RonBoyd
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Just sayin... put it on the list.
Apartment living
- Thread starter Rich_by_the_Bay
- Start date
Just sayin... put it on the list.
Not having lived in an apartment since 1979, it's been a while. But I hated apartment living. The first one had unreliable hot water (older building) and the heat and A/C were central and turned on or off once per year. When I got off work at 0200 hours that meant a hike from the far end of the parking lot, seemingly always in rain, ice and snow. W2R is right that having the laundry down the hall got old fast. On the plus side it was quiet. I moved because the rent was rising faster than my income.
The second was newer and that meant thinner walls and the attendant noise from neighbors. Even in my 20's hauling everything up two or three flights of stairs was an annoyance. Maintenance was generally good, nothing untoward ever happened, but I hated the idea of someone coming in "my space" when I wasn't there.
The major advantage I can think of is the ability to pack up and move on short notice.
Hopefully I will never live in an apartment again.
The second was newer and that meant thinner walls and the attendant noise from neighbors. Even in my 20's hauling everything up two or three flights of stairs was an annoyance. Maintenance was generally good, nothing untoward ever happened, but I hated the idea of someone coming in "my space" when I wasn't there.
The major advantage I can think of is the ability to pack up and move on short notice.
Hopefully I will never live in an apartment again.
Automatika
Recycles dryer sheets
My DW and I lived for a couple of years in an apartment when we moved to Nashville, I thought it was OK but DW hated it. We had 3 different neighbors in 2 years and they were all very different from each other. Despite being one of the nicer complexes in the area there were several apartments that ended up being rented to "migrant" construction workers who didn't seem to care much about the other renters or grounds, littering and making a lot of noise. In a large complex such as the one we lived in the management seemed pretty inneffective at rule enforcement. We are happy to be back in our own house.
Sarah in SC
Moderator Emeritus
Rich, we want to move to a carriage house in downtown Charleston when we finally get tired of keeping up with the homestead in the country. Something like that would have the comforts of a rental but also be separate living space. I'd rather that than a traditional apartment.
I don't know if other cities have these carriage houses (used to be for horses way back in Colonial days), but Charleston is full of them.
I don't know if other cities have these carriage houses (used to be for horses way back in Colonial days), but Charleston is full of them.
CuppaJoe
Moderator Emeritus
This says it all? You might be good candidates for renting a detached house and/or looking to buy ASAP.
I’ve lived in apartments all of my adult life, partly because I cannot afford to own in the area where I choose to live.
My neighborhood skews young and high income: quiet students, people working at home (again quiet), nurses, hospital residents, lawyers, overworked techies, hotel or airline employees home at odd times or odd days, and some (apparent) trust fund babies. Renter’s insurance is lower for places where there are people around all the time. Retirees are rare but can be found at the coffee houses, museums, classes, libraries, parks and out walking their dogs. If I go out on the roof for sun and the view, someone might join me for the company. Recently met a neighbor because I stopped to look at an unusual site, mouth agape: goats were all over the urban hillside taking care of lawn maintenance. I don’t mind carrying laundry down four flights of stairs to the basement but keep in mind it can be a social occasion, as is picking up the mail.
One downside to living on the top floor of an old quiet building is that you can feel the weather. Since this is a Mediterranean climate, most of the time I love that except during rare heat waves or cold snaps when the temperature is more comfortable on lower floors; I also feel the humidity during rainy season. These conditions are so rare that no one considers putting in air conditioning or de-humidifiers. We constantly open and close windows year round; hey, it’s what we do all day.
Many apt. dwellers travel for weeks at a time (like Alan
) and so many people hit the slopes here that the neighborhoods are eerily quiet on weekends and holidays.I dislike elevators because of the noise; they tend to be ugly and alternate staircases an afterthought. Staircases without elevators tend to have more charm.
Over age 50 housing may restrict visits from children.
If I had time when apt. or house hunting I would take walking tours and check old maps. Is the building on landfill? How did the area do during the last natural disaster?
Keep us posted, R-I-T.
Moemg
Gone but not forgotten
The one big downfall to apartment living is the stairs or the elevators. It's fine when you are young but after 60 lugging groceries and other shopping up flights of stairs grows thin. Residential elevators break and you are at the mercy of a small amount of repair men who specialize in this especially if they are older elevators .
It depends.....
on the apartment and the house (and what you want and what you're willing to pay)....
Getting ready for retirement, my wife and I decided it was time to get rid of the larger than needed, close-in suburban, (lake-side) house in VA (where I'd raised my kids) and move to DC.
A few years previously, my then finace (I'm a widower) took a job in NY and I commuted each (long) weekend. We wanted enough room for my two boys (then in college) to stay with us, so we rented a large two bedroom 2&1/2 bath apartment in mid-town east with a doorman and an elevator operator and a high floor manhattan view and it was really quite pleasant. (They even had refrigerators and freezers to hold mid-day food deliveries!) We considered moving to Manhattan full time.
But it certainly was pricey!! And even with all the amenities, storage, direct access to the outdoors, and room for projects was limited. In any case, after a year or so, we decide to return to Virginia.
And while we certainly considered apartments when we moved into the DC last year, we ended up buying a townhouse in Georgetown. The deciding factors were things like space, privacy, parking, quiet, and outdoor access (and we even have an HOA that rakes the leaves and shovels snow!)
Like I said, it depends. Even the relative cost is hard to predict, depending on inflation and real estate prices.
So far, so good!
on the apartment and the house (and what you want and what you're willing to pay)....
Getting ready for retirement, my wife and I decided it was time to get rid of the larger than needed, close-in suburban, (lake-side) house in VA (where I'd raised my kids) and move to DC.
A few years previously, my then finace (I'm a widower) took a job in NY and I commuted each (long) weekend. We wanted enough room for my two boys (then in college) to stay with us, so we rented a large two bedroom 2&1/2 bath apartment in mid-town east with a doorman and an elevator operator and a high floor manhattan view and it was really quite pleasant. (They even had refrigerators and freezers to hold mid-day food deliveries!) We considered moving to Manhattan full time.
But it certainly was pricey!! And even with all the amenities, storage, direct access to the outdoors, and room for projects was limited. In any case, after a year or so, we decide to return to Virginia.
And while we certainly considered apartments when we moved into the DC last year, we ended up buying a townhouse in Georgetown. The deciding factors were things like space, privacy, parking, quiet, and outdoor access (and we even have an HOA that rakes the leaves and shovels snow!)
Like I said, it depends. Even the relative cost is hard to predict, depending on inflation and real estate prices.
So far, so good!
walkinwood
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
We are considering apartments as an option when we sell & move.
We have lived in apartments before (though not for the last 16 years), and think we could manage with the smaller space, the closeness of neighbours etc. We loved the convenience of not having any maintenance & the ability to lock & leave.
My biggest beef is the quality of the stove & exhaust in most apartments I have looked at online. We cook daily & love it. A lousy stove will be a significant and almost daily problem. This is not a problem in the high-end luxury apartments, but those are out of our price range for long term stay.
We have lived in apartments before (though not for the last 16 years), and think we could manage with the smaller space, the closeness of neighbours etc. We loved the convenience of not having any maintenance & the ability to lock & leave.
My biggest beef is the quality of the stove & exhaust in most apartments I have looked at online. We cook daily & love it. A lousy stove will be a significant and almost daily problem. This is not a problem in the high-end luxury apartments, but those are out of our price range for long term stay.
