last night gave me security’s number, and I called that. They were very nice, and said that the apt complex has 24/7 “emergency” maintenance. She put me on the list. It took about 3 hours for him to come, but that’s fine. They installed the sink in the wrong place, so he couldn’t open the drain access port all the way. He got it open a good amount though and sent this snake down. It took about an hour for him to fix it. Not his fault though. He was excellent. He gets a full five stars, all around. He was nice, friendly, hard-working, didn’t give up and say he’d have to call a plumber Monday. He even cleaned up the construction debris left in the bathroom. Emergency maintenance gets my highest rating.
So, we’ve started unpacking. We’ll go to target tomorrow. Good times.
Do I like it? Very much so. Will you like it? No idea. It's not luxury. It's not for everyone. But I'm a simple person, who likes functioning and adequate over fancy and luxury. I'll take some pictures later.
Friday, July 4, 2008
My review of FatRate Movers
(Part 21)
My review of FatRate Movers
Do you see what I did there? I left off the “L” turning FlatRate (a good thing) into FatRate (a bad thing). LOL, I’m hilarious. But seriously, I have a complaint.
Ok, so they showed up on June 3rd instead of July 3rd, I can’t really complain about that since they didn’t try to charge me or anything and showed up again on July 3rd.
So, they come in to check on the stuff. They have to compare the “FlatRate” inventory to what’s in the apartment. My quote has 25 boxes on it. They said they counted 60 boxes. That’s kind of a big difference. We didn’t add stuff since the quote. In fact, I took several boxes to good will and the dumpster. Maybe we can’t pack properly. I know I can, and I know my roommate can’t, but she had like 20% of the stuff, so that can’t be it. Maybe we hide our stuff well, or maybe they’re running a low estimate high move cost scam. Anyway…. They’re already charging twice as much as the average price quoted on craigslist (i.e. the dubious 2 men and a truck, $50/hour), and that’s on a quote for less than half our loose stuff. As far as I’m concerned, they came in to do the estimate, they decided how many boxes we had, we did not add stuff, so they should move it for the quoted price. I would have thrown them out of the apartment and started calling craigslist numbers to see who needed a job if they had tried to charge us more. They didn’t, they just tried to pad their tip, with a “we’re supposed to call dispatch and get a new quote, but nobody wants that, but we’re only being paid to more 25 boxes, so maybe you’ll remember that with a tip, but I’m not pressing for that, just pointing it out…”
Once we settle the box issue, they get to work. They’re 4 of them and they’re super friendly. Very professional, fast, etc. It took them about 4 hours to get our stuff out. I dropped the roommate off at the complex and went to JFK to pick up my parents. It took them an hour to get there (took us a half hour), but that’s ok, they have a big truck. Then the roommate calls to tell me they’re giving her crap about not being able to find parking. What? You’re MOVERS, . . . in New York City! Isn’t this like your job? Anyway, I’m mostly not there for this, as I drive my parents from the air port to the new place. The roommate, or at this point, I guess I can officially say ex-roommate. The ex-roommate says they’re going back and forth between management and security trying to figure something out. During this time they manage to park the truck at the point that is literally closest to the front door of the building. But they’re still upset, because the complex is arranged such that none of the entrances are on the streetside, and you have to go into the central courtyard to get to the entrances. It’s like, 200 feet max, and they’re saying it’s too far. This time they actually do call dispatch to get a bigger quote. However, dispatch (or I’m told this) says that the sales woman forgot to put that in the contract so they can’t charge us for it. Whatever. At this point they have our stuff so I’d have to pay them, but I sure wouldn’t be giving them a tip if I was charged more.
They finally get they’re act together. I try to help a little until 3:30. Then I have to go return the rental car. Since that’s near my old apartment, I turned in the keys, and got my dry cleaning. By the time the subway got me back to newkirk, they movers had just left. There were 4 of them and it took them from 9am to 5pm or about. I don’t know what a normal tip is in that situation but I gave the guy $120. I hope that was reasonable in light of the excellent job they did, but tempered by the crap they gave the ex-roommate while I was gone.
Anyway, all in all, they get 3 stars. 5 stars for performance, minus 1 star for price, and one star for the bullcrap.
I think if you can get a recommendation of a good craigslist type operation then you’re better off. That way they don’t give you crap. If they have to walk 2 blocks then it takes longer but you’re paying them by the hour so it doesn’t matter. If I can find a per hour crew that won’t steal or destroy my stuff, I may go that route next time.
My review of FatRate Movers
Do you see what I did there? I left off the “L” turning FlatRate (a good thing) into FatRate (a bad thing). LOL, I’m hilarious. But seriously, I have a complaint.
Ok, so they showed up on June 3rd instead of July 3rd, I can’t really complain about that since they didn’t try to charge me or anything and showed up again on July 3rd.
So, they come in to check on the stuff. They have to compare the “FlatRate” inventory to what’s in the apartment. My quote has 25 boxes on it. They said they counted 60 boxes. That’s kind of a big difference. We didn’t add stuff since the quote. In fact, I took several boxes to good will and the dumpster. Maybe we can’t pack properly. I know I can, and I know my roommate can’t, but she had like 20% of the stuff, so that can’t be it. Maybe we hide our stuff well, or maybe they’re running a low estimate high move cost scam. Anyway…. They’re already charging twice as much as the average price quoted on craigslist (i.e. the dubious 2 men and a truck, $50/hour), and that’s on a quote for less than half our loose stuff. As far as I’m concerned, they came in to do the estimate, they decided how many boxes we had, we did not add stuff, so they should move it for the quoted price. I would have thrown them out of the apartment and started calling craigslist numbers to see who needed a job if they had tried to charge us more. They didn’t, they just tried to pad their tip, with a “we’re supposed to call dispatch and get a new quote, but nobody wants that, but we’re only being paid to more 25 boxes, so maybe you’ll remember that with a tip, but I’m not pressing for that, just pointing it out…”
Once we settle the box issue, they get to work. They’re 4 of them and they’re super friendly. Very professional, fast, etc. It took them about 4 hours to get our stuff out. I dropped the roommate off at the complex and went to JFK to pick up my parents. It took them an hour to get there (took us a half hour), but that’s ok, they have a big truck. Then the roommate calls to tell me they’re giving her crap about not being able to find parking. What? You’re MOVERS, . . . in New York City! Isn’t this like your job? Anyway, I’m mostly not there for this, as I drive my parents from the air port to the new place. The roommate, or at this point, I guess I can officially say ex-roommate. The ex-roommate says they’re going back and forth between management and security trying to figure something out. During this time they manage to park the truck at the point that is literally closest to the front door of the building. But they’re still upset, because the complex is arranged such that none of the entrances are on the streetside, and you have to go into the central courtyard to get to the entrances. It’s like, 200 feet max, and they’re saying it’s too far. This time they actually do call dispatch to get a bigger quote. However, dispatch (or I’m told this) says that the sales woman forgot to put that in the contract so they can’t charge us for it. Whatever. At this point they have our stuff so I’d have to pay them, but I sure wouldn’t be giving them a tip if I was charged more.
They finally get they’re act together. I try to help a little until 3:30. Then I have to go return the rental car. Since that’s near my old apartment, I turned in the keys, and got my dry cleaning. By the time the subway got me back to newkirk, they movers had just left. There were 4 of them and it took them from 9am to 5pm or about. I don’t know what a normal tip is in that situation but I gave the guy $120. I hope that was reasonable in light of the excellent job they did, but tempered by the crap they gave the ex-roommate while I was gone.
Anyway, all in all, they get 3 stars. 5 stars for performance, minus 1 star for price, and one star for the bullcrap.
I think if you can get a recommendation of a good craigslist type operation then you’re better off. That way they don’t give you crap. If they have to walk 2 blocks then it takes longer but you’re paying them by the hour so it doesn’t matter. If I can find a per hour crew that won’t steal or destroy my stuff, I may go that route next time.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Pre-Move Costco Run. I love Costco.
(Part 20) Ok, move time is upon us. First, I have an extra couch that was left for the garbage downstairs a few days ago. It’s a perfectly fine couch and the roommate loves it because it’s purple. So I hauled that upstairs and Flatrate told me it would be an extra $150 to move it. I can buy a used couch for that much. Anyway.
My schedule this holiday weekend is kind of packed (no pun intended). On Thur. I move. At 1pm, on Thur., my parents’ flight lands at JFK, and they will be visiting for 4 days. They leave on Sunday, which is also my birthday. Then I have to take a major professional exam on Monday. Oh, and BTW, my parents are not currently speaking to each other, so that should be fun. When we planned the visit, I didn’t even know this part of Brooklyn existed. They thought they’d be staying at my nice place, doing fun things, while getting along. But things change, now they’re staying at my “cheap” place, helping me unpack, while not speaking to each other. Oh, and Clay Aiken was supposed to be in Spamalot when I bought the tickets, but now he’s not. My parents are huge Idol fans, so I picked that show, even though I’ve already seen it.
Anyway. I don’t even want to tell you what the plan originally was, because it sucked, but I came up with a new plan. Wed. at 4 pm, I left work to pick up a zipcar truck (ziptruck?). I also bought a gps navigation unit shipped 2 day express (thank you amazon.com prime). I make the roommate guard the truck (no tickets please), and I park right behind the UPS driver who has my gps unit (timing). I carry the roommate’s couch down and load it into the truck. I also haul down two air conditioners, and some tools. Off to Flatbush Gardens. I drop the roommate off to pay the remaining money on our places and get the keys. I park and start unloading. We dump the stuff off and immediately head to Costco. Which was insane, especially the last several rows as Costco employees are yelling “the store is closing in five minutes!” I don’t even want to tell you how much we spent, but even without my new glasses, it was a new Costco record for me. I think it was a new personal record without counting the glasses or roommate’s stuff.
We load the truck, and head to the UPS depot. That took some effort to find, but get there a little before they close to pick up the roommate’s air conditioners. There are crazy, crazy people at UPS at 10pm in Brooklyn.
Back to Flatbush Gardens for the Costco unload. It’s painful. We forgot my shopping cart, so we’re stuck with a cardboard box and a luggage cart. It’s not too bad, but certainly not fun, and we’re getting very tired by now. The cart breaks with a huge final load, so one of us is stuck like an idiot in the middle of the courtyard watching the stuff while the other takes slow trips up to the apartment. We meet a nice lady whose “baby’s daddy is up in this building with another woman.” (Roommate’s building). She advises us that it’s a crack house, and in the 16 years her baby’s daddy has lived there, she’s been attacked in a life threatening way 3 times. Anyway. She seems a little, um, upset, and just generally not happy with the area or the building her baby’s daddy is currently in (her terms, not mine). So, we take her warnings with a grain of salt, and also, 16 years is a long time. The current management admits before they got there, fixed it up, implemented very strict rental application guidelines, and added a 24/7 security force, that it was a crack house with a serious crime problem. We hope today it’s not so much.
Once the stuff is finally in the apartments, I install the air conditioners, and we go home. I’m asleep by 4:30am and up again at 8am. Good times. I through some laundry in the washer, take a shower and go downstairs to feed the meter that starts at 9am.
My schedule this holiday weekend is kind of packed (no pun intended). On Thur. I move. At 1pm, on Thur., my parents’ flight lands at JFK, and they will be visiting for 4 days. They leave on Sunday, which is also my birthday. Then I have to take a major professional exam on Monday. Oh, and BTW, my parents are not currently speaking to each other, so that should be fun. When we planned the visit, I didn’t even know this part of Brooklyn existed. They thought they’d be staying at my nice place, doing fun things, while getting along. But things change, now they’re staying at my “cheap” place, helping me unpack, while not speaking to each other. Oh, and Clay Aiken was supposed to be in Spamalot when I bought the tickets, but now he’s not. My parents are huge Idol fans, so I picked that show, even though I’ve already seen it.
Anyway. I don’t even want to tell you what the plan originally was, because it sucked, but I came up with a new plan. Wed. at 4 pm, I left work to pick up a zipcar truck (ziptruck?). I also bought a gps navigation unit shipped 2 day express (thank you amazon.com prime). I make the roommate guard the truck (no tickets please), and I park right behind the UPS driver who has my gps unit (timing). I carry the roommate’s couch down and load it into the truck. I also haul down two air conditioners, and some tools. Off to Flatbush Gardens. I drop the roommate off to pay the remaining money on our places and get the keys. I park and start unloading. We dump the stuff off and immediately head to Costco. Which was insane, especially the last several rows as Costco employees are yelling “the store is closing in five minutes!” I don’t even want to tell you how much we spent, but even without my new glasses, it was a new Costco record for me. I think it was a new personal record without counting the glasses or roommate’s stuff.
We load the truck, and head to the UPS depot. That took some effort to find, but get there a little before they close to pick up the roommate’s air conditioners. There are crazy, crazy people at UPS at 10pm in Brooklyn.
Back to Flatbush Gardens for the Costco unload. It’s painful. We forgot my shopping cart, so we’re stuck with a cardboard box and a luggage cart. It’s not too bad, but certainly not fun, and we’re getting very tired by now. The cart breaks with a huge final load, so one of us is stuck like an idiot in the middle of the courtyard watching the stuff while the other takes slow trips up to the apartment. We meet a nice lady whose “baby’s daddy is up in this building with another woman.” (Roommate’s building). She advises us that it’s a crack house, and in the 16 years her baby’s daddy has lived there, she’s been attacked in a life threatening way 3 times. Anyway. She seems a little, um, upset, and just generally not happy with the area or the building her baby’s daddy is currently in (her terms, not mine). So, we take her warnings with a grain of salt, and also, 16 years is a long time. The current management admits before they got there, fixed it up, implemented very strict rental application guidelines, and added a 24/7 security force, that it was a crack house with a serious crime problem. We hope today it’s not so much.
Once the stuff is finally in the apartments, I install the air conditioners, and we go home. I’m asleep by 4:30am and up again at 8am. Good times. I through some laundry in the washer, take a shower and go downstairs to feed the meter that starts at 9am.
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