I used to live in a remote two-flat with a couple of mechanic junkies below me. Day in and day out, rev’ving of engines, spouting fluids, dripping fluids…“spittin’ tabacci”…They were obnoxious…
I had a boyfriend who had a, shall we say, flatulence problem, and I sent him down there a few times to chat…It must have been bad …very bad…they moved out within a couple of weeks…
My neighbor sometimes gets mad at me for noise. What irks me is she doesn’t realize how often she is loud, as well.
Noise bothers me, no doubt about it. But, hell, I live in an apartment building. Noise is to be expected. It does bother me, don’t get me wrong, but what am I going to say? “Hey, you can’t have a life now that I live here.”
My neighbor once wrote me a very nice letter (and it was nice, that isn’t sarcasm) requesting me to be quiet. Well, I usually am rather quiet; that partiuclar week I was on vacation and had two friends from out of town over. So, I shrugged, knowing now that I’d be back to being quiet again. The next night I hear her screwing her boyfriend through the walls. At 2AM. This is the one of two noises she makes that constantly irritate me; I am simply not inclined to listen to my neighbor have sex. If she’d let me watch, hey, no problem; better than porno. But I can’t watch (well, actually I haven’t asked, but I doubt she would).
So I responded to her letter at this point asking her to not be hypocritical. We are basically good people, and we live in close quarters, and from time to time we are going to be loud.
This isn’t any different than being woken up at 7:30AM to the sound of jackhammers on my street (grrrr), or the three assholes who decide to race their motorcycles at all hours of the day and night, except that I can’t write these folks little letters and slip them under their door.
Having lived most of my life in an apartment, I just say: “That’s what comes from living in an apartment.” And hey, everyone is loud, I don’t care what they say. I’ve never had a neighbor I couldn’t hear, ever, at some time of the day or night that was inconvenient for me.
But, complain all you want, if it makes you feel better. I just wouldn’t expect any miracles. 
This one girl in my freshman dorm used to play her George Michael tapes really loud at all hours. We asked her often to turn it down but she was oblivious.
The building had been retro-fitted with electricity. Each room had two circuit breakers in the breaker box. After a few circuit breaks brought on by the usual circumstances, we figured out the pattern to the breakers – which controlled which room.
When we’d get sick of the infernal caterwauling of Mr. Michaels, we’d flip the breaker to her room, cutting off the electricty to her stereo but leaving lights, computers, etc “mysteriously” unharmed. She never figured it out – I told her ex-roommate about it right before we graduated and she [exroommate] was amazed.
I just wrote about my noisy neighbor a few days ago.
I, too, have ranted in the past about noisy neighbours. On the other hand, I’ve also received death threats from a neighbour for washing my dishes too loudly, so I can appreciate both sides of the problem here. (Steve’s Life Lessons #143: if possible, do not share accomodation with prematurely discharged mental patients.)
Perhaps all we reasonable, courteous, well-intentioned apartment livers should get together and rent a place (something like catsix’s place) by ourselves, and leave the rest of the world to dance, fornicate, and move furniture around to their little hearts’ content?
(In reality, we’d probably all kill each other within thirty-six hours of moving in, but it’s a nice idea in theory…)
As long as there are separate bathrooms Steve, I think most of us would be fine.
The worst thing about dorm-type living was going into the bathroom only to find someone had shat all over the walls, floor, toilet seats, sinks, bathtub, showers…
I still have no idea how one person could hold that much shit. Maybe it was multiple people on a midnight-shit-raid?
Steve Wright, that sounds heavenly!!! An apartment complex of people who actually think about their fellow neighbors and who are courteous to one another!
The only problem I can see is that we’d all get along so well, that we’d have great, loud, parties and annoy the entire neighborhood! 
We could call our apartment complex “Utopia.”
We’d have to be really diligent on who we let live there, though. Leases would be on a trial basis since tenants would have to prove that they are worthy of living among us before we could allow them to live there long term.
Then, when we’ve proven that it can be done, countries all over the world would look to our little complex to see how people can live together peacefully and with respect to one another…
Ok, it’s a fantasy, but it’s mine, dammit, and I like it! A girl can dream, can’t she?
Ok. And your landlord will be a super-smart, giant racoon…
I had problems with a neighbor when I lived in Dallas years ago. He would also play his stereo at what seemed full volume at horrendous hours. I complained to the landlord 4 times, with no results; so when one Sunday morning, Love-of-God 5:00 in the A of M he decided to stage another concert, I had had enough. I had a stereo that (if I recall correctly) had 400 watts…enough to shake the fillings in your teeth, at least. I put my HUMUNGOUS speakers right next to the wall between us, put on Beethoven’s Fifth, CRANKED IT…and went for a walk.
Never had any more trouble…heh
I had problems with a neighbor when I lived in Dallas years ago. He would also play his stereo at what seemed full volume at horrendous hours. I complained to the landlord 4 times, with no results; so when one Sunday morning, Love-of-God 5:00 in the A of M he decided to stage another concert, I had had enough. I had a stereo that (if I recall correctly) had 400 watts…enough to shake the fillings in your teeth, at least. I put my HUMUNGOUS speakers right next to the wall between us, put on Beethoven’s Fifth, CRANKED IT…and went for a walk.
Never had any more trouble…heh