Culture
Winter Is Coming for Your Apartment
A renter’s guide to surviving the cold months.
Last winter, my friend’s roof sprung a leak. Then one day, it collapsed. At the time, she lived at the top of a four-floor walk-up. As heavy, wet snow collected above her, she started seeing patches of condensation on her ceiling. Sometimes she’d feel a little drop of water splash on her head. Finally, one night, she woke up to a wet bed, a big hole in the ceiling, and a bunch of melting gray snow on her nightstand.
If it’s your first winter in your apartment, you might not know what you're up against. Windows so drafty it feels like you’re sleeping on a glacier? Radiators home to an angry, musical little gnome banging out compositions all night?