Suspect the apartment might be full of mold. It's a ground-floor apartment, and it's always been kind of damp and poorly ventilated; after I moved in I spent a few days having mild allergy symptoms, but I adjusted and it's been fine ever since the first few days. And then a few weeks ago roommate's closet flooded and there was water all over everything and the bathroom faucet has been dripping steadily ever since and my room smells like something died in it. Fast-forward to one week ago, and I develop this hideous wheezing cough. For a while I thought it was just hayfever, but it's just the cough, no sinus problems or itchy eyes or anything--and then I went out for a walk by Rock Creek with everything in full bloom and came back feeling better than when I'd left, and the cough seems to dissipate during the day while I'm at work only to return in full force when I get home.
So I am spending the weekend at my mom's house to test the "something in the apartment is causing my cough" hypothesis. Inconclusive so far: the wheezing has gone away, but I'm still coughing, especially when I lie down.
If the apartment is in fact wrecking my respiratory system, that means finding a new place as soon as the lease is up, because even if they tear out all the carpeting and drywall it's still a damp and poorly ventilated ground-floor apartment, and the mold will be back. Finding a place is not the difficulty, really--I have two or three places in mind, a couple apartment complexes for backup and this one gorgeous little stone house not far off my morning commute. The difficulty would be finding roommates. Especially for the house, because I could field the rent on a two-bedroom apartment for a few months singlehanded, but I'd need to be splitting with at least one other person to even move into the house unless I wanted to dip into my savings. On the other hand, it's got 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, and the rent would be quite reasonable split four ways--about the same as the apartment, actually, depending on cost of utilities. For all I know it's filled with rats or costs $800/month to heat in winter, but from what I can see, it looks quite lovely.
So I am spending the weekend at my mom's house to test the "something in the apartment is causing my cough" hypothesis. Inconclusive so far: the wheezing has gone away, but I'm still coughing, especially when I lie down.
If the apartment is in fact wrecking my respiratory system, that means finding a new place as soon as the lease is up, because even if they tear out all the carpeting and drywall it's still a damp and poorly ventilated ground-floor apartment, and the mold will be back. Finding a place is not the difficulty, really--I have two or three places in mind, a couple apartment complexes for backup and this one gorgeous little stone house not far off my morning commute. The difficulty would be finding roommates. Especially for the house, because I could field the rent on a two-bedroom apartment for a few months singlehanded, but I'd need to be splitting with at least one other person to even move into the house unless I wanted to dip into my savings. On the other hand, it's got 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, and the rent would be quite reasonable split four ways--about the same as the apartment, actually, depending on cost of utilities. For all I know it's filled with rats or costs $800/month to heat in winter, but from what I can see, it looks quite lovely.
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