Apartment Hunting
After 5 months of hour-long commutes to work (EACH WAY), shitty neighborhood Chinese take-out restaurants and an invincible weird soapy smell that managed to contaminate all my clothes and bags despite numerous air fresheners as well as carpet removal, I am ready to move into Manhattan. Based on the places that I have checked out today and the emails responding to my ad on Craig's List, I am not very optimistic about finding a great place.
The two apartments that I looked at are both inhabited by artsy-fartsy types who are probably too cool for me. The first apartment is located on 28th & 6th, two stories above a clothing store. The guy that showed me the place bear a striking resemblance to a friend. He's basically a brawnier version of Jason Ahmad, one of my summer roommates and a good friend. He is the same age as Jason and also grew up in Jersey. He even dresses like Jason, wearing a bright red T-shirt and a formerly clean-shaven head. Currently, he's working as a freelance photographer who does all kind of assignments, including taking pictures for City Search. He has a huge turntable on his desk and told me that he had spinned at clubs before, which is pretty cool. He's 23 and attended FIT, aka Fashion Institute of Technology (yes, there is such a thing), as does the other girl who's living in the apartment. Overall, he seems like a pretty cool guy, but I don't think he considers me cool/hip enough to live at that place, with my 9 to 6 job and my stuffy suit. He did compliment me on my ultra-cool DKNY slip-on loafers though and showed me his pair, which looked really funky and colorful. About the room: it's pretty small, definitely narrower than my current bedroom, probably around 10'x12'. Of course, it costs $1000 a month even though it's not in the coolest neighborhood.
The girl who showed me the next apartment, located just two blocks away from the first, is a 28-year-old unemployed writer who is looking for a job while writing a book. She has short blonde hair and is pretty in an intelligent and sophisticated way. However, I don't think she will be a terribly fun roommate because she seems like the moody, brooding, tortured Hemingway type. She looks like an empowered feminist, although she's definitely not a man-eater. Just like the first guy, she has also thoroughly decorated her apartment with random but interesting pictures/drawings. She also turned down a job working at the Atlantic Monthly because she wanted to move to New York from Boston, which I think is rather unfortunate since it's definitely a quality magazine. I don't think I can live at her place either, because to her I probably look like a souless corporate whore that gleefully tortures little animals and shoves blind, handicapped old ladies down stairways. More importantly, the room for rent is just too small to fit all my stuff. Even then, it's still $850 a month.
While walking on the way to the apartments, I saw a bunch of parking lots which charge monthly fees upwards of $340, and that's excluding an 18% parking tax!! The cheapest one was around $260 a month, so I guess I will have to leave my car in my current spot for a short while before I decide on what to do with it next, i.e. driving it back home to Minneapolis.
While I was away, I received a message from what must be the most illiterate professional writer in NYC, who contacted me with a place in Brooklyn even though I stated explicitly in my ad that I'm interested in Manhattan housing. Granted, this place is relatively close to Manhattan, but her intro was just so difficult to read that it's irritating:
"Hi, my name is [ ] and I live in an about to be finished with the wonderful renovations on my apartment of almost five years. The bedrooms are being put on opposite sides of the aoartment and myself and whomewever lives here, women only please, shall have her own private bathroom. The rent is $(50, half utilities aqnd telephone, One month security, $75. nonrefundable utiliutites deposit, no credit check."
After 5 months of hour-long commutes to work (EACH WAY), shitty neighborhood Chinese take-out restaurants and an invincible weird soapy smell that managed to contaminate all my clothes and bags despite numerous air fresheners as well as carpet removal, I am ready to move into Manhattan. Based on the places that I have checked out today and the emails responding to my ad on Craig's List, I am not very optimistic about finding a great place.
The two apartments that I looked at are both inhabited by artsy-fartsy types who are probably too cool for me. The first apartment is located on 28th & 6th, two stories above a clothing store. The guy that showed me the place bear a striking resemblance to a friend. He's basically a brawnier version of Jason Ahmad, one of my summer roommates and a good friend. He is the same age as Jason and also grew up in Jersey. He even dresses like Jason, wearing a bright red T-shirt and a formerly clean-shaven head. Currently, he's working as a freelance photographer who does all kind of assignments, including taking pictures for City Search. He has a huge turntable on his desk and told me that he had spinned at clubs before, which is pretty cool. He's 23 and attended FIT, aka Fashion Institute of Technology (yes, there is such a thing), as does the other girl who's living in the apartment. Overall, he seems like a pretty cool guy, but I don't think he considers me cool/hip enough to live at that place, with my 9 to 6 job and my stuffy suit. He did compliment me on my ultra-cool DKNY slip-on loafers though and showed me his pair, which looked really funky and colorful. About the room: it's pretty small, definitely narrower than my current bedroom, probably around 10'x12'. Of course, it costs $1000 a month even though it's not in the coolest neighborhood.
The girl who showed me the next apartment, located just two blocks away from the first, is a 28-year-old unemployed writer who is looking for a job while writing a book. She has short blonde hair and is pretty in an intelligent and sophisticated way. However, I don't think she will be a terribly fun roommate because she seems like the moody, brooding, tortured Hemingway type. She looks like an empowered feminist, although she's definitely not a man-eater. Just like the first guy, she has also thoroughly decorated her apartment with random but interesting pictures/drawings. She also turned down a job working at the Atlantic Monthly because she wanted to move to New York from Boston, which I think is rather unfortunate since it's definitely a quality magazine. I don't think I can live at her place either, because to her I probably look like a souless corporate whore that gleefully tortures little animals and shoves blind, handicapped old ladies down stairways. More importantly, the room for rent is just too small to fit all my stuff. Even then, it's still $850 a month.
While walking on the way to the apartments, I saw a bunch of parking lots which charge monthly fees upwards of $340, and that's excluding an 18% parking tax!! The cheapest one was around $260 a month, so I guess I will have to leave my car in my current spot for a short while before I decide on what to do with it next, i.e. driving it back home to Minneapolis.
While I was away, I received a message from what must be the most illiterate professional writer in NYC, who contacted me with a place in Brooklyn even though I stated explicitly in my ad that I'm interested in Manhattan housing. Granted, this place is relatively close to Manhattan, but her intro was just so difficult to read that it's irritating:
"Hi, my name is [ ] and I live in an about to be finished with the wonderful renovations on my apartment of almost five years. The bedrooms are being put on opposite sides of the aoartment and myself and whomewever lives here, women only please, shall have her own private bathroom. The rent is $(50, half utilities aqnd telephone, One month security, $75. nonrefundable utiliutites deposit, no credit check."
posted by Gary at
3:13 PM
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