My wife, daughter and I live on the top floor of an up/down duplex. We rent.

We have had a string of bad people living downstairs.

The first people did a "midnight move out"

The second people were major alcoholics and junkies, I found their cars parked on the lawn on more than one occasion. Asuumeingly from them coming home drunk as shit from the bar. We had paramedics beating down their door more than once for ODs. The final straw was when I had to call the fire department because they left their stove on and started a fire downstairs.

The current people are really young (18ish, not that it has anything to do with it, other than the fact that this is their first apartment) and are pretty thick headed about communal living. Partying till all hours, smoking lots of weed in the house and cigarettes. The weed (which I wouldn't mind if they did it in the garage) and the partying have been handled by the rental company, but as a "fuck you" to my family for complaining they have started chain smoking in the house. Our suite reeks of cigarettes, and my daughter now has the lucky privilege of being exposed to second hand smoke when we're home.

I have talked to the neighbours, but they told me that the lease says nothing about not smoking (it doesn't) and that the will smoke in their apartment all they want.

Since they won't reason with me, I need a way to stop the smoke from getting into my half of the duplex, while still allowing heat to circulate (a must in -40c).

Any ideas? I have thought about taping dryer sheets to the faces of all the vents, but I don't know if that will do anything.

Damn I hate living with other people.

if getting a new place isn't an option, then maybe a couple air purifiers?

and if that doesn't work, score some heroin, plant it in their apartment/car and call the cops.

Edit: missed that whole "no illegal ideas part" air purifiers will probably be your best bet on the second hand smoke. by them smoking its lowering you and your family's quality of life, and im pretty sure thats against our charter of rights

Shoot them in the face with a shotgun.

If a reasonable talk about the guilty conscience of exposing a small child to a harmful environment, and using it as the justification for your previous complaint hasn't/doesn't work, then they are scum of the earth. I smoke cigs, but not in my living space, I've been there and it sickens even me now.

yeah, if they dont respect that you have a child upstairs, then 944 is right, scum.
as a smoker, i prefer smoking outside, even when is -20c out and my balls are practically frozen off.
Tobacco smoke is fucking awful when it lingers in a room.

Ya, they're douche bags...we have implored them to stop smoking inside, I believe the response was "I don't pay $700 a month to be told what to do."

We are looking for a house of our own again, but I just started this job as an editor, and the banks want a bit more stability these days. Also, paradoxically, Winnipeg's housing market has continued to gain value during the economic crisis, and there is very little for sale in our budget. We could get a practically new home in Phoenix for what we would pay for a starter home here.

They are allergic to cats, my more devious side feels like emptying the contents of our vacuum cleaner — which is full of cat dander — into the hot-air vents, in an attempt to get rid of them.

LMAO ... this will make up for not kicking the shit out of your Toshiba.

Seriously do this. If they told you to basically fuck off, you now can do this as revenge

Seriously do it and post a video for us

I could also just set something up which would make the entire house constantly smell like curry. People — crazy people IMHO — seem to hate that smell.

Just bite their faces off.

Stomp around the house. All day every day.

Burn down the whole complex.

sub woofers

You're upstairs...build your little one a playground around the entire house and let her loose 23 hours of the day. Don't let her walk, teach her to skateboard around the apartment.

Kill them.

haha i don't think 18 year olds will mind that lol, unless they are sleeping.

^I dunno...they freaked out on us once because of the "amount of noise we make during the day time." If any of you have 14 month-olds at home, you will know this noise well. She is always running around pulling shit off shelves and pushing things over. She just discovered that chairs can be knocked over.

I used to try to stop her, but don't bother anymore since the smoking started.

I'm also an early riser, and used to be extra quiet at 5:30 am. This has also stopped.

I basically live like we are alone in the house now, since these people can't be reasoned with. I don't see a point in tip toeing around anymore.