Very Disappointing
I can’t please everyone but I’m forced to disappoint three people. If you read yesterday’s post you’ll know I’m renting an apartment. To be honest it is not just any apartment. You guys out there who own the teens and 20s bungalows KNOW what kind of apartment this is. This apartment is your house but on a smaller scale. It has charm and character. It has that je ne sais quoi.
I can tell when showing the apartment who gets it. I can tell those people who’ve lived in the chicken coop and are seeing a pleasant little apartment for the first time. I know they’ll be happy here. I know they’ll respect it. It is at that moment that I change from being the reluctant landlord to being the landlord that wishes he had more apartments just like this one.
I have two young women and a young couple to chose from. I watch their eyes widen when they walk in the front door and see the simple yet elegant little mantel. I watch them when they see the claw foot tub and the charming little kitchen. It is really a pleasure. I have only been in these apartments 2 or 3 times in the last 3 years so it is also fun for me to go in to them as well.
I first told the young couple they weren’t getting it. They were very disappointed. It was both hard and easy to tell them no. The young woman is the daughter of the owner of the largest antique and salvage store in town. I could really see some benefits of being a good landlord. Unfortunately her boyfriend was not what you would call the perfect tenant. He ask two things when looking at the apartment. He wanted to paint the bedroom dark brown and he wanted to set up a full drum kit in the living room. I said no to both and they still returned the application.
The next woman I’m going to call tomorrow. She really liked the apartment a lot. It is going to be very difficult to tell her she didn't get the place. She loved the apartment. I ended up renting to a 30 year old woman who works at the Co-op market 3 blocks always. I shop there a lot and have interacted with her very many times. Very pleasant woman. She is currently renting from the biggest slum-lord in town. I think she will be a very good fit with me and the other tenants.
2 comments:
You make it sound so good, _I_ want to rent it.
Will you ever do any rehab work on the apartments?
How about some photos?
They are nice but they do need some work. I fixed them up quickly when I first bought the property. They are unique, especially when compared to a modern 1 bedroom apartment. I don’t have any digital pictures to post but just thinking back, each apartment has 10 double hung windows and a total of 7 doors. They were designed to have a free standing gas heaters but they built brick chimneys with Arts & Crafts style wood mantles. The walls are plaster and there is picture rail. The central stairwell has nice wide wood stairs with a landing in the middle and a 90 degree turn. There are several double hung windows in the stairwell and they also put picture rail in there even though some of it must be 15 feet off the ground and no one has probably ever hung a picture in there. The common door at the base of the stairs is a 15 light French door with a lot of wavy glass panes in it. The apartments and the stairwell also have many of the original light fixtures and several push button light switches. They are just very non-cookie-cutter. Oh, and the bathroom floors are very interesting. They are both a one piece poured floor. Seems softer than concrete but I’m not sure what it is. The floor and baseboards are all one seamless…something. I’ve never seen anything like it. Someday I would love to strip paint and fix the plaster, but for now I'm a slave to a 3000 sq ft 1895 Monster!
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