I’ve been fairly patient. I haven’t complained to the upstairs neighbours about the noise. I haven’t called the landlord. Back on May 2, I wrote a letter to the vine looking for help (it hasn’t been answered, probably because this is the SHORT version), excerpts of which go like so:
“I have upstairs neighbours. Also, downstairs and next-door, but those aren’t the problem. The problem is the amount and level of noise from upstairs. The UpstairsNeighbours sound like they have pet elephants, in the plural, running around up there. Real, plundering, stampeding elephants. If I had moved in after they had, I’d have thought it was the house - bad sound insulation and whatnot, because I’ve lived below people in other buildings and never had a problem; but no, there were three people living together upstairs before the current people, and I never heard more than a random peep, or the odd dropping something by accident. I've become so annoyed by their noise that I've even taken to admonishing my guests if they make too much noise, in case it does to my downstairs neighbours (they're quite elderly) what is being done to me.
“I do have a low tolerance for noise, but UpstairsNeighbours seem to be going well beyond normal levels - many visitors have thrown a “what the hell?” look at my ceiling. I can hear numerous thumps, stomps, bumps and various noises which I’ve interpreted to be dropping/throwing things, running all over the apartment, yelling at each other, jumping up and down and/or playing basketball and/or throwing a stepdance party. The other night, I kept hearing the “bloop” from an online message service. I can even hear their phone ring. Dude, I can’t hear my OWN phone ring if it’s not in the room with me. When my stranded-by-a-fire friend was my roommate, she attested to the noise levels in the day - it was the worst when she was working backshift and trying to sleep all day, while I was at work. Granted, they didn’t know she was there, but still, the noise is just ... a bit much.
“I want to email this woman and ask her and her son(/daughter?) to please keep it down to a dull roar, because I’m starting to lose my mind. I feel it’s within my rights to ask her to keep it down, especially since she broached the subject with me once before. However, I don’t want to antagonize her, or be snarky or bitchy in the least; neither do I want to imply “...or I’m going to the landlord,” because that is not my intention - and even if it was, I probably have no grounds to complain, because it really does stop before “quiet time.” I don’t want to snitch, and I don't want them to feel they have to tiptoe; I just want them to think about and be considerate towards the people living below them (they have the whole top floor; the second floor is me and another apartment) before stomping around in their hobnailed boots; most especially, I want them to stop slamming the freaking door.
“I really can’t see me climbing those [metal, outside, 3-flight] stairs for anything less than the apocalypse (I tried it once; panicked, had to turn around and go back, with help). I’m sure if I just brought it to her attention, the noise would decrease to tolerable, but I can’t find a diplomatic way to approach it.”
I never did send an email, and it’s been six or seven weeks. It wasn’t until last week or so that I did anything: It was a monday or tuesday, nearing 11pm (quiet time for the building)(and actually, I just looked at my lease, & quiet time is actually 10.30), and upstairs was a heavy metal concert, complete with guest drummer. My blood was rising, but I didn’t do anything. Finally, at about ten after eleven, I was heading to bed, and since it hadn’t stopped and was officially after quiet time, I finally blew my lid, grabbed the broom, went into my workroom (under the noise, and with a convenient drywall ceiling), and banged on it four or five times. The music got turned down instantly. Relieved, I went to bed.
Today after work, fifteen people came in upstairs, dumped a load of bricks on the floor, fell down on top of one another, screeched about it, and then started throwing the bricks. At least, that’s what it sounded like. I turned on my music hoping to drown it out. No such luck. The noise is normally on the side of the apartment I don’t frequent (over the bathroom and workroom and bedroom), and usually at my desk I don’t hear much, if anything. I was sitting here on the phone with Shauna, and I kept getting interrupted by yells and thumps and more bricks being dumped. Then there was a dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-da drumming directly above my head. It went on for a minute, two, maybe three, and finally I lost it and screamed, “would you STOP WITH THE FUCKING BANGING?!” at the ceiling. It stopped. And then, and I swear to god this is true, they went DUMDUMDUMDUMDUMDUMDUMDUM really fast and loud and ON FUCKING PURPOSE.
Oh no they di'n’t!
Remember when your little brother would do that? You’d take so much of his annoying clicking or clacking or whatever, and finally go, “would you QUIT IT?” And he’d look at you, and very deliberately do it three more times? Only, this was when you were 12 and he was nine? Yeah. Exactly.
It’s on, now.
Posted by nightingayle at June 16, 2003 07:39 PM