08/20/2004 Archived Entry: "Help me Decide"

Armed with a list of 25 names, phone numbers, and addresses, I decided to go to Toronto yesterday to look at some housing prospects. Naively, I thought it would be a somewhat easy proposition. Whipping out JLO's cell, and spending a few hours calling and arranging I crossed out 12 out of the 25 contacts due to females only, room taken, or no 4 month lease criteria. Left messages on 6 machines that never got back to me. One phone number wasn't in the GTA and another was out of service. I talked to 2 crazy old ladies whom I would have had to live with, and 1 invalid old man. Out of 6 people who were willing to show me around, 1 of them had potentially rented out his room already, and 3 were a little unsure if they wanted to rent me their place for only 4 months.

The first place I saw was two stories on top of a Fallafel joint and was a small bedroom for 500$ with shared kitchen and bathroom with 4 others. The layout wasn't very appealing since it was all corridors and closed doors. There was no space for socialization, on the off chance of such a thing ever striking my fancy. On the plus side, it was rather clean and the landlord seemed like a nice guy. There was a rotary phone sitting on a table in the hallway by the stairs, I think that made me think 'no'.

The second place was an apartment on Sherbourne. The guy described it as "attached to a No Frills" and made me think it was anothe "student housing on top of store" place. Wasn't quite looking forward to seeing it but upon getting there I saw that it was a tall apartment building attached to a No Frills. Things were picking up. Turns out it was a 3 bedroom suite which was much more in line with my dreams of living in hip and well decorated place. The 2 other people were film school grads who liked vodka a lot.

The third place was called a bachelor apartment but it was really 1 big room and a bathroom. The closet was a rickety, 2 foot wide, free standing cabinet, not big enough to hold anyone's collection of clothing; the kitchen was essentially a electric table top stove plus a mini-fridge under the counter, the bathroom sink doubled as the kitchen sink. Pluses were 2 windows, a quiet neighbourhood, and a small fireplace(!). Same problem about socialization was true in this case as the first place and the run-down slum feel of it wasn't too appealing either, especially for 500$.

By the 3rd place it was already 8:30 and getting around downtown with tentative schedules for seeing places and no real knowledge of the streetcars and buses made going to the other properties I had lined up a tiring proposition. So we decided to call it quits. The other places I wanted to see were outside of downtown and apparently in a bit more "run down" area, but they were close to work.

I'm considering going down tomorrow to look at housing near there but I've been offered the room in the suite and am experiencing the Schnurr effect. The Schnurr effect being what I call seeing 511 Albert at the end of first year after having visited a house where the main floor was slanted. 511 was only the second place we saw but the contrast was so huge that we didn't even bother looking elsewhere.

Should I go tomorrow and look some more or is this 500$ room something that's unbeatable?

Replies: 7 comments

How much was the second place with alcoholics running for?

Posted by dAN @ 08/22/2004 06:33 PM EST

They were all for roughly 500$. In any case, I ended up taking that place. I didn't think I'd find anything nice downtown for a better price. As for something closer to work, it was DEFINATELY in a shaddy looking place. Think Mechanicsville in Ottawa.

Posted by Rayne @ 08/23/2004 02:08 AM EST

if it's relatively downtown and in good condition for $500, you're golden ... usually you have to pay a bit of a premium on downtown rooms that don't have holes in the wall, etc ... i've definitely seen some scary places

congratulations on finding a place though .. see, it wasn't that tough!

Posted by melpie @ 08/23/2004 09:52 AM EST

Just wait til he moves in. :P

Posted by Arshwana @ 08/23/2004 01:14 PM EST

What's that supposed to mean, arsh?

Posted by Rayne @ 09/04/2004 06:25 AM EST

ie, just wait till you move in to find out all the faucets leak or there's mice or cockroaches or loud neighbours.. you know. :)

Posted by Arshwana @ 09/07/2004 09:30 PM EST

So far so good. I thought you meant I'd put holes in myself or something =P

Posted by Rayne @ 09/13/2004 12:48 AM EST