Neither of Us Thought to Ask… (updated)
"Is this a smoke-free building?”
It had been long enough since it was an issue for me, I plain forgot. Besides, our lease says we can’t smoke in here, and the landlord’s house has a vehement no smoking sign outside the door.
And yet, it was enough of an issue for me in the past that it was part of the reason I sought out a first floor apartment last time. Moot because that was an explicitly smoke-free building, but necessary otherwise to mitigate the “smoke rises and these places are never perfectly sealed” effect.
There had to be some major downfall to our nearly perfect apartment.
So yeah. It’s been making me (so far only) mildly sick. Oddly, one of the mornings the stale smoke woke me up, as it has done a few times, my sinuses went crazy, sniffling and needing frequent nose-blowing, Deb had the same problem.
It’s worst in my office, the bathroom and the kitchen. It’s worst in the morning and late evening, when the young guy who lives down there with the older couple - not sure if they’re his parents or he just rooms - is up and around and not gone for the day. We know he smokes. As far as we know, the other people there don’t. However, there’s been less opportunity to notice.
The theory is that because these people have lived there 28 years, they do whatever the hell they want, landlord’s (current version of the) lease be damned. It’s their stuff that is taking up almost the entire cellar, preventing us from storing anything down there.
This is one of those WYSIWYG situations that isn’t going to change, so hopefully when we close the storm windows and the place is sealed tightly, airflow will suck less of it up here and my big air purifiers will take care of the rest. Meanwhile, I’ll be mentioning it to the landlord in a “by the way, I forgot to ask...” sort of way. Perhaps he has no idea and really can stop it or minimize it. Or perhaps I’ll confirm what I expect; they predate that rule for everyone else and can’t be stopped unless they do something evictable.
Undoubtedly this will sound whiney and unfair to smokers out there. Just remember, I married a smoker. I believe smoking shouldn’t be taxed or regulated as it is. The tobacco suits by the government, while viscerally entertaining to someone whose life was ruined by smoke induced illness, were absurd. Some of my best friends, and the most interesting and productive people I’ve known, have been smokers. That said, smoking ends at the borders of my living quarters, and if your smoke comes in, you are inflicting harm on me and need to stop.
Update:
I grabbed our lease out of the car and went over it. Why did I think it had a no smoking clause? I have no idea, but it doesn’t, which sheds different light on the situation. I’ll still mention it with chagrin to the landlord Ultimately, if it’s bad enough and can’t be mitigated, our great apartment won’t be as extended a stay as we’d planned. That would be a shame. Since the landlord is obviously vehement about the issue of smoking at his own house, it should be interesting to see what he makes of our problem.
I rented a mother-in-law suite once, and it never occured to me to think about smoking. Turned out the owners, and their adult kids, all smoked, so every time the furnace went on, my apartment filled with smoke. My asthma went haywire.
Posted by Ith on 10/20 at 01:08 PMJay, this isn’t a matter of banning or regulating—if it’s in the lease, they agreed to it, even if they didn’t take it seriously. An agreement is an agreement.
And, since it affects your health, how could it be whiny?
Posted by Ian Hamet on 10/20 at 02:20 PMEven when I was a smoker, I loathed second-hand smoke. I don’t think it’s whiny to clarify the lease agreement.
Now that I’m a non-smoker (I still have DREAMS of smoking, though) it bothers me even more. I don’t begrudge anyone else their habits (after all, my DH still smoke) but I don’t like it anymore and I can understand and empathize with you, completely.
Posted by Margi on 10/20 at 02:52 PM
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