Ghosts of Apartments Past

Oh, I can't stand it.  That damn Chelsea apartment is STILL following me around causing trouble.

Tuesday of Christmas week I went over and did all the cleanup from the move...getting rid of trash, sweeping floors, cleaning the icebox, washing the floors.  Now it seems that I didn't do enough for them. 

Now, as we all know, I'm a total neophyte when it comes to apartments in this particular century.  I've only had four since I moved back to NY in 1972, and two of those were in the same building.  Now, when I left the second one in that building in the '70s, I just told them I was leaving and left.  Nobody said a word to me.  When I left the third apartment, they were trying to get us out because they were going to renovate and turn the thing into a coop building, so nobody cared about the apartment (which was a good thing, since it was really old and shabby).  In both cases, I hasten to add, I left the apartment just as I left the Chelsea apartment...clean, swept, etc.  Then we bought the house, and when we sold that, they were going to gut renovate the thing, and anyway they had us bring the cleaning and fumigation people in.

So I have absolutely no experience of leaving an apaartment which seems to be under new rules.  The lease I had tells me that normal wear and tear is fine.  Dan (son of the owner), tells me that the stove is covered in grease and they probably have to buy a new stove (they should buy a new stove because that one is crap, but it hasn't got anything to do with grease and anyway I cleaned it) and that I should have taken all the picture hangers out of the walls and spackled and painted.  Done WHAT?  Since when is the outgoing tenant intended to repaint the apartment?  This would make sense to me if I had painted a wall black or something like that, but surely hanging pictures is "normal wear and tear," isn't it?  And according to Dan, there were marks on walls.  Well, yes...if you put furniture against walls, it may well leave a mark.  Again, surely this is normal wear and tear?

So now they're going after my security deposit, and I'm just furious...not to mention frightened for no reason whatsoever.  It's just that Dan and his mother Maria frighten me anyway, because of the whole eviction thing and all (I was never comfortable in that apartment because I always thought they were going to burst in the door wanting to inspect it).  I mean, there's no reason for me to be frightened of them...other than taking my money, they can't do a damn thing to me...but they're such a creepy pair.

I'm going to spit tacks for a while.

Growl.

Love, Wendy