Day 18 in Hell...

So... Been a while since I posted I know I promised my hockey blog a video but I have been so depressed and busy lately I haven't really wanted to do much... And then along came the spiders that sat right be side her (me)... The spiders being my roommates.

Recently I learned that I would be getting a tad bit less of a loan refund to pay for my rent, so I talked to my landlord and got permission to find a roommate. So I posted this lovely ad around the Facebook, Craigslist and other such places...

Ended up getting 2. They live in my living room and pay about 300 dollars less a month EACH then I pay for my 1 bedroom apartment in DOWNTOWN CHICAGO. Okay sure that's fair cause I have the bedroom... whatever. I let them move in 15 days early at no charge! I am a goddess they shall love me fore I am forever nice and accommodating they will never try to screw me over now!



Week 1: 
I help them move in, I pay to have keys made for each of them costing me around 20 dollars in the process. I start looking to find a cheep way to gain access to a carpet cleaner for them to use. I have previously already taken down my futon and have removed all of my things from the living room. I also allow Roommate 2 to put her bike near the front door slightly obstructing it. I have previously cleaned out cabinets, shelves, drawers, ect. Everything seems good so far...

Week 2: 
Roommates are fully moved in and have started to unpack. Upon the insistance that the carpet cleaner be rented on the one day that I have had NO sleep and gotten called in to work worked 7 hours straight with NO break and not being paid yet from the pool and living off of the last 100 dollars I possess I rent the damn carpet cleaner costing OVER 50 dollars with soap included... oh and might I ad that my request to wait a week till I got paid and could get a chance to clean out my room further so that something I WAS PAYING A THIRD FOR could also be used BY ME... went unnoticed. They used it I went to bed... oh and they used all the soap at once instead of watering it down so the carpet infront of my door now has white chalky residue. Oh and did I mention they didn't and are refusing to chip in for the soap that I didn't get to use as well...

Further in the week Roommate 1 asked for a bit more space to put her dishes and cookware in or on or just somewhere. Provide her with room in the pantry shelves specifically stating that the shelf where the fuse box is needs to stay cleared off. I come back home 7 hours later and the ENTIRE shelving unit is take by Her AND Roommate 2's things hindering the access to the fuse box and moving half of my things to the floor, WITH OUT my knowledge or permission.

Week 3: 
This week, yes cat's and kittens its only been 2 weeks and I can't deal with these girls, they maybe old enough to call themselves women but after you read the next bit of tomfoolery you will agree with me... they are GIRLS.

So its the end of August Start of September... so its Bill Time! YAY! but any way I post the bills and the math dividing things in 3rds (fair right?) well apparently not... I was cornered after just waking up yesterday by the two of them and informed that the internet bill is to high and I quote "I am not paying that much for internet"... Hey Remember THIS:

17 days after moving in, ie yesterday... I wake up and find this in my Message Box *For nicety purposes i have redacted their names... in all honesty I just really wanted to use the word Redacted in a sentence.*:

Hey Ashley,
We wanted to talk to you to face today but my work schedule and Roommate 2’s schedule did not combine and you seemed busy in the morning and we didn’t want to interrupt you while your friend was here.
So things we need to address:

1. We are sorry about turning off the a/c but it truly gets freeeeezing for us towards the night and we couldn’t bear with it. We aren’t sure if a/c cost electricity or it is included in rent but if it is, we think we need to cut back on using the a/c so often because we do not want to pay for something that does not need to be used excessively.
2.  We know you use the dishwasher only once a week but we would like to have the sink available to wash our dishes. So if you could rinse your dishes and put them in the dishwasher straight away it would help us greatly.
3. We sort of already talked to you about this ut when we came in we expected to pay about 30 dollars for internet at most among the 3 of us. We don’t know if you’ve tried downgrading but it would be a lot cheaper if even changing internet companies.
4. 4.     Last thing, could you just post the bills on the fridge? We remember you posting the electricity bill of around 80 dollars split in three. We are willing to pay electricity fee for the month (half of the month of August) that we lived here for . But 80 dollars for half of the month seems very high. Even 80 dollars for the whole month seems high. So we would like to just clarify things and see billing statements so there would be no confusion.

-And, as for the carpet cleaner,
          will pay 8 dollars and rents for the vacuum rental but we thought you said you were going to cover the soap cost. If you want to divide that up we are going to have to add three more bottles into the calculation because as we told you before, one bottle only lasted for about 1/5 of the room three more bottles after that wasn’t enough to cover all of the carpet area but we couldn’t afford to spend more and had to clean some parts with just hot water. We weren’t going to charge you, but if you really want to calculate the cost and talk to the landlord together and get reimbursed for the costs because it’s a lot of money.
 -Roommate 1 & 2

To me this note is essentially rude and disrespectful to me. I feel as if it was done to try and get me to bend over backwards to ensure that all of the bills are paid while they continue to pay CONSIDERABLY less then myself and anyone else in this area. But respond I did... with this lovely little email.

Subject: In Response to Your NoteFrom: Ashley Sorgea
Date: September 3, 2011 2:03:08 PM CDT
To: Roommate 1 and Roommate 2

A/C:I understand the A/C issue. I just would have liked to have been informed because my room gets very hot and we could have discussed the temperature be up higher and even off if that were necessary had you brought this to my attention sooner.
I understand wanting to cut back on things, but it does cost a lot to live downtown in the city. I had posted the billing rates in the ad on craigslist and even told you the internet and power costs when we first met.
Power is not included in our rent and the A/C does use electricity but I have been turning it off whenever I leave or am the last one out of the house or if it does get to cold in here. You are welcome to keep it off if you are here alone. But as I have told you before I cannot sleep at night if it is too hot. If it is possible you can shut the vents to the living room, which will push more of the cool air in my room, and we can adjust the temperature. Once it starts to get colder outside I will not need to have the air on at all and as I had said before I rarely turned the heat on unless it was below 40 outside. We can discuss me paying more for electricity costs if you require more heat, as I require more air conditioning now. But as I said about electricity costs a lot and I try to stay very conservative with lights, AC/Heat, and so on and so forth. I feel that everyone should be comfortable and not have to deal with many inconveniences or problems. I will start printing out the power bill and posting it.
It was my mistake for not informing you earlier, I will cover August’s power bill.
Dishes:I can definitely start putting the dishes in the dishwasher to alleviate that problem but I do want to ask if it is at all possible to not allow a lot of food in the sink as it does clog easy and I had to pull out what looked like onion and rice before washing anything yesterday.
Internet:First off let me apologize for posting the wrong price yesterday morning it wasn’t till after you left and I double-checked that I realized I wrote down the wrong month’s fee. I had to pay an extra 10 dollars a few months ago when I had credit card info stolen and my payment “bounced”. The price for September is 77. I will print out and post the bill as soon as possible.
Secondly, I feel a little frustrated that this is suddenly a problem as I had told you both when we met how much the internet cost. I can understand not wanting to pay a certain amount in bills, but as stated previously I did post the bill fee for both power and Internet in the post and informed you of it upon meeting.
Personally I need a faster connection for school. Downloading Project materials/Footage takes a long time on a standard connection since the file sizes are so big, and it is often time that I don’t have. I also use a lot of streaming/live feeds during the school year, like Skype. So it is easier and fewer problems arise with a higher speed.
I do not want to switch services. Like I mentioned earlier I have had problems with ATT in the past and that is the only other option outside of Comcast. Comcast has the Best service in the city and their customer service is great. I looked into switching service to AT&T and it would also take up to 3-6 weeks to switch over service and that would greatly inconvenience me in my studies.
I personally feel that as I am paying a higher individual rent, $25 a month between the 3 of us is not too much to ask for Internet service. But there are a few options we can discuss:

1. I pay $600 a month for rent and everything stays the same. (meaning not changing internet service and its split into thirds)
2. I pay and extra $20 for Internet a month (meaning I pay $45 a month and you $15 a month) but if power goes over $75 (meaning goes over by $10) a month you guys pay the difference.
3. I Keep this Internet and pay the $75.00 a month and you guys get your own Internet.

Carpet Cleaner:As for the carpet cleaner that is fine for Ruby to just pay the 8 dollars.


Along with this email I have attached an official roommate agreement together. It would be great if you could look it over and we can discuss any changes to it. I would like for all three of us sign one to have on file and then a copy posted on the corkboard in the front hallway. I will also provide you with your own copy.
Finally, I want to be clear that I am not trying to force you out or make you pay more. I am trying to make sure that everyone is happy and no one is inconvenienced. But as Ruby had mentioned in her email when we discussed rent about wanting to pay for food and what not I am also going through that. I work 2 jobs so that I can keep what I like and also put food on the table and if in any way that becomes a problem for me then I will have to consider other options. 

Ashley 

SO now its Day 18 and I woke up to no response and they didn't get home till around 1 am last night so we of course didn't talk. So I got up and bought printer ink and printed out both the roommate agreement, a copy of their note, and my response. I printed a copy for both of them placed it on their desk and taped it to the thermostate and the refrigerator.

You be the judge... Comment away...