We've lived at one of their newer buildings in Avondale for a few months now, and I wish we had…read moredone better homework. The floors and walls are paper thin, so we hear everything, and I mean everything, all day long. We can track the upstairs neighbors through their apartment because we hear every step, every conversation, every food prep, every dog bone drop, every child tantrum, every long running toilet (their hall bath is constantly going right now in fact), every early morning workout session. We have a light plugged in to a living room wall, and when the upstairs neighbors walk over it, the light comes on - that's just from walking, which sounds like stomping. When it comes to side neighbors, I know one gentleman snores because I can hear it through the wall at night. We put our office in one of the bedrooms that is up against the stairwell - the METAL stairwell - because nobody could sleep through the noise of residents going up and down those steps. When people let the building exit doors close, it rattles the pot lights in the ceiling. We were recording it all, but it's so constant we ran into memory storage issues. As for the construction, we have a bathroom door that opens out into the hall, one closet door that doesn't stay closed at all, and a closet door that opens INTO the closet, hence it can not be closed if you have clothes hanging in said closet. They installed an AC system that allows for "auto", meaning it cools and heats based on the internal temp range set, then they sent out emails shaming anyone who was running their AC when the temps were above 50 degrees because they said it would break the system - the system they installed with the features they offered. Their email said to "open the windows" if you're hot, but the windows are only those tenting versions that go out a few feet and invite street noise into an apartment already awash with upstairs neighbor noise all day long. Speaking of the heat, there is no heating in the living room or bathrooms, which are always freezing - the only vents that emit heat are all placed near the floor, one in the hall, and one in each bedroom. We have to run the faux fireplace in the living room every day and sit on the couch under blankets. The thermostat is the only sensor, and it's located in the hall above one of the heating vents so it constantly turns itself off. The thermostat is set to 71 but my sensors in the bedrooms all read in the low 60s. If you want hot water in the sink or shower, per management you just have to "give it a minute" - according to my timers, that can be 3-5 minutes of letting the hot tap run until water gets hot, depending on time of day which can cause hot water to run out after only 10 minutes. The "secure building" feature is just standard keys and one keypad code that is given out to every delivery person in Chicago. The outdoor security light shines DIRECTLY into the master bedroom window, and never turns off (I had to install blackout curtains). The garage is standard Chicago - tiny little spaces jammed by columns, but there's no pressure plate, so you have to find the remote again to get out. There are no garbage chutes on the 5 story building, so that's a lot of garbage bag banging down the metal stairwells to go to the outdoor bins. But sure, all the stone is pretty, so we are paying $3K a month. If we could afford to get out of our lease to this mausoleum and move again, we would. If I can save one couple or family from getting duped like we did, I'll feel better.
