A Healthy Dose of Whinging

Disclaimer: Though one of us swore that he would not become a "whinger" after moving to the UK, we just have to get this out of our system. Then we can go on not being whingers.

We have recently noticed that our living situation is far from perfect. In fact, it is a mighty big step down from our lovely Brussels apartment. We are making approximately the same amount of money as we were in Belgium, but getting a whole lot less for it. It has taken the latest onslaught of mold to make us realize how many "idiosyncracies" we have been putting up with so far... without complaint. Working from the front door to the back:

Our living room is four feet from a busy street, so traffic noise is unavoidable. When large trucks go by the windows and front door rattle. We have to crank up the volume on the TV when we watch movies to hear dialogue above the roar of motorcycles.

Speaking of the TV, did I mention that it is directly next to the washing machine? The counter and cupboard arrangement in the kitchen prevents it from being in there and there are seemingly no utility rooms in England, so that leaves the living room in our particular situation. The electric outlet placement means that in order to plug it in, we have to run an extension cord from the washing machine, behind the sink and along the counter. Looks really nice.

Regarding the washing machine, it is a washer/dryer all-in-one. The same tumbler that washes the clothes, also dries it... or tries to anyway. It is a "condenser dryer", so not very efficient. To make sure our clothes don't shrink, we have to take them out before they are completely dry (which would normally take more than an hour) and hang them in various places. From what we've heard, we have it pretty luxurious on that score. Most people only have a washer!

There is only one outlet in the living room which seriously limits furniture placement and makes having a lamp impossible. Our lovely overhead lights do not have shades so we have a bare bulb dangling from its cord. Very crack-den chic.

We have a large under-the-stairs closet which would make great storage, if I didn't have to use it for my clothes. There are no other closets or built-in wardrobes in the apartment so we have had to improvise. We managed to get a small armoire into the bedroom (more on that later) but there is absolutely no possibility of getting both of our clothing "repetoires" into it. So I have taken over the storage area, putting a garish yellow bookshelf in the corner to stack clothes on and hanging various plastic grocery bags off of it for socks, bras and undies. Our shoes are in another plastic bag and all unnecessary clothing (summer stuff) are in one of the two giant suitcases also in the closet. I share my wardrobe space with the ironing board and vacuum cleaner, not to mention several cases of Belgian beer. There is no light source or outlet in the closet so putting an outfit together is a bit challenging.

The lack of outlets is also a problem in the bathroom. Lots of charming old houses and hotels do not have electrical outlets in the bathroom. Our apartment is also one of these places, but not the charming kind. It was probably updated in the 70's with new fixtures and just before we moved in the landlord had a new electric shower installed. In order to take a shower we have to turn on the electric water heater inside the linen closet and then remember to turn it off afterward, but this seems to be a normal feature of UK bathrooms. Most people here take baths apparently. What is missing is an outlet for the hair dryer and electric toothbrush charger. There aren't any outlets in the hallway so we have to run an extension cord from the bedroom, down the hall into the bathroom. Of course I would trip on this if we left it out, so every time we use it we have to coil it back up in the bedroom.

Our bedroom is the tiniest room I've ever seen. There is exactly enough room for a queen size futon mattress and a small armoire. That's it. I usually sleep between Rich and the wall, so if I get up before him I have to goose-step over his legs to get out of the room. To open or close the blinds we have to walk across the bed. There are about five inches between the foot of the mattress and the wall and it is in this space where the room's only outlet is. So this is home of the electric toothbrush and the bathroom extension cord. Almost every night one of us hits the tooth brush with our feet and rattles it around. The room is illuminated by another bare bulb. The walls are painted in glossy white paint so when the light is on it feels like being inside a small refrigerator. We've already talked about the mold issue so I won't go through that again here, but related to that, we have had to add another peculiarity to our mornings. When we have both gotten up for the day, one of us has to remove the comforter and pillows and then tilt the entire mattress up to lean it against the wardrobe so that the moisture doesn't create mold again. This makes the wardrobe inaccessible, so Rich has to make sure he has all the clothing items necessary for the day before we do this.

The back door of the apartment is at the end of the hall, right next to the bedroom. The door opens into a small mud room that we share with the upstairs tenant. There is a gap of about 2 inches between the door and the floor which creates quite a draft. It isn't outside air coming in, but the mud room is unheated so it is definitely chilly. We haven't been able to find a draft-blocker (sausage shaped thingy filled with beans or cat litter or?) so we've rolled up an old parka and put it on the floor inside the door.

Moving is not an option at this point so we will have to put up with all of this until summer. We're thinking of it as "paying our dues" or as an interesting life experience that we will someday look back on and laugh. I wonder when that will be??

~K & RP

Back from Scotland

Great trip to Scotland. Glasgow is a grungy, but wonderful city. We really liked it. On the way back, we stopped in Edinburgh. Picturesque, but too many tourists. Won't be going back there again. Our stop-over in York (on the way to Scotland) was brief, but worthwhile. Nice little city. Much calmer vibe than Norwich.

Update on the moldy mattress... On Thursday morning, before we left, I sprayed the mold patches with a bleach solution. It worked! The mold turned a pale brown and I was able to vaccuum it off. You can hardly tell it was moldy. Of course, you can never get rid of mold spores, so we have to make sure it doesn't stay moist for long periods of time.

-RP-

TO WHOM IT CONCERNS:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Moldy Consultation

I called the landlord a little while ago and he came over pretty much right away. He seemed to think that the moisture came from condensation. Since our mattress is directly on the floor, the heat from our bodies creates condensation on the floor because it is a "cold slab". He recommended that we get something to raise the mattress off the floor, so that this doesn't happen.

Fair enough, we should have some kind of futon frame, I guess. But the room is SO small, our choices are pretty limited.

Unfortunately, I think he is right about it being condensation. He promised to have a company come out to check for damp problems, however. I don't get it, though. It was cold in Belgium and we didn't have ANY condensation problems, even on the windows! It is also pretty moist in Belgium, so that's not necessarily the mitigating factor either.

Until we get a bed-frame of some kind, we are going to have to tilt the mattress on its side during the day, I guess.

-RP-

Gorgonzola

The bedroom in our apartment has been having a bit of a "damp" problem. Our window is always fogged and everything feels slightly damp (sheets, pillows, wallpaper). Gradually, we started to notice the walls discoloring a bit. You can see it underneath the wallpaper. Parts are turning yellow and others brown or black.

Yesterday, Kristen was changing the sheets on the bed and she decided she would rearrange the mattress and our wardrobe. When she lifted the mattress she discovered that there were huge pages of green and brown mold on the bottom of it (the side that has been in contact with the carpet. The carpet was quite damp with some mold on it as well. On one wall, where the baseboard meets the wall, there was a patch of green/grey mold. DISGUSTING!

Needless to say, we are going to call the landlord about this. We've been sleeping in a mold incubator! Not sure how we'll clean the mattress (steamer cleaner). Luckily, we're going to Scotland tomorrow for two days, so we can drag the mattress into the living room to let it dry out. Maybe spray some diluted bleach on the moldy spots.

Not sure what the landlord can do about it, though. But something has to be done. It's not healthy to be surrounded by mold spores!

-RP-