I live in a 12 floor apartment building that is now almost 100 years old. It is in Chicago, Illinois and it is a Co-Operative building. It has 64 apartments that range in size from 6 rooms to 9 rooms, and the apartments are in tiers:A,B,C,D,E,F,G. Each tier has it's own water and steam pipes( hot water, cold water, waste pipes, and steam pipes, and a vent pipe). The building lies right along Lake Michigan.
I am annoyed by the apparent apathy of many of the residents. Because the building is so old there are constant problems. Just this morning the heat suddenly went off. Usually when this happens a resident who notices (usually me) has to call the live in building engineer and he goes into the boiler room to see what he can do. If he can't fix the problem then he calls the heating company. Also the water can suddenly go off for one or more tiers. Again a resident should notice this and call the building engineer and he usually calls the management and they call the plumbing company. The water to my tier (D) went off this afternoon. I did not notice it until I needed to use one of the three bathrooms and noticed that the bathroom in my bedroom had no water.
I called some neighbors in my tier and they, one by one said they were unaware of this problem. This happens all the time. Many of the residents in the D tier use the same bedroom on their floor as I use on my floor. It is called the secondary bedroom. The other bedrooms are called: (1) the master bedroom and (3) the maid's room or den. My computer and printer is in my den. It has a moderately sized radiator and a half bathroom (toilet and sink, but no shower). It is like pulling teeth( a common American expression used to show displeasure with the apathy of people when it comes to calling those in charge when a problem arises). These common problems will eventually get fixed, but it would be more helpful if more residents were more aware of these problems like I am!
