apartment hunting is hard
Jul. 13th, 2006 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keryxI found 3 different places I could live in. All of them have some awesome things & some sucky things.
I was looking for something that:
1. lets me try out living places where I might buy next year - namely Old Manchester and downtown/Shockoe
2. is convenient walking distance to interesting things
3. frankly, ups my hipster quotient
4. ideally saves me some money vs. my current situation (and I'm willing to downsize for that)
5. still has all the basic amenities I consider necessary for life, namely - not carpet, cat-friendly, ac, w/d, dw, at least one large open space
6. it turns out that I also want to feel like, if I'm living somewhere with history, that the history has been preserved and cared for
Each of the apartments succeeds on several but fails miserably on at least one.
Overview and tons of photos. This one's in the less urban portion of Old Manchester (just south of downtown). The development group has bought out a few blocks of old Victorians, and this is one of the first being renovated. The neighborhood is pretty deserted as a result, and seems headed for gentrification, although my hope is that it turns into an enclave of artists and yuppies. One of the things I wanted was a place where I could walk, and it's not so much that.
But! The apartment itself is beautiful, brand new renovation (in fact, won't be finished till August 1) - 2 bedrooms (total of about 800 square feet), fireplace, assloads of windows, a nice big living space, and all refinished hardwood floor. It's gorgeous; the restoration of common areas and the outside is particularly gentle/careful. Oh, and there's an immense frisbee-throwing field across the street.
Yay: beautiful apartment, love it, retains a lot of the Victorianness, and is like 2 seconds from our dance studio.
Boo: deserted & gentrifying neighborhood; not that much different from my suburban townhouse.
Overview & some photos. This one's in Shockoe Slip, which is more of the restaurant/business district downtown. It's within (slightly dangerous) walking distance to the Farmer's Market and stuff. It also covers all utilities, which is convenient, and makes it roughly the same price as #1... except for parking. Steve (the delightful dude who took us on a tour of the entire three floor as yet unairconditioned construction site) made us wear hardhats (it's also brand new renovation), and it's in a wedge-shaped building with a 7' wide facade! Seriously historical.
Parking, however, is both expensive and annoying. It's a pretty little place - but little is an important word (I believe 680 sq ftish); it's likely I'd have to get rid of furniture, not just stuff, and it would be hard on overnight guests. It's the most downtown-hipstery, with an upstairs kitchen/living area and downstairs (basement) bedroom. They kept the old warehouse floors, and also glossed up the cement on the basement floor. Lots of little nooks and neat things in the building, too.
Yay: phenomenally hipstery and historical.
Boo: crossing 14th st at Main upsets my stomach, plus the littleness and parking expense mean it's less space for more money.
Little bit of info (scroll down to 2716 W Grace, and the other interior photos typify the style). By far the most walk-friendly neighborhood, even though it's not downtown; it has the whole tree-lined Fan [for non-RVA peeps, that's kinda the twee hipstery suburb close to downtown & VCU.] street thing going for it. Outside, the building looks rather run-down, but the apartment itself is pretty spiffy (nowhere near as nice as the others, but definitely liveable), and the largest (around 850 sq ft) and cheapest of the three.
It has a tiny kitchen and no washer/dryer (everything else has AC, diswasher, washer/dryer, wood or cement floor; all my absolute requirements), but a nice-sized living space. It's the only one with private outdoor space (a little balcony). However, it's also the only one with a large, loud dog living next door - the other 2 don't take dogs.
Yay: lots of space on the cheap, and walking distance to one of my favorite sushi places.
Boo: age of the building & renovations with what feels like less care for the original property or history, lack of clothes washing in the apartment
[Poll #768509]
I was looking for something that:
1. lets me try out living places where I might buy next year - namely Old Manchester and downtown/Shockoe
2. is convenient walking distance to interesting things
3. frankly, ups my hipster quotient
4. ideally saves me some money vs. my current situation (and I'm willing to downsize for that)
5. still has all the basic amenities I consider necessary for life, namely - not carpet, cat-friendly, ac, w/d, dw, at least one large open space
6. it turns out that I also want to feel like, if I'm living somewhere with history, that the history has been preserved and cared for
Each of the apartments succeeds on several but fails miserably on at least one.
Overview and tons of photos. This one's in the less urban portion of Old Manchester (just south of downtown). The development group has bought out a few blocks of old Victorians, and this is one of the first being renovated. The neighborhood is pretty deserted as a result, and seems headed for gentrification, although my hope is that it turns into an enclave of artists and yuppies. One of the things I wanted was a place where I could walk, and it's not so much that.
But! The apartment itself is beautiful, brand new renovation (in fact, won't be finished till August 1) - 2 bedrooms (total of about 800 square feet), fireplace, assloads of windows, a nice big living space, and all refinished hardwood floor. It's gorgeous; the restoration of common areas and the outside is particularly gentle/careful. Oh, and there's an immense frisbee-throwing field across the street.
Yay: beautiful apartment, love it, retains a lot of the Victorianness, and is like 2 seconds from our dance studio.
Boo: deserted & gentrifying neighborhood; not that much different from my suburban townhouse.
Overview & some photos. This one's in Shockoe Slip, which is more of the restaurant/business district downtown. It's within (slightly dangerous) walking distance to the Farmer's Market and stuff. It also covers all utilities, which is convenient, and makes it roughly the same price as #1... except for parking. Steve (the delightful dude who took us on a tour of the entire three floor as yet unairconditioned construction site) made us wear hardhats (it's also brand new renovation), and it's in a wedge-shaped building with a 7' wide facade! Seriously historical.
Parking, however, is both expensive and annoying. It's a pretty little place - but little is an important word (I believe 680 sq ftish); it's likely I'd have to get rid of furniture, not just stuff, and it would be hard on overnight guests. It's the most downtown-hipstery, with an upstairs kitchen/living area and downstairs (basement) bedroom. They kept the old warehouse floors, and also glossed up the cement on the basement floor. Lots of little nooks and neat things in the building, too.
Yay: phenomenally hipstery and historical.
Boo: crossing 14th st at Main upsets my stomach, plus the littleness and parking expense mean it's less space for more money.
Little bit of info (scroll down to 2716 W Grace, and the other interior photos typify the style). By far the most walk-friendly neighborhood, even though it's not downtown; it has the whole tree-lined Fan [for non-RVA peeps, that's kinda the twee hipstery suburb close to downtown & VCU.] street thing going for it. Outside, the building looks rather run-down, but the apartment itself is pretty spiffy (nowhere near as nice as the others, but definitely liveable), and the largest (around 850 sq ft) and cheapest of the three.
It has a tiny kitchen and no washer/dryer (everything else has AC, diswasher, washer/dryer, wood or cement floor; all my absolute requirements), but a nice-sized living space. It's the only one with private outdoor space (a little balcony). However, it's also the only one with a large, loud dog living next door - the other 2 don't take dogs.
Yay: lots of space on the cheap, and walking distance to one of my favorite sushi places.
Boo: age of the building & renovations with what feels like less care for the original property or history, lack of clothes washing in the apartment
[Poll #768509]
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Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 02:53 am (UTC)The only tips I have that would still be relevant would be that the ones in Style's classifieds are usually cooler than the ones in the TD, and look for duplexes and private landlords instead of developers. Good luck with whatever you choose.
(BTW I had Morton G. Thalhimer Lowe's-ify the adorable 1950's kitchen in my last duplex halfway through my four year tenancy. Broke my heart.)
Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 02:58 am (UTC)Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 03:17 am (UTC)Eventually, someone's going to walk into the Porter St apartment & tell me they lived there back in the day, or at least dealt drugs 10 blocks up the street.
Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 03:00 am (UTC)The fan apartments really depress me, though - in the last 5 years, a few companies have been churning out "renovations" that amount to making the insides of all these old buildings look identical. A lot of those apartments are reasonably priced, but so sad.
Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 03:07 am (UTC)Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 03:08 am (UTC)Re: showin' my bias
Date: 2006-07-16 03:15 am (UTC)So that's why I'm okay with the places that at least have kept the external structure of old buildings and some of their innards (though having seen some of those innards, I'm not surprised they aren't keep all of them) since they manage to make things marginally affordable. It does make me wonder how non-yuppies even manage to rent decent places (I suspect the answer is they don't, at least not in the Fan/Shockoe/etc area).