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Before moving in with The Husband person, I’d only ever lived with my parents in a regular stand-alone house. A few months before my wedding, my parents moved into a complex which is open and lovely. Nothing like a normal complex living situation.
Now Daniel and I live in a security complex on the first floor and it’s really nice. It’s clean and super safe but living in close proximity to so many strangers has definite negatives. Here are a few of them.
Noise
Noisy kids, noisy neighbours shouting about the soccer, noisy parties. Living in a complex is the exact opposite of quiet living.
People
They’re everywhere, you guys. I like my home and I like being alone. When you live in a complex, there are always people around. While this can be a huge positive, sometimes the thought of being on a farm away from other humans sounds like heaven.
Sexy times
When it’s hot outside, people leave their windows open. Unfortunately doing so leaves you at the mercy of potentially hearing people having sex in their homes around you where they too have their windows open. This happened to Daniel and I recently and in all honestly, we laughed so hard. It was hilarious. Also, I probably (okay, definitely) blushed. Like Daniel said so wisely: We all do it. But, yes, it can be a bit weird.
Communal pools
If you live in a complex like my parents do (which is filled with older people who don’t really swim) then the communal pool is awesome. It’s a lovely spot to cool down after a long day. If you live in a regular complex, the pool is a savage game of ‘He Who Gets There First’. I don’t enjoy swimming with a bunch of strangers in a tiny space so I’ll keep my swimming limited to the ocean (a big pool filled with strangers) or when we visit my parents.
Fighting
Daniel and I are not the type of people that will easily make friends with neighbours (especially after hearing them have the sexy times, because awkward) and we generally keep to ourselves. Unfortunately others don’t feel the same way and that means hearing couples air all of their dirty laundry for every human and animal within hearing range to be part of. Not fun. We even had a case of domestic violence recently which was sad and scary for someone like me who admittedly grew up quite sheltered. It’s a fact that where there are many humans in one area, there will be some sort of conflict.
Renovations
When your downstairs neighbour decides to rip out their entire bathroom and start again, that means you’re in for weeks of grinding, banging, chiselling and crying. No wait, that was from me. It’s annoying as heck, you guys. And while I understand that there’s no other way to renovate a bathroom, no amount of half-hearted apologies can make living with that amount of dust and noise any less awful.
Those are all the points I can think of for now, and while I sound annoyed, complex living has it’s merits. But those I’ll share another time in a separate post.
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