Fucking HOA.
Jul. 15th, 2010 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hoveringsombreroSo, when we first moved in here in December of 2008, I noticed there was a lot of cold bleedthrough from the windows, but since we like cold, it wasn't really a big deal, 'till summer. Then it became impossible to be within 5 feet of any of the 3 sun facing windows (the largest of which lives in my bedroom).
Stealing an idea from Loopy, we acquired white styrofoam and I put it up between the window and the horizontal blinds on those three windows. It worked like gangbusters! They've been up since then, which is about a year.
A few days ago we got contacted by our owner that the HOA had sent him a notice that we had to take them down. Despite the fact that they've been up for a year and the only thing the rules said was "white window coverings." Possibly the regs have changed, but whatever. We're just renters, there's nothing I can do about it.
The dining area windows being sans styrofoam hasn't been too bad, just stay away from that area during the hottest. But my window had to be re-covered somehow. So I got the bright idea to just recreate what I had but on our side of the blinds. So window>blinds>styrofoam>fabricpinnedtostyrofoamforlightblocking.
This worked just as well, UNTIL IT HIT 111F TODAY. I had stayed up really late (1pm) in order to try to reset my upsidedownsleep. I had been asleep about 5 hours when the smell of burning plastic woke me. I was half awake not sure how much of it I was imagining, nothing was afire. Josh came home just then and I asked him to come smell (since I have the super smeller, so if he can smell something's wrong as well, then something is really wrong). He took one step into my room and exclaimed "OH MY GOD" and quickly removed my window coverings while bitching a lot.
Fortunately styrofoam does not burn 'till quite high a temperature, and it had not melted into the blinds. But it is discoloured and warped. I have pined up several layers of blanket and fabric, and it's doing a passing decent job of blocking the heat, so it's not as terrible as it was for the 20 minutes or so that it was only blinds in there. Possibly my skin burned off.
I feel very sick to my stomach, I've vomited some, I probably have cancer now, yay.
Stealing an idea from Loopy, we acquired white styrofoam and I put it up between the window and the horizontal blinds on those three windows. It worked like gangbusters! They've been up since then, which is about a year.
A few days ago we got contacted by our owner that the HOA had sent him a notice that we had to take them down. Despite the fact that they've been up for a year and the only thing the rules said was "white window coverings." Possibly the regs have changed, but whatever. We're just renters, there's nothing I can do about it.
The dining area windows being sans styrofoam hasn't been too bad, just stay away from that area during the hottest. But my window had to be re-covered somehow. So I got the bright idea to just recreate what I had but on our side of the blinds. So window>blinds>styrofoam>fabricpinnedtostyrofoamforlightblocking.
This worked just as well, UNTIL IT HIT 111F TODAY. I had stayed up really late (1pm) in order to try to reset my upsidedownsleep. I had been asleep about 5 hours when the smell of burning plastic woke me. I was half awake not sure how much of it I was imagining, nothing was afire. Josh came home just then and I asked him to come smell (since I have the super smeller, so if he can smell something's wrong as well, then something is really wrong). He took one step into my room and exclaimed "OH MY GOD" and quickly removed my window coverings while bitching a lot.
Fortunately styrofoam does not burn 'till quite high a temperature, and it had not melted into the blinds. But it is discoloured and warped. I have pined up several layers of blanket and fabric, and it's doing a passing decent job of blocking the heat, so it's not as terrible as it was for the 20 minutes or so that it was only blinds in there. Possibly my skin burned off.
I feel very sick to my stomach, I've vomited some, I probably have cancer now, yay.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 03:56 am (UTC)Try this instead.
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Date: 2010-07-16 04:34 am (UTC)curtainpinned up blanket.no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 04:44 am (UTC)We plan for me to make blackout curtains, but that's a lot of supplies, and no idea if we can afford to do that before summer's over. This sounds like a cheap and easy stopgap. (LIKE THE STYROFOAM WAS, FUCKING HOA! sorry)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 07:19 am (UTC)And yeah, HOAs sound like pains in the asses. We have some similar rule in these apartments, but at least they do all their own lawnwork and stuff.
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Date: 2010-07-16 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 04:42 am (UTC)The styrofoam worked AMAZINGLY well, when it was proper up against the glass. Believe you me, if we were paying the (nearly $200/mo) HOA fees they'd be getting several pieces of my mind. But our owner is a wonderful, understanding, lovely old man who I don't want to drag through that.