This past week has quickly brought me from the point of vaguely thinking about moving to wanting to move out. Now. At the end of the month.
It all started with one little bug . . . a bed bug that is. As nasty as these little critters are, I was thinking that we were done with them after dealing with an infestation in November ‘05 (thank you, upstairs neighbors, for bringing that “bargain” mattress into the apartment). That was mere weeks after Ken and I had bought a gorgeous new mattress as an anniversary gift for each other. Anyway, after fighting a concurrent infestation of bedbugs and roaches (yes, they were havin’ a game of ball on the wall), we were finally rid of the nasty buggers! Until last Thursday.
Dahlia was hanging out in her bouncy seat in the middle of the bed, and I leaned over her to smile at her when I noticed a brown bug hide under one of the seat legs. I immediately recognized it and said some not-so-nice things about it. To confirm, though, I grabbed a tissue and killed it. Sure enough. The bed bugs were back.
I am done with this apartment. We have a nice-enough landlord who sort of gets around to things if you ask continually for a few days in a row. We certainly have a lot of space for the rent we are paying, but I am done. This is the last item on a list of problems with this apartment that have been slowly racking up: broken storm doors out front since we moved in (3 years ago), 18 wheelers up and down our block all day because of the industrial drum company next door, various toxic liquids poured onto our sidewalk daily from the same company, moldy ceiling tiles in the bathroom because of leaks above them (yes– a drop ceiling in the bathroom). Plus, the place is just plain old and ugly. I know that isn’t a very convincing argument, but I get weary of the shabby brown linoleum in the kitchen, the lumpy, thin carpet, and the dirty wallpaper throughout the apartment. To seal the deal, Monday night an entire cabinet fell off the wall in the kitchen. That was a good time had by all.
I hope this isn’t a case of “the grass is greener . . . ” but we are officially apartment shopping.
i don’t know how to say this nicely, but I think its time someone told you the truth, so i’m just gonna come out and say it.
You live in Newark. If Jersey is the armpit of the country, Newark is that lumpy-pit-rash that just won’t go away.
On a more serious note (though, don’t take that to mean i wasn’t serious in the above sentence
), you guys have a kid now. that means you are home-owner/suburb worthy. Find a nice home that doesn’t have bugs that will eat your kid 
Those aren’t any prejudiced NJ/Newark slurs that I haven’t already heard, but that is a clever metaphor.
It’s never been a question of whether we were suburb worthy, in fact, surpising as it may seem, we chose to move to the city from the suburbs.
I find that there are actually more things in the suburbs that will eat children: ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, and, most notably, black bears (seriously, I saw one on my way to my parents’ place in the suburbs last week!)
We find that culture and community nicely balance out the lack of greenery, but we do have quality of living standards, and that is why we are looking for a nicer apt.
Home-owning? Sounds nice. Want to pay our mortgage?
Hi there,
I can’t believe you got bed bugs twice in the same building–20 months apart. Terrible luck.
It’s not cities that are the problem, there are bad buildings everywhere!
Move to Ithaca. I’ll pay your mortgage.
Ha! We could rent out the top floor of your house
Its only prejudice if you didn’t live in NJ for 18 years and travel to newark on a regular basis to fix computers.
I prefer to call it experience
How ’bout Fort Wayne?
Oh my dear Walkers, it’s my first time on your little site and what a sad story I just read! Yes, please get out of that place. There are so many other places to live (in the city) that are affordable and bug free! We live in the bottom floor of our landlords building. I think having the least amount of people in one building helps when dealing with bugs and such. We can look for you around here if you’d like, but Greenpoint is actually pretty toxic, and we’ll be heading further into Brooklyn once we have a kid. (check out the documentarty Toxic Brooklyn that we just saw!) But seriously, our place here sounds a lot less toxic than your description so maybe even here would be a good start. Our rent is pretty cheap! Anyways, just feeling bad for you guys right now. Love,Sarah