The little things

 I've been keeping a list for some time now of the little things that were getting to me. I haven't been complaining enough, have I? 😄 Didn't think so. It's time for more.

Really, though. It's all about the small things, right? The small things that bring us joy. And the small tears that bring you down. Microaggressions is an apt term. Our first few months of settling into our new place found a constant tension underlying pretty much all interactions, and when I finally started to keep a list of the tiny tweaks that were annoying me, they did start to add up to a larger picture of frustration. 

Here's my list of the small things around the house. Let's start with the kitchen, shall we?

The dishwasher

• It never fully cleans the dishes. Most often, there's a film left on our dishes after the so-called wash. I've known other people whose dishwashers were less than capable, but this is the first time I've had one.
• My dishes come out with rust. Seriously. Even the white dishes come out with rust!
• The dishes never fully dry. I could leave the door open for 24 hours and the dishes still wouldn't dry. 
• It's smelly. Like really, really smelly. Because of the humidity and the heat, we can have dirty dishes in the dishwasher for just a few hours and it'll start to smell. After three days, it gets really gross and every time you open the door to add new dishes, a disgusting smell wafts out. 
• The dishwashing cycle is looooong. The eco cycle takes 2.5 hours, and the shortest cycle is an hour and forty minutes. 
• This last one isn't a horrible thing, really, but instead of a silverware basket, they have a silverware drawer here. It means the silverware is more likely to catch water and rust, and there's not enough room for larger utensils like whisks. It's not horrible, but I don't love it.

The trash

• Also. So. Smelly! With the exponentially quicker rate of decay means that things start smelling so much faster. You pretty much have to take out the garbage every single day to avoid it. 
• We have a garbage shoot in our second kitchen/laundry room. And the trash shoot is disgusting. The drawer/compartment you pull out to put your trash in is layered with nasty, dirty, who even knows what. This is the entryway for cockroaches in our apartment. 😣 I even signed a year-long contract with pest control, mainly to ensure we don't have cockroaches. But he won't guarantee no cockroaches because apparently the trash shoot is the building management's domain. And they spray it occasionally, but we still get cockroaches in through that damn shoot. I hate it. So much. 
• Because of the trash shoot, the garbage cans are tiny. Which they kind of have to be because you have to take the garbage out so often for the smell/decay anyway. But when a bag gets stuck. <Insert gagging noise.>

The sink

• The bottom of the sink is flat, with almost no incline, so instead of washing down the sink, we get an incessant swirl.
• And there's no sprayer to use for cleaning! 
• There's no continuation between the two sides of the sink--it's a strip of counter down the middle. Which means when we're cleaning or washing dishes by hand, water tends to go all down that center bit, then eventually spill down onto the floor and also go back to pool around the faucet. It's a weird design flaw. 
• Speaking of design flaws, when you turn on the hot water, the faucet handle hits the back wall. Whoever installed this sink missed a trick here. 

The fridge

• The freezer doesn't work on one side. That's probably just a broken thing, but it's particularly frustrating since the refrigerator on the other side sometimes freezes things. 

Now let's move into the bathroom. 

The sinks

• The sinks in the main bathroom look great, but they're super shallow, so the water splashes right out. 
• The drain topper (what's the proper term for that?) is also so big, and not under the faucet, so if you're brushing your teeth and accidentally spit on the drain topper, you have to purposely splash your spit so it goes down the sink. Again, just bad design. 
• And speaking of all this splashing, the countertops in all the bathrooms are marble. AND MARBLE STAINS FROM WATER! The real estate agent basically told us to run a rag around the sink after each time we use it. My single biggest pet peeve with these bathrooms. They're covered in marble, from the floors and the countertops to the showers.

The shower

• Water stains on marble. Again, the instructions are to wipe down and clean the stupid marble showers after every shower. I just. Can't. That is stupidly high maintenance!! Why would you use a material in the shower--that gets stained from water? Not just light water stains, but deep discoloration! 
• Now, I know that rainwater showerheads are meant to be this delightful and luxurious thing. But rainwater showerheads are super annoying. I don't want to wash my hair every time I take a shower, and I have to contort my body in weird ways to keep my head out from under the water. Not a relaxing shower experience.
• But of course, you might be thinking, the shower wouldn't only have a rainwater showerhead. And you'd be right! There is a handheld sprayer! Which does have a wall attachment. And the sprayer's wall attachment sits at the height of my belly button. This and the rainwater showerhead combined make for a really annoying shower experience. But there's more.
• The water heater is temperamental. You have to turn the knobs a certain way in order to get the hot water on. Then you have to wait a few minutes for the hot water to make it to the bathroom from the other side of the house. And it's a hot climate, so I tend to prefer lukewarm showers. But if I turn the water temperature too lukewarm, the hot water turns back off and I'm left in a cold shower. Sometimes when I still have shampoo or conditioner in my hair.
• The shower drains here are designed differently and they block after just a few showers. We used to clean our shower drain maybe once or twice a year. Now it's once or twice a week. 
• There's no light in the shower. The only light comes in from the bathroom lights, which means I can't see my legs when I'm shaving. My legs regularly have patches of long hair. 
• Then the last thing. After I've finished my frustrating shower of angling for cold water, where it's pooled at my feet. And I'm trying to open the door to get out. And the knob is so tiny, and my fingers are wet, so I have to squeeze really hard to pull it open. Because the user-friendly, pullable handle is on the outside of the door.

By the time I'm done with a shower, or done cleaning up after dinner, I can find myself ropable from all these little high maintenance features of this fancy condo. I tell you what, I never want to live in a luxury apartment again. I mean, I love the pool, and the apartment does look nice. But it doesn't feel nice to eat or brush my teeth or shower. You know, those small, normal things you have to do every day. They are minor frustrations. That, stacked one on top of the other, day after day, add up to a significant frustration.

The first three months were obnoxious, but I've started to adapt, somewhat. I told Marcus the other day that maybe by the time we've been here another four months, I'll be even less angry about it. Maybe.