i haven’t blogged much about this, but truth be told i hate where i live. hate!
the shortlist of reasons why:
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unresponsive management team
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loud (sexually generous) neighbor’s
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annoying neighbor’s who don’t understand if your going to live in a 100 year old apartment building you willhear your upstairs (me) neighbor’s tv
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bullshit response to vandalism by the management company
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maintenance company leaving my apartment unlocked for 5 days while i was out of town
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clothes/laundry detergent stolen from laundry room
now, true – most of these issues probably happen in most apartment buildings, but this has become such a horrible place to live – i can’t stand it. add the list to the fact i’m in a neighborhood i don’t particularly love and you quickly figure out it’s time to move. (plus my lease is up june 30).
besides, it’s all the rage, jason moved last year, cb moved last fall, alexander moved last month – i’m just keeping up!.
the shortlist of what i’m looking for:
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modern construction (the charm of 100 year old buildings only lasts so long – is it bad that i want a dishwasher?!?)
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(there are a couple of historic properties i would consider)
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loft or open floorplan would be nice.
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concrete floors (or really solid constuction for noise prevention)
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uptown minneapolis, downtown minneapolis (north loop included) or downtown st. paul
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underground parking
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laundry in unit
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no i’m not ready to buy. don’t remind me how screwed i am for not owning.
so let the great apartment hunt 2008 begin.
8 comments
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March 6, 2008 at 8:41 am
cb
Remember how I said that I never hear any neighbors in my building? Well.. that changed.
I must have been surrounded by empty apartments, but now either I have an upstairs neighbor or a side neighbor that I can sort of hear.
March 6, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Timo
I lived at 34h & Colfax for years. loved it. everything was perfect. well, except for winter and that alternate side parking crap. the place I’m in now is not so great, but at least I’m close to everything ( besides work ). good luck!
March 7, 2008 at 9:33 am
voenixrising
Since I returned to Phoenix and got into an apartment with its own washer/dryer, as the flying spaghetti monster is my witness I’ll never live in another place without that again. (Fortunately, most new developments here are providing that amenity these days. Unfortunately it means I will never move back to San Francisco. You’re lucky if you find a place with the laundry IN THE BUILDING there.)
March 7, 2008 at 9:57 am
Brian
Every time you use an apostrophe to pluralize, god kills a kitten.
March 7, 2008 at 10:04 am
Jason
I see you in a cool city loft.
Make sure it’s open enough for out of town visitors
March 8, 2008 at 9:14 am
voenixrising
LOL @ Brian. Give up dude, he’ll never change.
March 9, 2008 at 11:56 am
42
Brian: heh.
In Mpls I lived in the Churchill apartments on Marquette/2nd. Pro: dead silent, free parking on-site (but if you want garage parking it’s extra), balcony, attached liquor store/video rental/dry cleaner, skyway connection. con: one laundry room, too-frequent elevator outage (I was on the 25th floor, so that was kind of a bitch), too hot in winter sometimes and you can’t totally shut off the heat. but I liked the place and it’s a good location. I had a fab view of the river & St Anthony and the park is cool.
You probably won’t go wrong with a hi-rise building. I looked at a lot of places in Uptown and they were all really expensive and crappy. Uptown is cool but most of the apts there are old cut-up houses and the ones that aren’t are old and crumbling. the prices were a joke and there’s hardly any parking.
In St Paul before I bought a place in the Rossmor bldg, I lived in Lowertown Commons at 4th/Wall. pro: in-apt laundry, cool old factory theme (it used to be a tire factory or something) with bare brick, heavy timbers, etc., open loft style, underground parking for a fee and it’s totally worth it. con: old plank floors mean neighbor noise, unless you’re on the top floor I guess which I wasn’t, but it wasn’t too bad, dryer vents right into your kitchen which is nice in winter but sucks in summer, world’s laziest handyman/super. no place is perfect… I liked this one too and having the farmer’s market right there is cool.
Don’t even think about buying now. srsly. you are totally not screwed for renting; it’s people who bought in the last coupla years who are screwed. renting is the only sane option until this recession ends (yeah we’re in one). the sucker who bought my loft in late ‘05 is upside-down about fifty grand now. buy a place when prices bottom out which is a year or two off assuming the economy doesn’t collapse.
my $0.02, worth what you paid.
May 1, 2008 at 7:17 pm
apartment hunting sucks « strange relationship
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