the search for a new flatmate

As you know we were really put on the spot in picking a new flatmate, the interviews were done one evening with the new person moving in the next day. Thought you'd like a brief rundown of a few people who came to view our apartment.

Only one person walked in the living room and said what happened here (pointing to all the stains on the living room carpet).

Only one person realised that we didn't all get along happily in the apartment. She went round and asked us how long we had each been living in the apartment, after giving answers of a few years each, she remarked "oh you must all be great friends by now then" to which there was just a long awkward silence and she quickly changed the topic.

One guy came in and was so overwhelmed at the size of the apartment he remarked that it should be on the tv show 'Cribs'.

One guy described himself in the introductory email as 'please don't judge me by my appearance I really am a teddy bear'.

Some people had said they had been searching for 3 months + for a new place and in the meantime they are staying in a hostel.

A couple of people had recently returned from travelling overseas and were just settling back down.

One person (a young guy, I'm guessing around 18) was looking to leave home for the first time and replied to every question we asked with 'grand'. At the end of the interview we asked each person to write down their name and number and this kid went so far as to add his current address (maybe just in case we were going to write to him??)

One guy owned a place down in the country and just wanted to rent an apartment to stay in when he was in Dublin for work (a couple of days a week) - this guy was the one we initially picked but he turned us down.

the new flatmate

Flatmate #2 gave notice just before Christmas that he was moving out, he's been transferred overseas with work. This didn't leave much time to chose a new flatmate, with Christmas, Wee going away for a week and then me being away for two weeks. As it turned out, flatmate #2 was moving out the day after I got back from my holidays, which meant that we had to do interviews on the evening I got back, not the ideal thing to be doing after 12hrs of flying.

We put an ad up on daft during the previous week. The ad went up on evening at 6pm and was taken down at 8am the next morning, in that short time we had 46 replies! Of those 46 we invited about 25 to turn up for an interview and to view the apartment and only 20 actually showed up. It was chaos. We didn't give specific time slots, just said to turn up between 6-9pm, and I think most of them turned up at 6pm so they were queuing in the hallway as we only interviewed one at time.

The interviews were the usual awkward "so pleased to met you" "where do you work" "what do you like to do" etc etc except that wee added in the question of 'do you have a car'. Later during the selection process I found out that he eliminated anyone who answered yes as he doesn't want to give up/share his car park space that he doesn't even pay for.

Trying to pick just one person that wee and I agreed on wasn't easy. He wanted all the sports nuts, being particularly impressed when some guy mentioned that he worked at Setanta sports - to which wee was quick to ask "can you get us free setanta sports" (he's such a cheapskate that didn't surprise me).

I picked a 'top 5' and wee had a 'top 5' and none of the people were on both lists. What we finally did was this - I crossed off everyone I didn't like and he crossed off everyone he didn't like and then we were left with 3 people. This way we were going to get a new person who neither of us liked nor disliked, neutral ground I guess you could say. We finally agreed on one guy and to our shock when we rang him to offer him the room he turned us down! So we then called choice no.2 and she was delighted to get the room and moved in the next day (mid Jan.).

Thats the brief run down on it - more to follow!

neighbour complaints

we've started getting complaints from a neighbour who lives on the floor below us, he's been up three times in the last couple of weeks. The main source of this complaint is due to Wee using the dryer late at night. For some reason our dryer causes our water pump to make a loud thump thump noise. This goes on intermittently for the entire time the dryer is on. The noise doesn't happen when the washer is on, just when the dryer is on.

Firstly I don't get why he even has to use the dryer, being a top floor apartment its always very warm and we rarely even need to use the heating. My own clothes dry over night just from hanging on a clothes horse. Wee also has this odd habit of the only things he tumble dries are his socks and jocks. He'll do a full load of washing, then pull out all the clothes except perhaps 3 pairs of socks and jocks and then tumble dry them for an hour.

I don't get why, but the idiot seems to only be able to use the dryer late a night, not at any 'normal' hours. Its generally put on somewhere between 11pm and midnight.

Complaint #1 - the guy downstairs came up to ask me what that noise was he hears late at night. I knew exactly what he was on about as it drives me nuts too. I told him that I'd mentioned lots of times to the idiot to stop putting it on late but he doesn't listen to me. I said the next time he hears it he should come up and complain directly to Wee.

Complaint #2 - sure enough a few days later the dryer got put on around 11.30pm. The guy was up straight away to say stop it, which is fair enough as our apartment complex has a rule of no loud noise after 11pm. Wee said yeah no problem and went and turned it off.

Complaint #3 - just a few days after Wee pulled off a double act. He put the dryer on one evening after 11, then was up again at 5.30am the next morning (why I don't know) and put the damn thing on again! Needless to say it arouse another complaint from the guy downstairs but when he came up only flatmate #2 was home.

Its been a while

ok, i've been really slack with this site lately. I was away for the first two weeks of Jan and since then the weeks seem to all have rolled into one and now its nearly March. I'll be updating this site more regularly over the coming weeks.

Its holiday season

I'm off on holidays for a short while and there won't be any updates to this site while I'm away.

Reply to comment

Anonymous said...
"Why don't you move?You will get stung for the wall and carpet damage if he leaves before you.Both you and flatmate 2 need to get another place and move."

If only it was that easy! As I said in the brief background above if the rent here wasn't so cheap I'd move. We are getting an unbelievable deal here, its only €1725 for a 3 bed 3 bath penthouse right in the centre of Dublin. I've looked around for another apartment but the starting price for a one bed in this area is €1350 per month, and the 3 bed 2 bath penthouse opposite us just let recently for €2400 per month!

As soon as the dartboard was put up I emailed the letting agent. He came over not to long after to inspect the damage. Wee did admit to having put up the dartboard, and also to the stains on the carpet, the bikes in the living (causing marks on the wall) etc. So the letting agent is well aware of who has caused all the damage. The dartboard is no longer up in the living room, although I suspect that he has it up in his room.

Flatmate #2 gave notice this week that he is moving out.

don't save the world

Over the last few months I've been making an effort to save electricity around the house. I've bought three new energy saving light bulbs, one for the hallway, my bedroom and my bathroom. I've mentioned it to the other two to get them for their rooms but they don't seem interested, especially Wee given his love of electrical appliances and thinks everything needs to be turned on all the time (see post about his bedroom being afraid of the dark). So of late I've also been turning off appliances like the tv, dvd player, cable tv box, stereo etc in the evenings just before bed.

Last night after the other two were in bed and I did my switch off wee came out and in that dopey voice of his asked why I turned off his stereo, I said because he had gone to bed and wasn't listening to it. He told me to stop doing it. I said I was saving electricity. He offered to pay an extra euro a month off the electricity bill if I stopped turning it off. This really pisses me off, people who think that the world can be bought. Its not the money thats the problem. All these small things add up you know, and if everyone turned off their unused appliances a lot of electricity would be saved.

She's just a piece of meat....

Yesterday Wee and his girlfriend had a huge argument. She confronted him about cheating on her. He's so sly he already had an answer prepared, one that was neither a direct yes or no to the question. He said

"why would I go out for a burger when I can have steak at home"

I think he's lucky that she doesn't speak english too well or he would have copped a slap on the face. Basically he was calling her a piece of meat!

Just when I thought there wasn't anything more that could shock me

Last night Wee produced a pair of wet shorts from his room, put them in the washing machine, tumble dried them, then wore them to soccer last night. I went to use the machine not long after and there was a strong smell of chlorine from the machine. What I'm guessing is that he took his wet swimming shorts, dried them without washing them and then wore them to soccer!

He's a pig, but an oddly clean pig

Last night, after wee had put the dishwasher on while still half empty and was brushing his teeth in the kitchen again it got me thinking he has the oddest ways of doing things. He seems to think that if he buys the cleaning products he doesn’t have to use them, he spends 20mins in the shower (at least he does wash), he puts the dishwasher on (although usually done while still half empty), he brushes his teeth (albeit in the kitchen), he does at least wash his clothes (then leaves them in the machine for days on end), the only good spin on things I can't work out is he sits on the sofa in dirty soccer clothes, leaves half drunk cups of tea around the place and likes to cultivate mould on all the kitchen appliances he can get his hands on. After our discussions last Friday night about the numerous stains on the carpet - mostly caused by him as he thinks if he drops food on the floor its easier to trample it into the carpet than to pick it up - he went out and bought carpet stain remover, its still in the cupboard and I wonder if it'll ever get used.

When I first moved into the apartment flatmate #2 and I wanted to get in a cleaner, every second week, for three hours and it was going to cost just a tenner each. Wee was totally against the idea thinking that the apartment was clean enough. Flatmate #2 and I weren't willing to foot the bill for the cleaner since it was the pig who made all the mess and wasn't going to contribute to the bill. I sometimes now wish we had of agreed to pay 15 each to clean up after the pig, it would be easier than having to put up with the smells seeping into the hallway from wee's bathroom & bedroom or the constant stench emanating from the fridge.