We've decided that we would like to stay in this apartment for the next year and not move to Long Beach. The hour+ commute from Long Beach to campus in downtown L.A. via train and then metro was a hard sell--especially since I have a hard enough time avoiding men who try to talk to me on the 10-minute busride while wearing sunglasses and headphones; I'm assuming it'd be even harder to be a captive audience for an hour on a train (there's no escaping). You can't really beat a 10 minute bus-ride for a quarter to campus, not to mention B's reverse traffic situation--in the morning he's going out of Los Angeles while people are vying their way in (kinda like what I did in Maryland, when I left for Baltimore people wanted into DC, on my way home the situation was reversed).

Plus, we really do love our building. When neighbors are noisy, we complain to management and they quiet down. When neighbors get a dog that barks constantly for three weeks, having dogs in the first place is against the lease anyway, and B complains (it was waking him up at night, and the poor man already gets up at 5 a.m.), the dog barking magically disappears. Not to mention the amenities we enjoy: 24-hour heated (in the winter) pool, 24-hour gym (which I've taken advantage of at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. in the past), billiard room with foosball and a pool table and Ms. Pac Man, 24-hour clubhouse that we'll be taking advantage of when Josh & Des come out in July, 24-hour concierge/security, secured entrance. Also included in the cost of the rent: refrigerator, stove, garbage disposal and a parking spot (yes, we have toured apartments where none of the above were included). Plus, there's card-operated laundry--which is conveniently located on our floor.

We're considering relocating somewhere within our current building, but it's an extremely hard decision to make.

Our current apartment is approximately 550 square feet. We're fitting two desks, a dining table and two chairs, a full-size couch, entertainment center with 27" television, two smallish end-tables, two stools, my horsehoe-shaped chair, a bookcase, and a huge cabinet that we had to purchase to hold our dishes, plus a portable dishwasher. Our bedroom, which is approximately half the size of our living room, has a queen size bed, two end tables (the closet door bangs into mine when we open the door), two bookcases, a dresser, a wicker horsehoe chair, and a set of 3-plastic drawers on casters with all of B's Warhammer stuff. I can't actually sit in my chair and read anymore, though, because the set of plastic drawers is in the way, as well as a pile of junk.

B has done some brilliant rearranging, so it doesn't feel as cramped in here, but it's a lot of stuff. Too much stuff for such a small space, in my opinon. But it all feels essential.

Our current apartment costs $1325. When we re-sign the lease in August, the price will jump to $1475. We were notified last Friday.

$1475. This for an apartment that is already pretty small (the bedroom door, the bathroom door and shower door all touch when fully open), has a half-size stove (hard to fit 2-hour turkey into), and no dishwasher (we had to buy our own portable). There also wasn't enough cupboard space to house both dishes and food, which was perplexing. So we had to buy a cabinet specially to house dishes, and the cabinet is huge in itself (but I got a great deal). The bathroom is poorly designed. It's actually quite large, but has no tub, only a standup-shower, and the cabinet is wonky. There's a full cabinet where the sink rests, but the cabinet right next to it is exactly half the size of the cabinet next to it, which makes storage a nightmare (the cabinet, I kid you not, is 6 inches wide). There are also no drawers in the bathroom, so our stuff clutters the counter, and I installed a small shelf to alleviate the problem of counter clutter. The carpet is probably 10 years old and is matted down. We bought a new vaccum cleaner that is superb at getting my hair and the cat hair off of it (it wouldn't come up before), but the carpet's not particularly comfortable. Our place in the Valley (where we lived before here) has new carpet and it was very squishy and comfy.

We also face a very busy main street, and while the windows are excellent at muting the noise, it makes opening the windows, well, not the best idea in the world, and the view isn't that great because we face a building that was just finished. We don't care too much, we've gotten used to it.

Mostly it's the space that's the issue. We recently bought two bikes, and they are currently housed in one of our two closets, front wheels off, upright up, tied to the closet shelf with string. Every time we want to ride our bikes, it's a rig-a-ma-roll. Plus, half the closet can't be used to actually store anything. Which isn't so bad because we don't have that much crap to store.

We are considering relocating within the building. However, the next size apartment that is available is 770 square feet for three various prices: $1705 (second floor), $1765 (sixth floor), and $1775 (eighth floor). The nice thing about all three apartments is that they face the park instead of the main street where metro buses make stops (the side we currently live on, unfortunately). However, the second floor has no elevator access, so I refuse to move to a place in the current building where I'd have to actually walk up and down stairs in order to move (that's just weird). The eighth floor is right next to the elevators (I didn't think I was so picky about location in the building, but we live with a lot of college students who like to party, and I think it would be way annoying to constantly hear drunkards walking down the hall in the middle of the night, at least it pissed me off at college, and I was younger and less judgmental then).

That leaves the sixth floor. It's at the end of the hall, like our current apartment, so not a lot of foot traffic, which I like. We took a tour of it this afternoon because it's empty. And I must say it's a beautiful place. The view of the garden and skyline is spectacular. Even my favorite fountain in the park is right under the window. And the wall in the living room is full-wall-sized windows. It's gorgeous. And when the windows were opened during rush hour traffic, I could still hear the woosh of cars from the main street on the other side of the building, but the noise isn't that bad. Plus it has a built-in dishwasher (fancy!) and a full-size stove/oven (no problems baking a turkey in there)--plus the dials on the stove aren't rubbed off either, so you don't have to guess which level of heat to which you're turning the stovetop (a problem where we currently live). The kitchen itself is well-laid out--it's an actual kitchen with cabinets enough to store groceries and dishes. The bathroom, too, is laid out nicely. It's bigger than our current bathroom, and it even has a tub--with a shower. Plus, the counter/cabinets in the bathroom have twice the storage space because they have drawers--and one of the cabinets isn't cut half in depth.

The place on the sixth floor has a walk-in closet about a third of the size (maybe half, I'm not sure) of our current bedroom closet (in our bedroom closet we have two sets of upright dressers and literally everything that can be stashed away (linens, clothing, Christmas decorations, our laundry cart). The closet is packed, and yet I still have space to change clothes in there (but then again I'm a tiny little woman). But the lack in walk-in closet space gets made up with a double-size closet where we're currently hosting our bikes. So 1) They could just be wheeled in (no more jerry-rigs) and 2) We could actually still store everything we need to be stored away.

Plus, when we have guests over, we wouldn't feel cramped. When we had two people over for 3 weeks in January, it was cramped. That's mostly because Lindsi is packing-slut who has over-packed for every little trip I've ever seen her take, and I've known her since she was ten years old. She felt the need to bring her entire immediate life into our apartment, even when I told her we had another guest coming (whom we invited before her--they agreed that overlapping wouldn't be a problem even though they didn't know each other). Dude, she had to get a storage space while she was here because all of her junk couldn't fit in our apartment. And yet, she still managed to take up a good amount of floor space. It was insane. Now, none of our other friends, nor relatives, are so crazy. So that will probably not be an issue ever again, but still, more space for entertaining would be awesome.

Now, there's pretty much no contest. The place on the sixth floor is the much better apartment than our current one.

Is it $290 better, though?

We could afford it. B is getting a raise and a mandatory cost-of-living increase in July. But we both have qualms.

For me, I just have a very hard time dealing with paying that much money in rent. I currently have a hard time dealing paying $1325 a month in rent. I'm having a harder time dealing with the $150 increase that's looming. I realize we're paying for the 48-hour guaranteed maintence service, 24-hour concierge/security, rooftop pool, gym. As well as a parking space and refrigerator, stove and garbage disposal (some places make you rent all of those, not included in the price of the rent). But it seems like we could a buy a place for that amount of money (if we had enough for a downpayment, that is) and we could still have all those amenities (the condos/lofts being built in this area all have the same perks).

B's problem is that with that extra money we could use it to buy stuff. To which I said, "Uh. Yeah. Try fitting anything else in this apartment, babe." And he laughed and said he meant stuff like vacations.

The quality of life would improve in that apartment for $290 more a month. But we've dealt with the space issue for a year now, and people in Manhattan deal with space issues a lot more severe than us. I wonder if it's greedy to want more space rather than utilizing the space we have. We've done really well in that department, but we've also been lax.

We currently have a pile covering my poor sweet wicker horseshoe chair with stuff we tagged "to sell" but never got around to it. So I haven't been able to sit in my chair and read since March. Plus, there's a lot of unutilized space around the entertainment center because we didn't buy the matching Ikea stand to put the TV on (we made due with our bargain purchase from Pier 1 because we liked the style of it better--it used to be practical in our previous apartments, but here, where space is at a premium, it's not doing it's job properly. Especially if we want to get a DVR--we'd have absolutely no where to put it.) Also, we could buy B a new desk, a smaller, more economically-spacious desk to give more room around the couch (his computer chair hits the couch). His current desk couldn't survive another move anyway, it fell apart on the move here. Hmmm... maybe a new desk chair, too.

So I have no idea what to do. It's easier not to move, and even though the rent is going to be jacked $150, it's still a bargain to live here--it's really hard for me to say that because I still can't believe how much we do pay in rent already (I constantly have to remind myself of all the perks of the building and the location that we're paying for in the cost of the rent).

This building is the first place I ever felt safe. Which translates to: 1) I don't have visions of being murdered whilst we sleep and 2) I don't sleep with a hatchet under my pillow anymore. If you don't believe I slept with a hatchet, then you don't know me very well. Which is a shame, because I'm pretty cool. :P Oh, and the entire year we've been here: I haven't seen one cockroach. Not one. Every single place we lived before, I always saw them. And no threat of bedbugs, either.

I love that the dilemma of my life is whether or not to upgrade to a better apartment. It's much better than: the bedbugs infested everything we own and no matter what we do, we can't get rid of them. Or, my personal favorite, the neighbor is threatening my life again and the police say they can't do anything until he actually kills me (their words, not mine--if you click the link, it'll take you to the review of that hellhole, my review of the hellhole, that is).

Suggestions?

And in case you're wondering: how much would it cost us to rent a storage space of our own, equal in size to the one Lindsi rented while she stayed with us? No less than $103 a month for a 5x5 spot. The extra 220 square feet for $290 extra (plus that spectacular view) almost seems like a bargain in comparison.

Labels: los angeles, real estate, real life

( 2comments )

at June 20, 2006 10:46 AM  Princess Blogonoke said...

How long are you planning on staying in that area? Another year? Another two to five years? If you think you might move in another year (to a house or a different area entirely) then I say stick it out and stay in the same place.

If you see yourselves living in that area for longer than that, then move to the sixth floor apartment and enjoy the extra floorspace and bigger kitchen.

On a personal note, if I were in your situation, I'd move to the sixth floor apartment. It sounds like you really love that building, and if you had a little extra space, living there would be almost ideal. Granted, it costs extra money, but I like being comfortable and I'd be willing to pay for the extra space. Besides, I think there is enough stuff in the L.A. area to keep me occupied without having to go on any vacations for a year, but that's just me. You guys have already lived out there a while.

 

at June 20, 2006 1:06 PM  Samantha said...

We're planning on staying in the Los Angeles area for at least 4 more years (I have 3 more years of coursework to complete, plus a year for my dissertation). It could be longer, depending on whether or not the panel I put together for my defense can actually meet on time (I know someone whose defense was waylaid for 18 additional months because the people on the panel couldn't coordinate their schedules).

Unless something drastically changes in the actual building--like roaches, bedbugs and mice infest the place, or the building becomes a known crack den--B and I would prefer to stay in this building. The management treats the residents extremely well, and it's one of the most affordable buildings in the area. There was this place on 7th & Spring Street we looked at, even smaller than our current apartment, for $1500 a month and windows literally shook from the street noise (garbage trucks, delivery trucks, semis, buses, cars) outside. It was so loud, we had to raise our voices to talk to each other--with zero amenities. We hear that another place called the Pegasus has the same amenities, but the inside of the apartments become coated in a weird black dust from the garage 7 floors below. The place that went up across the street is very nice, but more expensive than our building, and has the same exact amenities--except they don't have a pool. And seriously, I need a pool. :P

As far as vacations go, we have been saving up for a trip to Stratford-on-Avon next March--we're going to go to the tail-end of the largest Shakespearean festival hosted by Royal Shakespeare Company ever. It's going to be awesome.