With the giant hole in the ceiling still not fixed, and warnings of another power outage next week, I've been scouring apartment ads on Craigslist lately. Even though almost everything looks better than where we are now, I kind of expect a place to be amazing to be worth the hassle of moving. Sure, the shoebox is the shoebox, but it requires no special effort to live here beyond paying rent. I'm familiar with the neighborhood. There's a lot to be said for that. Also, it seem silly to move not knowing where (or if) I'll be working next year. But, they also seem to raise the rent by $100 every year, just because they can, and most people are too lazy to move in protest. For an extra hundred, I'd rather be someplace not here. So casually looking around seems like a nice option. No commitments, but if we get swept off our real estate feet, I'm open to a new relationship.
On that note, what are your thoughts on basement apartments? Some of them seem quite nice. I like the idea of being in a real house, not an apartment building. But on the other hand, I wonder if being that close to your landlord might be a little awkward. I'm not nuts about the management here, but at least they aren't also my upstairs neighbors. When my neighbors annoy me or visa versa, no one has the power to kick me out, or punitively refuse to fix things. I like the looks and price of so many basement apartments, but they make me nervous. Any experiences?
I currently live in a basement suite and I love it. I've lived in apartments as well so I do have some comparison I guess. We have fantastic landlords and we often do food exchanges - I bring up baked goods, they bring down dinner. Both living in a basement suite and an apartment I occasionally heard my neighbours (or landlords) but it's not a huge deal. We're much happier in the basement suite because it feels more like ours.
ReplyDeleteThere's a big difference between "English basements" and straight-up basement apartments with those tiny little rectangular windows that only a giraffe could look out of. In some cities, English basements are really cute and totally have decent light. The access to the backyard would really appeal to me!
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