The pros and cons of living in this apartment

zieak ♦ May 21, 2012 ♦ Leave Your Comment

We live in an apartment building in the downtown area of Ulaanbaatar.

Last night the neighbor below us was having a vicious fight – loud enough that it wasn’t hard to imagine associated domestic violence. Right now I can hear a child down there having a screaming fit. So yeah, sometimes the sounds of the neighbors is a real bummer.

We’re on the sixth floor and there is no elevator. In the countless times I have spiraled p to the sixth floor I have noticed a pattern in some of the doors on lower floors. On the second floor there is a rather plain wooden door. The third is a wooden paneled door. The fourth a wooden door with many bubble-like panels. The fifth is a faux-marble door. They seem to get more ornate as you go up. Then our plain green metal door to greet us home. Carrying groceries, luggage, and everything we own up those steps is one good reason to not move until we leave the country.

In the stairwell there has been all sorts of vile messes and garbage. On more than one occasion there has been broken bottles to navigate past. Once our neighbor’s dog shat on the landing below ours – it wasn’t cleaned for days and we had to hold our breath as we came and went. Vomit has been splattered on stairs too. Many tenants leave their trash on the landings and sometimes those are pretty rank.

Because we’re on the top floor all the cigarette smoke from the lower levels rises. It used to trickle into our apartment until I put weather stripping around our door to seal it out.

But it isn’t all bad living here.

By living on the top floor we get some exercise. And the view we have is certainly better than the view from lower floors. By the time we’re upstairs most of the dirt is knocked off your shoes and you have your coat and hat off.