The Cost of “Good”

On Monday I finally launched a mini-project that’d been living in my head since April 2023.

But I don’t want to talk about it now. I’d like to talk about another thing that happened that day.

It’s truly a long story, so I’ll try to narrow it down to three key moments.

#1 2014 Onward

I bought my apartment in 2008, and since 2014, I’ve been trying to move out, but there’s always been something that’s prevented me from actually doing it.

I’m not going to go into details, because there are way too many, so I’ll just leave it at that. But if anyone is interested in listening to frustrating rants, I’m willing to spill the tea.

#2 A Few Weeks Ago

A few weeks ago, we had an emergency meeting in the building addressing the need to take out a loan to cover the expenses for roof and other leaks in certain apartments on the upper floors.

The building is quite old and not doing well financially, like a lot of other older buildings in this area. Yet, a much greater problem is the fact that most of the residents don’t really understand the concept of co-ownership. Or law, for that matter. It also doesn’t help that the previous building representative entered into many nefarious deals with the building manager behind the residents’ backs, which caused further financial issues we’re currently seeking justice for in court.

So, basically – I live in a circus.

Anyway, long story short, as soon as one of the older residents took over the discussion with him knowing everything, and everyone else being dumb, I decided to leave the meeting.

A neighbor from one of the upper floors joined me on the way home. While we were in the elevator, she said she left because she couldn’t listen to the guy anymore, and I agreed, adding I’d already decided to sign the papers (to take out the loan), so it really made no sense to be there and listen to who didn’t say hello to whom back in 1980 when the building was built.

I laughed, but she immediately said, Oh, thank you so much for signing! I live on the fifth floor, and my apartment is one of the ones with leakages. We have a little baby, and a dog, and we can’t get rid of mold and humidity no matter what we do.

I said, Well, it seems pretty normal to me if we live in the same building to repair the same issues because we do share the same walls.

And we stopped it at this.

#3 A Few Days Ago

It’s 2:52 AM, and I can’t sleep. Rain wakes me up, and I think to myself, FFS, the laundry is out. So I get up, only to realize that the rain is in my apartment. I go to the bathroom, and half my ceiling is on the floor, with water gushing out from the hole.

I call the neighbor upstairs, she’s asleep. When she returned home at about 8 PM, she found a wet spot on her wall. She reported the leak, but everyone just concluded it wasn’t an emergency, and we should all keep an eye on our walls until morning.

I cast an eye on my wall before going to bed, at about 1 AM, but nothing was there.

So, I can’t wake her up, I can’t wake up the representative, I call the emergency repairs team. They answer after the third ring and promise to send help immediately.

In the meantime, I go out, start ringing the intercoms, and eventually get my neighbor and the representative up. We alarm the neighboring apartments, and the emergency repairs call me back.

I explain that I tried to turn off the water vent for the entire building, but I couldn’t, and report that in just a few minutes the water broke through my bathroom wall into my toilet and is now flooding my hall.

The repair guy concludes it is indeed urgent, and I’m thinking, You don’t say?!, but he scolds me for the vent comment explaining this is a job for a professional. THEN WHERE THE F* ARE YOU?! I raise my voice, so he hangs up.

Meanwhile, the plumber arrives in a matter of minutes, and the water floods the neighboring apartments on floors 3 and 4.

He turns off the vent, comes to my apartment, gets shocked at what he sees, and opens my pipe to let the water run out of the system.

We manage to alarm everyone so they’re all awake, he checks what happened all the way up to the fifth floor and then arranges with the tenants to return at 8 AM to detect and fix the issue.

He reports back to me, pointing out that I should have acted immediately. I tell him I’m not gonna have him pin this on me because if it hadn’t been for me, the entire building would be underwater.

The Cost of Being a Decent Person, Item by Item

The water is back on at about 8:20 AM.

Apparently, something happened with the float valve in the built-in toilet in one of the apartments on the fifth floor, and since it was built-in, it flooded the entire building instead of just the bathroom.

Meanwhile, I have a huge hole in my bathroom ceiling, about a gazillion cracks, and my toilet wall looks like a freaking leopard. At least the water is gone, though.

But since I reacted first and have my own water meters, unlike the majority of other flats in the building, I get the privilege of paying for all the water that was in the system, which the plumber conveniently let out through my pipe.

And that’s not all – a dehumidifier has been on for two days straight, so that’s bound to add a nice amount to the bill.

Speaking of the bill, the building insurance doesn’t cover it because the leakage was caused by personal, not joint, property.

Plot twist – the owner of the flat is the neighbor who thanked me for signing the loan papers because she lived with persistent leaks, who, as soon as one of the other afflicted neighbors approached her about the damage, expressed her deepest regret, but stated that it wasn’t her fault, it was the float valve, and she clearly didn’t do it on purpose.

Well f*ck me sideways, because all other ways are already taken.

Bottom Line

As soon I hear the news, I text the representative I’d like to revoke my signature on the loan papers, and she texts me back, So, just your entrance or the whole building?

I’ll send you the list, I respond, and go out for a walk.

About 20,000 steps later, I have a meltdown in the middle of the woods.

I cry my heart out, sigh, and realize I’m not going to take those signatures back. I’m better than that.

Sometimes, life sucks, and there’s not much you can do about it.

But the solution is not to stop being good. Too many people have, and look where we are now.

The solution is that, if you’ve decided to do something, and you know it’s the right decision in your heart of hearts, it’s better to do it immediately while you’re still hyped about it.

You may feel bad, you may feel guilty, you may even hate yourself at first… but if you don’t do it, the universe will throw all kinds of sh*t your way to remind you you’re going against your decisions, until it pushes you in the corner and forces you to do the right thing eventually.

Then you’ll have to do it either way, and it’s going to be much worse because of all the pent-up disappointment you hold against yourself for waiting so long. And you’re just gonna hurt people more than you normally would have.

And that’s pretty much it.

Are you also handling tough decisions like an adult – by sweeping the issues under the carpet and waiting for the breaking point? 🤭