(no subject)

[usernamenumber]

I hate making decisions. In particular, I hate making decisions that have far-reaching effects, will be hard to reverse and need to be made now.

As many of you know, Continuum is likely to be no more at the end of this lease cycle, so Sequoia and I are apartment hunting. There's one that we've found that warrants a decision very soon, but I'm having trouble making a decision, especially when we haven't looked at many other places. Thus, I come to you for advice, Oh Faceless Internet.

The place its self was once one of those side-by-side duplexes, where each half of the house was a separate two-story place. Originally a family lived in one, with one of their grandmothers in the other. When grandma got too old to deal with stairs, the owner, who is an architect, redesigned the place so that instead of being split left/right, it's split top/bottom. As such, it's a really funky looking place. You go up the stairs and are greeted with a sort of T intersection at the top, where what used to be two different townhouses connect. This, to us, is a good thing as it really lends the place some personality.

Here's a map of the location.

So, ok, here's the pro/con breakdown as I see it:

Pros

• Price: It's a three bedroom place for about $300/mo cheaper than our two rooms at continuum. This is especially important as we are considering buying a house, possibly with a local cohousing organization, next year and need to save.


• Size: Again, three bedrooms. Sequoia and I can each have our own spaces, plus an office or, if her brother comes to stay with us, guest room. And that's not counting the living room and kitchen, all for less than what we're paying now.


• Style: As described above, the place has this funky, Tim-Burton-esque feel to it.


• Nature: It's across the street from pretty trees and along the edge of Fresh Pond.


• Landlord: The landlord is pretty hands-off. He intends to gut and rennovate the place in a few years anyway, so he says that if we want to paint the walls, tear up the carpet or basically do anything non-destructive to the place, we're welcome to.


• Basement: The basement has a space that would work for doing Second Shift recording if we can arrange to not have our neighbor use it during that time.

Cons

• Location: As you can see, aside from being very close to a grocery store, which is nice, it's not convenient to much of anything. I know I've been spoiled living around the corner from Porter Square, and I'm unlikely to find anything that convenient for this kind of price, but... *whine*. Sequoia is convinced that Harvard Sq would be bikable in about 10 mins and biking to Porter might actually be faster than driving, given how horrible the traffic is between Fresh Pond and Alewife, but I'm no judge of such things. Opinions on this are more than welcome.


• Landlord: The landlord is pretty hands-off. He says that because he's going to gut the place in a few years anyway, he doesn't intend to fix any problems with the house that don't affect live-ability (aesthetic things like cracks in the walls and such). Personally, I don't much care about that, though... I think. But again I've been spoiled by Continuum, which has an awesome landlord.


• Commute: Sequoia was nice enough to test-drive my commute yesterday and if we take city streets to bypass the Alewife traffic and there's no traffic on said city streets (there wasn't when she did her test run) then my commute should stay about the same. I was hoping to make it shorter, especially if I was going to give up living in a convenient location.


• Shower: Since the redesign of the house involved some improv, the bathroom is tiny and the shower is tinier. The showerhead comes up to the middle of my chest. Sequoia's confident she can rig something better (those who have seen the Geiger-esque setup in her shower should not find this difficult to believe), but.. meh... tiny shower + big guy == not fun.

Looking at the list now, the pros seem to outweigh the cons, but one of the cons is huge for me: location. I've become a real city-boy. I love being around people. I'm at home on a busy sidewalk or hanging out in some quirky cafe. There's none of that in this neighborhood and that bums me out. Then again, the cohousing place we're looking at is in the middle of nowhere (but only about 15 mins from where I work, just east of nowhere, which is good) so I guess I should get used to commuting to Camberville anyway if we're serious about it. After all, there's no way in hell we're going to be able to afford to actually buy a house in Camberville-proper and we don't want to rent forever, so...

Writing all this out, I guess I'm close to trying to get this place, but I'm hesitant to commit to something this early in the game and I'm still hesitating to move away from the thick of things, where I've been enjoying it so much.

Anyway, suggestions and encouragement ("You're a weenie. I've biked around there and it's easy to get to fun stuff" counts as encouragement) are welcome.

Comments

[bleemoo.livejournal.com]

Can I just call you a weenie for the sake of calling you a weenie? It's a funny word.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

For what its worth, I worked on the other side of Fresh Pond. If you can deal with the hills, it is a 10-15 minute bike from Harvard Square, easy. If hills are a big deal, its twenty.
Actually, Brattle is relatively level, so 10-15 might be a fine estimate. Cutting over to Concord (which is how I did the commute from the office to Harvard) was 15ish.

The bike commute to Porter is also easy --
I'd go to 2/16/towards the Donuts of Death, cut over to Garden St, then jog over to Upland. 20 minutes by bike. Probably less. (I did the walk from my Porter Square apartment to the other side of Fresh Pond in 20-30 mintues).



Where is your office?


The things that would worry me about that location are the landlord (yeah, so. he may be gutting the place, but you need to live there NOW and that means it needs to be reasonably livable. Saying you're not going to fix things isn't great, and may not be legal.) and the shower.


Is the apartment's price typical for the area? If so, you might be able to find something equivilent with fewer cons.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

My office is in Westford, so I'm in for a commute (fortunately against traffic) as long as I stay anywhere in this area.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

For what its worth:

Getting off Route 2 to turn left (Towards Fresh pond) at Lake Street is generally fine during evening rush. You may have to get around right turning traffic, but it isn';t a big deal.

I assume you'd actually use Park Ave/Prospect Street (which I have no data about) or Pleasant St, which has some backup for the right turn (again, Towards Fresh Pond), but usually takes less than 2 full light cycles.

[predundant.livejournal.com]

A house you can pseudo-destroy three blocks away from a recreational area on a lake? Sounds fabulous if you have any time away from work to enjoy your abode.

However, the shower thing would bug the crap out of me and be my personal dealbreaker. I've had to stay in a place with a tiny shower before and it was unbearable. I'm a boy who needs my showers, and when my elbows hit the ceiling when I try to wash my armpits I get quite irate.

So if you can handle the shower thing, I'd say go for it.

brad gets a kiss for posting

[choose-again.livejournal.com]

my biggest feeling right now is that it is good enough. not perfect at all, but it will be a fun, experimental place to live. since i redecorate my room every few months, it will be fun to have a whole house to play with. and i'm not a plumber, but i BET i can do something much cooler with the bathroom. there are shelves surrounding the shower that i can take out, and then we can buy a bigger shower-type thing, maybe even a claw bathtub with a tall shower pole. it's doable, but the first few weeks will suck until renovations are done.

i think it would good for me to live in a "good enough" place instead of being desperate to find the most efficiently valuable place.

[lmpshd.livejournal.com]

I'd peg the biking distance to Harvard Square at more like 20 minutes, but that's a somewhat conservative estimate based on the fact that I've never actually biked in that area, plus... I'm a bit of a weakling.

It also seems to me that the pros outweight the cons... it's been my experience that apartments slated for renovation are always the most cost effective to be found.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

Dude. It is 2 miles, mostly on roads with bike lanes.

You bike at 6 miles an hour?

[choose-again.livejournal.com]

it takes me 10 minutes to bike 2 miles...

[lmpshd.livejournal.com]

I'd figured that if I started out making fun of myself, I'd minimize the chance of other commenters making fun of me... so much for that.

I'd be willing to fudge my answer to 15 minutes: the distance looks to be about 1.5 times the distance from Inman Square to MIT, which takes me 10 minutes. That's an easy straight shot along Hampshire Street followed by some slightly complicated stuff (traffic lights and such) at Kendall Square. I'm more hesitant to speculate how easy the ride along Brattle or Mt. Auburn Street may be, as I think cars tend to go faster there than on Hampshire (that's the impression of someone who rarely drives, so I could be wrong). Plus, does "bike lane" really mean a lane exclusively for bikes, or does it (as in most of the Boston area) mean "a narrow lane with bike symbols painted on it where you must constantly worry about doors of parked cars opening in front of you and the occasional MBTA bus"?

[choose-again.livejournal.com]

oh! i'm sorry! i was actually trying to be supportive! i bike really slowly, and i was trying to say that at my pace based on getting to work it would take about 10 minutes to harvard, which is also 2 miles.

now that i look at what the math is saying, i can totally see how it would be potentially insulting since you said it would take you 20 mins-- but i didn't think of that at the time.

if this is not too sore a subject, i am curious how long it takes you to bike to my house from your house... tho there is more uphill that direction and takes me about 15.

[lmpshd.livejournal.com]

Hee hee... no worries. I really should use more emoticons. :)

Hmm, I think we have some disagreement on which direction between my house and yours has more uphill... in any case from Inman to Porter straight up Beacon Street I usually budget 15 minutes, though it's probably more like 10 most of the time. Less if I'm late and afraid rigel will be mad.

[choose-again.livejournal.com]

ooh- i learned to take somerville and then over prospect st-- that way there's only one hill TO work, but that's a one way, so FROM work i take beacon, which has 3 or 4.


except now with the construction in union... eww.

[marphod.livejournal.com]

You obey one way streets on a bike?

Oh, bless you. Bless you.

(For the record, I HATE how much boston bicyclists ignore traffic laws to suit their whims.)

[choose-again.livejournal.com]

not all the time, if it means a big detour... but if the street looks active i don't. its a little nerve wracking to charge down a car. ;)

[lightgamer.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: I'm 19 years old and have never had to look for a house.

That said, I have two older sisters and several friends who have, and what I can tell you is this: If you like this place, like the price, and can see yourself living there, I think you should go for it. An opportunity like this may not be perfect - but, the way you've described it, I feel like you have a better chance of kicking yourself later when you pass it up than you do of finding a perfect place. Naturally, you should do as you see fit, and there's nothing wrong with holding out - it would just be a shame to let a good opportunity go only to find weeks later that it was the best bet.