It’s another smoky morning in Atlanta. I can’t believe those wildfires in south Georgia re still going on - and that the smoke makes it all the way up here, ~250 miles away.
This morning our apartment smelled like smoke, because of the window that doesn’t close all the way. And yeah, about that… I emailed the maintenance office about it Saturday, and yesterday the landlord wrote back and said (and I quote), there’s nothing they can do and it’s just “part of the historic value of the building.” :P
Great. Except, our living room area was already coated in dust from a crew working on the outside of the building (landlord says “the recent tumult of the dust intrusion is a rare occurrence”), and I worry about industrious mosquitoes finding their way in during summer, and cold air during winter.
I don’t like to be a chronic complainer, I really don’t. And I understand that with an old, industrial building, it’s pretty hard to find satisfactory solutions when problems like this arise. But it’s frustrating. However, it’s obviously time to take matters into our own hands; tonight, I’ll be breaking out the duct tape! (And the mop, to clean up the layer of dust on the floor.) The apartment should be somewhat clean in time for this weekend’s podcast party.
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10 Responses to "Smoke, dust, and such"
You may not be able to find it down here, but up in Boston where most of us lived in ancient apartment buildings with these sorts of “charming” character flaws, there was this great stuff like Saran wrap that you could put over the windows in the winter, and it would somehow stretch really tight over any cracks or creases and hold out the cold air. Perhaps something you can find over the internet…I wish I could remember the name of it. I’ll see what I can come up with.
Well, actual Saran wrap is another thing that came to mind, since it’s less noticeable than duct tape. :) But if there’s some special product, then hell yeah!
I’m glad there’s an explanation for the ubiquitous fog and burning smell. I walked outside today and was like, hmmmmm, I think Sherman just came through!
[...] while I’m at it, I might follow Amber’s example and break out the duct tape, too. Read More Post a [...]
I have Googled and found that you can buy the stuff at any Lowe’s, Home Depot, or similar hardware store but have not found a name. However it works much like shrink wrap, there is plastic with tape on the edges and you tape it around the window and then blowdry it to make it shrink til it’s tight around the window. Hopefully you can throw yourself at the mercy of a Home Depot person and they can help you find it, if it’s sold down here. Everyone I knew who lived in unrenovated buildings used it up in Boston each winter.
Heh. Well, now I have to buy a blow-dryer so I can get the stuff to work!
Thanks for checking, Sara. I’ll make a trip to Lowe’s ASAP.
Good luck at Lowe’s. After I moved to Wisconsin from Texas I found the ‘plastic shrink stuff’ for windows was all over the place come Fall.
I don’t remember ever seeing any in Texas. It’s just not needed in a place where ‘winter’ isn’t that wintery. It’s possible I never looked for it either.
We have a hundred year old house - one of our windows where we park the window mounted a/c is somewhat out of true - it has never fit right. Three years running I’ve duck taped the gap … this year I’ll look into using the leftover shrink wrap.
Thanks for opening my eyes to that possible use, Sara.
[...] our house is sealed pretty well and the smoke and smell have not seeped inside, unfortunately some our friends have not been so [...]
yeah- yay smoke. Stupid wildfires. In the morning it’s thick enough to make driving difficult.
Savannah’s been looking like Atlanta with all the smoke moving into our area as well. It’s been so hazy and smoky there the past 2 weeks or so that driving into the Atlanta area today didn’t faze me. I hope they get these fires controlled soon.
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