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motherscothie

Hooray for apartment living!

motherscothie
19 years ago

Someone mentioned on one of the boards that hardly anyone ever posts about anything positive, that it's the complaints that get the attention. So I thought I'd start a thread about why I love living in my apartment!

*$700 a month for a 1BR (converted to 2 by using a walk-in closet as a loft BR!) in an area where comparable rents are $900-$1200, and houses are off the page

*Fantastic low-crime neighborhood, with 2 great coffeehouses, a library, shopping, restaurants, and all the essentials within a few blocks

*Wonderful Art Deco architecture, building circa late 20's with many fascinating details and full of character

*Killer sunsets and sunrises, and a mountain view as well from our 3rd-floor BR

*Quiet, clean, nice neighbors

*Understanding management and landlord who pretty much lets us decorate as we like

*No yard work!!! But I do get to grow a vertical garden on the back landing!

*If it breaks, I don't have to fix it

*I can move when I want and am not locked in

We moved here from a 4 BR, bilevel house on a 3-acre lot. Every spare minute was taking care of the place and yard. Freedom!

Comments (12)

  • sunrochy
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I remember my 2 br apartment in a great "town" (half DC/half MD). It was only 675.00/mo compared to over 800.00 for a similar apartment or even a 1 br apartment. It was a walking distance to the metro station, 2 blocks from the library and community center and I also could even walk to the main stree with cute little shops and resturants. The location was woody and had a river, a great view from my br window (wall to wall window!). I felt like I was in the country instead of the city of DC!

    However a few years later, here I am in NC in a small house :0)

  • rayona
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I love my steal of a place too! I like that someone else is responsible for maintaining the boiler and taking out the trash. I love that I don't have to be home to get packages. And I love that I can just find a new place when my lease ends, and I don't have to go through the hassle of selling the place.

  • Ina Plassa_travis
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    scothie- you almost sound like you have my old apartment- old deco stucco building, landlady with several cats, original enameled counters, wavy glass in the (metal) french doors onto the balcony (just big enough for me, a pillow, and a book)

    and I don't feel sorry for people who don't take the time to find a place that fits them- even my flakey single-mom barmaid best friend can find landlords who are consistently kinder than they need to be (letting her daughter hang out, or paying her for little chores, referring gardening jobs to them, handing down clothes for them both, job leads, you name it)

    apartments are what you put into them- like everything else.

  • hollydoll85
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I can think of a few good things about my apartment. Big yard, screened-in porch....nice neighbors on one side anyway. Very safe-feeling.Ooh and the walkway is this pretty gravel stuff instead of nasty cracked concrete....thanks for posting this. I feel better about my apartment woes. If my landlady would suddenly get moving and my not-so-nice neighbors would leave, it would be near perfect.

  • wittywoman
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have been a homeowner for 6 years and I can't tell you how much I have hated it. It's so expensive, you're always busy doing SOMETHING and it's just... a pain. I have sold my house within the last month and my new hubby and I are quite happily moving back to an apartment. The rent is 650 versus 1200 in the house, it's the same square footage, 1 extra bathroom, no upkeep outside, I am just thrilled!

  • lcw1947
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello,

    I'm new to this forum and wanted to add my two cents. I truely enjoy apartment living. I've always lived in the country and never less then three bedrooms. My husband died a couple of years ago and I've knocked around alone since then. This past October, I moved from Ms to NY State (coming home) and have taken an apartment in an adult community/project.

    This place is very small, one bedroom, a walk in kitchen, and a living room /dining room which I call the 'great' room. I have a shared entry and a long narrow closet in my 'foyer'. The single bathroom is off my bedroom which has a lovely long, narrow closet. There are four apartments in each of three buildings, each one duplicated and flipped, so that all four kitchens corner to each other.

    When I moved in, all were full and I was very thankful to have this one. With in two weeks all three of the others were vacated. For some reason, all three housed people of the younger generation. One was a young mother with a couple of kids, a boy friend, etc. There other two, were a couple haveing two apartments. They were very quiet and always polite when I met them outside. The young mother, well, she is no longer here.

    At this point I've been here a few months and the apartments are still vacant. I am kind of dreading someone moving in, not because of their noise, but mine. I have three cats. I use a coffee bean grinder once a day. I don't want to do that at night or the evening before as that defeats the term 'fresh gound'. And I flush the toilet when I need to. I'm a very early riser and do walk back and forth. The walls are very thin, floors are carpeted. I'm a smoker. So my concern is the neighbors complaining about me.

    I keep my place tidy and my cat box is always clean. I live in town, close to the bank, stores, coffee shop and grocery. I love the convience of it. Not far from the bus line, good sized parking lot, a handy man that even shovels the side walks. Garbage pick up and lawn work. It has every thing done for me that my husband used to do or help me with. No memories here to deal with. It's a fresh new start and I'm loving it.

    The walls are cream colored and that I love. It's like a blank canvas for me to decorate. I use three mirrors on one wall to make it appear larger. Rather then putting my dining table in the area it should be, I put it next to the double windows, to again, feel bigger then it actually is. I have a buffet on one wall, a sofa under the other set of windows, tv in the corner and a easy chair (walmart glider) on the last wall.

    Storage is at a premium here so I scale down things. I am using a bakers rack in the bedroom for my lap top. My bed is a double and I'm considering scaleing that down also. Anyways, I'm glad to be a part of this forum and hello to you all.

    LCW1947

  • tishanyc
    19 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great Topic!! After owning a home for 25+ years, it got to be a drain physically and emotionally. While I loved the house, I was ready to move on (or backwards, really) to an apartment.

    My weekends were spent, fixing, cleaning, fixing, painting, fixing, digging, cutting, sweeping, washing endless windows, and, when necessary shoveling the dreaded snow.

    I am back in an apartment after many years and now wonder what took me so long???

    As someone stated above:
    I don't have to be home to receive packages.

    Also, I don't:

    shovel snow
    worry about furnace breaking down on the coldest night
    sweep up outside
    package garbage and recycling
    get mad at myself when I forget to put garbage out and miss
    the pickup
    have large utility bills
    heating bills
    and many more things...

    Also, in the apartment there are handymen around 15 hrs per day. Always someone around to help lift, move, wash windows, (a lot less windows).

    I love apartment living....peace of mind.

    Tish

  • severus
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I am new to this forum and I am glad that I found this thread. I agree that most of the posts are about apartment nightmares. I have owned two manufactured homes, and just moved to an apartment in January both to simplify my life and to get closer to work. One home was a single-wide which I lived in for about four and a half years, and then I bought a double-wide and was in there for five years. The last place sold within two weeks, which was great. I was getting tired of mowing lawns and shoveling snow in winter.

    I have not lived in an apartment complex in nearly 19 years, and after living out in a more rural area where it was very quiet, living in an apartment does take some adjustment. For the most part, I am very happy with my unit. I am a single man, 52 years of age and currently work at Penn State University. My apartment is only 2.5 miles from work and just over a mile to where I do my grocery shopping, so it is perfect. Also, the bus runs through here, so on wintry days, I can just hop the bus rather than drive. No more snow shoveling! When I was at the manufactured home court, it was a 6.2 mile drive one way to campus and about the same distance to shopping. Now my full commute is less than my one way trip had been. With gas prices rising, this is great!

    There is a freeway beyond a good tree buffer and it has taken time to get use to that, especially the big rigs, but it does not bother me nearly as much now. It will be much better when the trees are in leaf. Beyond the freeway, more trees, so it is really a nice view all in all, and since I like to walk for exercise, there are is a rail-trail that runs just below the building I am in. One part runs into the woods, and the other actually ends near town and not far from the university. The whole complex has abundant green space and is very attractive. There is also a large golf course here in addition to a resort. There is a complete range of apartments from simple one bedroom units to three bedroom town houses.

    My unit is a good size one bedroom with a den. The dining area is just off of the living room. The floors are concrete, so not much noise carries through from upstairs, but a little does, mainly from the den area which has not carpet. Most of the tenants are graduate students, but by in large, they are pretty quiet. The den is great, and on a sunny day is almost like a sun-room. My rent is $675, which considering the amenities, is a good deal. There is a laundry room just across the hall, and so far, I have not had any trouble finding an available washer/dryer to do laundry.

    I did plenty of research about this stuff before I moved. Home ownership does indeed have some very good tax breaks, but to me, the so called "American Dream" wasnt so dreamy what with all of the upkeep that a home requires. Now I have freedom. Renting is NOT just throwing your money down the drain as so many say. There is more to the equation than that. Anyway, I am now a contented renter!

    Regards, David

  • czarinax17
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Good thread because I need to focus on some positive things for a change :)

    I'm about to move in 30 days to a spacious 2bdrm 2 bath on a ground floor. I've never had 2 bathrooms so this will be nice! My patio is beautiful....and bigger than the one I have now. It has a tall privacy fence around it and has some beautiful ivy growing over parts of it. I also have 2 big shade trees and a little door that opens to a walk way and some grass. Across from me up the hill a bit is a pool.
    The kitchen is bigger, more counter space with all new appliances. They are putting in new carpeting since the people who lived there before were there seven years. I have a nice view of the hills and city since the complex is up on a hillside.
    This place has alot more families with children too. So I am hoping to meet more people and find more relaxed people who understand children's noises.
    Oh and the laundry room is right around the corner from my apartment. I'm soooo looking forward to moving now :)
    I'm near 2 major groceries, 3 coffee shops, a deli, my church, and a string of malls with little shops I usually have to drive further to get to from where I'm at now.

  • krustytopp
    18 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    czarinax17, your apt sounds wonderful. hope you enjoy it.

  • severus
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have not been to this forum in quite a while and decided to come back and take a look. Unfortunately, it is the same old thing with most of the posts. It seems that close to 99% of them are about something bad in their particular rental unit.

    Anyway, I am posting in this thread again because I am making another move in about a month. I will be moving to a two bedroom apartment just up the street at the top of the hill. It still within the same apartment management group called Toftrees Apartments, but a different building and design entirely. The unit has a washer/drier in the unit, lots of closet space, and a nice large patio and even a small area beyond that where one can plant some flowers. As with my current unit, this unit also faces south so it will get the sunlight which will be especially great in the winter months. These units only have two floors and I will be on the bottom floor and there is an adjoining apartment unit behind mine but attached to the kitchen and dining room. As with the Hillside apartment I have now, the floors are fairly thick concrete so there is hardly any noise that bleeds through from the upper floor. The rent is $850 which in this area is reasonable for a two bedroom where most of the other complexes charge at least $950 and up for two bedroom units. All and all, I am pleased about the move, especially the fact that I will not hear the freeway hardly at all.

    I have found more and more that I don't miss the house that I sold in December of 2005. I don't miss the snow shoveling, lawn mowing, fixing this and that, paying the high taxes in the area (even with the tax deduction, it did not help me a whole lot), or worrying about roof damage from heavy winds and thunderstorms, or the weight of snow in a heavy winter (one year I was up on the roof shoveling snow off - NOT fun). So all in all, I remain a contented renter! Hooray for apartment living!

    David,
    State College, PA

  • angel47630
    16 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It is very nice to see a positive post!

    We moved back into an apt after owning a home for over a decade. Are there adjustments that have to be made, sure, but overall, it is wonderful.

    I was so sick of all the upkeep. My husband has a very intense job and he works such long hours. It is so nice that when something breaks, we don't have to worry and fret about the repair cost. Our front door opens up to a gorgeous porch and is about 30 steps from the pool and our back door opens up to a huge patio and a wonderful lake.

    When it is pouring down rain we don't worry about leaks anymore. My husband doesn't have to get up an hour early just to shovel snow. We come and go and have so much free time because all this upkeep from a house is gone.

    Yesterday he took the day off so he and I could just veg at the pool all day. Then we toddle on home and it is someone else's to take care of.

    The freedom is like a deep breath. The other thing I love is in an apt you don't pay for water and sewer. I monitored our showers and when I used the dishwasher to try and cut that bill down to size, but never could. Here, I don't have to think about it. If I want to take 2 showers a day, I do!

    There is a lot to be said for renting. If you want a nice place and a place you can call home and stay for a length of time, I think you just have to really research them and get the best and strictest area.

    Glad to finally see some happy people who have found out like we have, this is the way to live!

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