Paris apartment news

There is no easy way to explain this but I will try.

We will be changing apartments in Paris. We moved into the Madrid apartment on the 13th of August. There are many issues in the apartment that the management company/owner are reluctant to address. The one issue that is a deal breaker for us is the condition of the hardwood floors. The floors in the living/dining/guest rooms are a very nice parquet design. When we visited the apartment for the first time, they were still working on the floors and Julia asked the agent what they were going to do with the floors. She was told that they would finish and repair the floor. Well, unfortunately, the floors in the hallway, Samuel's room and our room, have many cracks and gaps. Some of the cracks are more than 20 cm long and 2 cm wide. One of them is over 4 cm deep. If just Julia and I were living in the apartment we could cover most of the floor with rugs and we would be happy. However, with Samuel we cannot(and will not) take the risk that Samuel will start crawling and get his fingers, toes, knees caught on one of these cracks. For us it is a safety issue. The owners do not see it that way.

The other issue is noise. Double glazed windows were placed in our room. However, the windows do not fit tightly within the frame. The bedroom with double glazed windows is noisier than the living room with single glazed windows.

I will not detail all the issues we have. I will note that the workers that were in the apartment were not properly supervised. As an example, the radiators in Samuel's room and the guest room are behind screen doors. The workers painted the doors shut and took the handle off the doors. So we are unable to turn on the radiators in those two rooms.

Many of the window shades also do not work. This also adds to the noise issues.

We will keep you all updated with our new search. As strange as it seems. The first apartment that we bid on in July appears to be on the market again. Unfortunately we have tried to verify this through our agent but she is incompetent and she has not returned e-mails/phonecalls for 3 days.