Housing update

[danaeris]

EDIT

Never mind! That bitch at the Rethreads place, after all that song and dance about accepting applications from everyone and then considering them all, rented it to the first men she showed it to. I hope she gets what she deserves, and they are partiers and slobs. Grrr.

Now we just have to decide what to do next other than apply for Palmerston. Ie., do we want to apply for Howland as well? It seemed awfully small... Or, we could punt and look at more places.


Rethreads
I didn't go and measure the place, in part because of a distressing call from the landlady.

We'd been thinking that she must be pretty cool -- after all, she volunteers at homeless shelters, wants to open a fair trade organic cafe, and contributes to an indie film blog. But she called me up yesterday and told me she had misgivings about renting to two young women, and had been hoping to rent to men. Apparently the building is over 100 years old and not in perfect condition, and "I can't have tenants calling me in the middle of the night all the time to fix little things." Um, well, lady, that's your job. That's part of being a landlord. Also, assuming that women can't do that is both sexist and discriminatory (and not in keeping with the hippie image we'd been getting of her).

To be fair to her, it sounds like her current tenant was TOTALLY clueless. Apparently she did get one call in the middle of the night about the shower not working, and when she got there all she had to do was wash the showerhead and clean out some collected gunk, and then it worked fine. Also, this landlady made it clear that she wouldn't dream of renting the place without going over all of the wiring, the plumbing, the ups and downs of the place; basically, giving us the nitty gritty. I respect that.

Turns out she plans to have a big open house Friday, collect applications from everyone, and then pick the tenant who she feels would be best. So being the first to see the apartment is by no means a guarantee that we will be chosen if we meet her requirements. I reassured her that we are handy and that femmefatalist has owned a house and I've lived in all sorts of places in SF on my own. But I am not reassured by her attitude. So, yeah. Not sure how I feel about the place anymore. Landlady's name, btw, is Susan Openheim.

Palmerston
This place FEELS huge. It's a basement, and it also has a charm to it, although not as much as the Rethreads place. The layout is actually rather odd, but tolerably so. The landlady, Heather Mitchell, turned down the previous applicant because she turned out to want to live there with her two sons, and the landlady only wants two tenants. I believe the landlady may have one set of applications from two girls, but I also got the impression that Jane, the current tenant, really likes us, and would recommend us.

Heather Mitchell, who would be living directly above us, is apparently a lawyer who has done a lot of work on freedom of information stuff.

The bedrooms are similar in size, or at least, large enough that the difference in size doesn't matter. The total size is about 615 square feet; I figure that's a bargain at $1019 inclusive.

Rethreads		Palmerston
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
More rooms	Smaller rooms (I think)	Larger rooms (I think)	Less rooms
Laundry across street			Laundry is a few blocks away
Near Dupont AND Bathurst stations	Not much in area	Near Bathurst and College, more in the area	Only close to one subway
Really charming place	Really old place liable to problems!
	Landlady who may be unwilling to do her part		Landlady living in same house, may take issue with parties or loud sex
Avail. Jan. 1	Lots of competition	Less competition	Avail. Feb. 1
	~$1175/month	$1019 inclusive

Which one would you take if you could choose?

So, I need personal references for housing applications. pyat, may I still use you as a professional reference?

(1) Do you think its better to give them a reference from SF or Boston who has known me longer, or a reference from Ontario who is therefore local?
(2) Who is willing to be my reference? sassy_fae, I admit you came to mind since we can say, "oh, I was her bridesmaid, blah blah blah," AND you're relatively local.

Comments

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Sure!

[energeticintent.livejournal.com]

Hrm, if that's 615 sq ft for the entire place, then you might want to keep looking.
ladygiggles and I rented a place which was more then 900 sq ft in High Park for about $1100... Although once we moved out, I think they upgraded a few things and were trying for $1500.

I'd be happy to be a reference for you however when they ask how long I've known you I don't have the best answer. Perhaps someone from Boston or SF would be a better choice. I wouldn't worry about giving a reference from Boston or SF since that's where you were living until recently.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't measured everywhere we've looked, but the Hazelburn place would only be 775 square feet (plus some storage and the bathroom). It advertises as 1000, but I calculated that number from their own measurements, so I'm not sure where they got 1000 from.

This place is 615 square feet plus the bathroom, and more than $150 cheaper, since Hazelburn doesn't include hydro (but does include heat). I do think this is the going rate. Most places we've looked at would be more, I think, for less.

I wish I had measurements for the Palmerston place. :(

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I just did a more precise calculation of the apartment size, and it's actually closer to 627 square feet + the bathroom and the closet in one of the bedrooms. I was rounding down in order to be pessimistic earlier.

It also seems to me that the best deals are usually in crappy locations. We require that our place be within ten minutes walk of a subway station, and have been primarily looking in the Annex (though we've glanced at places elsewhere, like Hazelburn). I know femmefatalist said she wouldn't live further west than Lansdowne, and I haven't been willing to look East of Yonge, although if my job situation changed, so would that.

How long ago was this, and how did you find the place? We've been looking on viewit and craigslist and rentersnews.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

What would I do?

I'd apply for both, and try hard not to even think about it until I get an offer. :) Given that there's competition for both, at least for me that would be the least insanity-inducing option.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

yup... that's pretty much what we plan to do. That, and keep our eye out for anything else fabulous looking. From here on out, though, I think we've agreed to slow down the search on the perhaps incorrect assumption that we'll get one of the two. So, we'll be super picky about what we go to see. *shrug*

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to be a reference! My current phone and address is good til the end of next month :)

[jackspryte.livejournal.com]

Bitch!