Living in a two story "garden" style home - DON'T

I live on the second floor of a old building built back in the 50's.  I am actually fortunate to have a washer and dryer because for the most part, multiple dwelling units of this age/type doesnt allow or support washers.  The pipes cant take it, the connections (drain pipe, water, vents) are not present and so on.  So i actually found a diamond in the rough here because when i moved in, someone spent a great deal of money to upgrade the unit to include a proper gas dryer (not electric!) that vents out and a washer.  No more laundromat or going to the laundry room of the building for me!

A lot of coop and condo communities is like this. When you see a cluttered bunch attached 2-story homes with separate entrances that are next to each other, know that for the most part there is absolutely no sound proofing between the units. 

You see, these type of buildings generally has no sound proofing or insulation between units.  Basically some cheapass built a 2 story building back in the day, then chopped it in half to make it a 2 family home and double the profit.  Multiply that by 200 and you have a coop/condo development with "garden style" homes.  While you share a common wall and floor/ceiling, thankfully there may be sufficient brick and concrete between the adjacent units that the only noise issue is between the first and second floor.

If you ever look into moving into a multiple dwelling unit (condo/coops/rentals), i strongly recommend the tall modern buildings that has concrete in  the floors/ceilings.  The regular two story ones where everyone gets their own separate front door entrance looks nice from the outside, but everything is paper thin and cheap on the inside.  If you must move in to these garden style homes, then get the ones where the units are side by side and not on top of each other. Else even the smallest noise seeps through and you are basically living with your neighbors downstairs/upstairs.  In addition to the lack of noise barriers, the bones of these homes are usually all wood and the pipes will make thump/hammer noises, the floors will squeak and overall, it's a real crappy way to live.  You end up feeling like a prisoner in your own home if you have bad neighbors.