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I’m taking a bit of a turn with this post, but since it is a personal design and inspiration blog focusing on apartments and home in general, I am sure many of you can relate in some way to my story…

I have been in my new apartment for about 2 weeks now, and while I absolutely love the location, the convenience and the layout, I have to say, I hate my upstairs neighbors. You may have noticed, if you follow me on Twitter, or if you look at my posts on the right rail there.

Since day one, when my friends and I were eating lunch between moving boxes, I have heard music coming from upstairs. I couldn’t, and didn’t want to, believe my ears when I heard drums — DRUMS — coming from above, and when I went into my bedroom to get a better listen, I still couldn’t believe it. I decided to let it go, though I mentioned it to the leasing office later that day, just as a precaution. We continued unpacking and went on with our merry lives.

Until it continued. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6:30PM until 9:30PM, all I heard was violins and guitars. Thinking it was my next door neighbor, I couldn’t hold it in anymore, and I banged on the wall. It didn’t stop. Frustrated, I went to bed. Then Sunday came, and with my boyfriend as witness, the music started again. Loudly. Very loudly. We were painting my bedroom and had the windows open, and even with the T.V. on, yet all we could hear was this mystery neighbor’s music. Realizing we needed more paint, we left the noisy apartment and noticed we didn’t hear anything coming from my next door neighbor… So we walked down to the courtyard that my apartment faces into, and OH. MY. GOD. The entire courtyard was filled with this music.

The neighbor directly across from me, who is normally out on her balcony talking on her phone, called down to me and expressed her concern with the volume as well. Then a neighbor on the first floor apartment (2 floors below the noise and on the other side of the courtyard) came out and explained that it had been going on for awhile. Oh no, I won’t stand for it. I am not paying the amount I pay every month to listen to someone else’s music penetrate my apartment. Though we wanted to finish painting the bedroom, we headed to the leasing office to get someone to the courtyard to listen for themselves, because in the past, they had said that they couldn’t really do anything because it was not happening during the ‘quiet hours’. Excuse my language, but bullshit. If someone is disrupting EVERY. ONE. ELSE. in the vicinity, something has to be done!

After talking to the leasing office, we decided to head upstairs and see if we could pinpoint the apartment it was coming from. A few ears against walls and doors later, we deduced that it was in fact, the apartment directly above mine. We went downstairs to see the staff in the courtyard assessing the situation. After telling them which apartment it was coming from, there wasn’t much else we could do — and we had walls to finish painting, so off to Lowe’s we went!

One would think that after the leasing office heard for themselves, and saw 3-4 people on their balconies expressing their concerns as well, that they would do something more drastic about it. You would think that the noise would have stopped. At least for a few days. Not happenin’.

The following night, last Monday, the noise started up, again. The boyfriend and I were trying to have a relaxing evening, but we couldn’t hear ourselves think over the music. The weather was cool and I wanted to enjoy the fresh air — but how could I enjoy it with the music being louder than the T.V. that was 10 feet away?! We decided to confront the neighbors. While we were extremely upset, we were calm. Upstairs we went. Knock knock. No answer. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. No answer. POUND POUND POUND. No answer, still. But the neighbor across the hall from the noisy one, came out to see what was going on. The noisy one just didn’t want to confront us. Jerks.

At this point, you can imagine that I am very annoyed. I understand, it’s apartment living, but COME. ON. I can’t NOT hear your music. Even with the T.V. going, the dishwasher running and the washer cycling!

But then it stopped. For 4 days, I heard nothing. Until this past Friday.

At 6:30PM.

DRUMS.

Drums so loud that the lamp on my desk was shaking. You remember that scene in Jurasic Park, where they are all sitting in the Jeeps, and they notice the water start to shake? My glass of juice was SHAKING.

I couldn’t take it. I called the leasing office and matter-of-factly told them that if they did not do something about the noise, I would be taking it to the Police. I don’t particularly like to involve ‘our finest’ in matters as trivial as this, but when a woman calls in distress, those guys usually respond. The leasing office proceeded to tell me that since they had sent out a preliminary warning to all surrounding residents, it was now time to contact the apartment directly with a possible breach of contract. Horrah!

It has been a few days since then, and even at 10:30PM last night while lying in bed watching the finale of Design Star, I heard their music. I’m giving it until the end of this week until I proceed any further. It’s extremely frustrating when someone can be so inconsiderate of everyone else and not even have a notion that, “hey, maybe I’m being a bit too loud. After all, I do live right next to and above other people.” But no, it’s not the case.

Have you ever dealt with noisy neighbors? How do you handle it? If you’ve had a situation similar to mine, I would love to know how you went about handling it. I will not be confronting them alone, and while I have written several notes to put on their door, I feel like it’s pointless at this stage to even bother with it.