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Home > Fellowship Plaza Apt. A202 |
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eSA (Extended Stay America) Room 210 (1)
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eSA (Extended Stay America) Room 210 (1)
After storing everything into a container safely, on January 3rd, around 3:30PM I had moved into the motel that I would be staying for the next 8months or so. From our senior apartment it is about 25 minutes away. To come here, there is no freeway available but Lawrence Expressway as the fastest route. The motel I am temporarily staying has California State Route 237 nearby.
Because of this, the sound of cars passing by is always loud when the window is opened, but the sound-proof window is well made so whenever the windows are closed it is nice and quiet.
After receiving my keys I found room 210 which was unexpectedly on the 1st floor. I assumed it was the 10th room in the 2nd floor.
After opening the door with the plastic key, it felt like I had stepped into a den. I turned on the lights and the room’s interior came into the view.
Because I was going to stay here for many months, I had checked around the room to see if anything was off. The first thing was, between the bathroom and kitchen there was a 2inch hole, and the tea table in front of the sofa was slightly squeaky. I then checked the water basin and saw that the lever (which is used to close the drain pipe and fill the sink) was damaged.
The silicone around the kitchen sink was very old and rotten, so if even a small amount of water that got into the ledge would spill to the cabinet below. One special thing I noted was, whenever if a place is there for people to stay or live there is a well-made system for fire. When I did my search of this room, I noticed the alarm was installed before, but it was not there anymore!
The biggest problem was the fridge. It was difficult to stay the first day. The fan inside the fridge would run almost all night. Because the cold air had escaped from the fridge, the heater which was set to make the room more comfy would turn on every hour or so and after about 10 minutes, the room would be nice. I literally had to report everything I had found. The reason why the fan would continue to blast cold air was, the rubber sealant located on the lower half of the fridge was so old that about 1/4inch of gap would be opened and not seal. That is why the fan inside the fridge would constantly run. Because the outside air was going in, there was a pool of water and ice inside. I took the picture of me attempting to close the fridge door shut. I had guessed probably this room was vacant for a very long time. So I decided to record my findings to report to the front desk.
Generally speaking, when a new tenant moves in and do not report any of the faulty within the house, then the responsibility falls to the person who had lived there and has to pay for all of the damages. Because my wife and I will be living here for 8 months, I had taken careful look around to see if anything was out of order. Since I was in architecture I was very sharp and observant about these things.
The very next day, I called the front office and put in a request for inspection before I headed to my office. Later during the afternoon I called my wife, and apparently the manager came up and saw the damages and thought that we had put the hole in the wall, and said that there were no faults with the sink, nor was there a real issue with the fridge. When I returned around 3PM, the fire alarm was re-installed. I went back to the management and said something along the lines of “how is it possible that we would make a hole on the first day? Please take a look at all the dusts that had collected.” The manager came back, re-inspected the hole and promised to fix it. The manager also promised to patch the sink with silicone gel, but the fridge was ok. I had explained multiple times but they were adamant about the fridge problems. Since I knew this situation wouldn’t be solved easily, I had taken some napkins and applied to where the rubber barking had separated in the vacuumed seal area to fix the hole which took me over an hour to complete.
After doing “some repair” the current apartment’s manager had called the next day to see if everything was ok. I had explained all the problems and the manager said that they would “take care” of this issue on our behalf. The very next day the management personnel called and they offered to “replace the fridge”. I waited and around 11AM a worker brought a fridge. I wasn’t brand new anything, but at least it closes properly and was clean. The table that was creaky from before turns out to be bolted down with screws so I had fixed it myself. The sink’s problematic handle was also fixed by the management. I knew that we would be living here for while so as petty as these things may look, I did not want it unresolved.
It has been about 6 days now since we had moved in, and since the room is only one, we try to spend the most of the time as frugal as possible. During the early morning I usually start with the word of God but since I do not want to disturb my wife sleeping (since the light makes the entire room very bright), I usually do that during the night time and in early morning, I now pray instead.
For information, my current residing motel is like this: across is 12 feet, vertically it is 28 feet. The most space occupied by this area is the bed. It is a King Size bed at 6 feet 2 inches2. So, the bed occupies about 1/3rd of the room save for the space occupied by the bathroom. I have never used such a large bed before. It is nice and comfortable. The bathroom is 5 feet by 9 feet another rather, large occupied space. The kitchen is 2 feet by 7 feet – however, since the fridge occupies about 2 feet of space, the actual practical space I have is 2 feet by 5 feet. For American culture and food, it is more than enough space but for Koreans, who fry, and boil is rather bit small. The table is bolted down so there is space for dishes to store underneath (the table is 3 feet 1 inch X 3 feet 8 inches). Even without the space of 7 feet by 2 feet for closet, there is plenty of space to move around about. It is slightly larger than Freedom Tower (first senior apartment) and lot smaller than the 1 bedroom apartment that is being remodeled. I thank the person who cleans this place once a week.
I will write a bit more in detail, there is a park nearby that is accessible thankfully. My wife reads the bible more frequently when she is bored and alone, prays more often and unlike the previous place, walks three times. Usually in our old place, I used to walk around our apartment once and do another exercise during the night time, but now I can walk two times thankfully. During the mid week I would walk around once and in weekends walk all the way to the park and back which takes an hour and half. My wife would be lonely and, won’t be well fitting for her mental health, so I had shrunk my office time by about half.
I heard recently in the news that there are about 30,000 people who are currently homeless in the Bay Area. I am thankful and sorry that for someone who had come at mid-40s and did not contribute as much to the country to have a affordable place. As the LORD who had guided the Israelites with columns of fire and cloud, my wife and I would live in full of grace of the Lord and be thankful as that is more than enough.
(February 10th 2018) |
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Why? 
eSA (Extended Stay America) Room 210 (1)