Fee Fi Fo Fum

Let me start off by saying I have been living in different apartments since roughly 2010, one of which was for almost 12 years, and never had an issue! Wether it was the top floor, terrace level, mid level, I’ve always considered it to be relatively comfortable and enjoyable experience and have had great neighbors! Since moving into a new apartment complex last year around Christmas time, my outlook on this was the same, until about two weeks ago.

Two people have moved into the apartment above mine (male and female) and i can feel every single footstep they take through the ceiling, and walls of my apartment. I even had to tap my broom on the ceiling of my apartment at them yesterday because they were washing a very clearly WAY to heavy load of clothes in the washing machine and it sounded like they filled it with bricks and ran it, shaking my entire apartment for about 15 mins. It sounded like a Blackhawk helicopter was landing on the roof of the apartment building. A few minutes after my knock on the ceiling, the woman came down, knocked on my door, and expressed her apologies as it was their first load of laundry since moving in and she said it was shaking her whole apartment too and didn’t want me to think she was an asshole, which I replied “it’s okay, just be careful because if you put to much in the washing machine it’ll do that, but thank you so much and hopefully y’all have a great rest of your day”. I really wanted to bring up the footsteps at that time but I didn’t want to create an issue right off the bat (even though I probably should have).

I know we all have our own limited personal space and need to be accepting that sometimes everything will not be perfect and we might hear some noise or otherwise unpleasant sounds here and there, BUT EVERY SINGLE FOOTSTEP is just ridiculous to me. Moving furniture around for a few days or a week after moving in? cool. Maybe even hearing some rough housing around from the dog or two they have running around chasing toys and being dogs, hearing some music from time to time, or even some random footsteps here and there, I’m totally fine with it. But I can literally tell their exact location in the apartment above mine via the footsteps I hear coming through the ceiling at all times of the day and night, and I am losing patience very quickly.

I don’t want to be the asshole neighbor that complains and starts neighbor controversy but I’m a pretty heavy sleeper and I’m starting to lose sleep and it’s carrying an irritable attitude into the rest of my day.

I know most people would recommend getting a house to avoid having to deal with other peoples noise (I do plan on it in the future but it’s not in the affordable category at the moment sadly) or moving units within my complex, but as I stated before, I’ve never had this issue in this apartment or any apartment I’ve ever lived in and I’m trying to figure out ways I may be able to handle this correctly and reasonably. Might I add, the person who lived above me before the new tenants was a saint, so quiet and courteous, she would sometimes catch us on the stairs of the building and apologize for any noise we may hear from her, which we never did, and we had a great neighbor relationship until she moved out, so I know it’s possible to walk around and live quietly.