Apartment Search

my friend jane and i found an apartment yesterday in cambridge, marking a major milestone in a long saga. we decided to get a place together last september. in december, her landlord told her and her roommates that they had to move out by february because he had sold the building. it was the end of an era. that apartment, the 'house with the red door', had been a low rent haven in a city with skyrocketing housing costs since 1997. i lived there from summer 1997 to summer 1998, and for the summers of 1999 and 2000.

by the end, it was falling apart. the landlord had already redone the bathroom because it literally began to rot from the inside out. jane even hated living there by the end because the grime of the years had made it dingy and unpleasant. even so, it was incredibly sad when she had to move out. all of us who lived there have years of memories attached to that place.

the balcony was the best feature of all. it overlooked a local ballfield where endless baseball games took place in the summer. we were on the third floor and no one else used their balconies, so it was a semi-private outside living room. i used to work all hours of the night out there. i miss the good old 90's groovy internet job boom.

i never imagined i'd live in such a place again when i upgraded my lifestyle following the procurement of a comfortable office job at a local pharmaceutical company. however, i have returned to student status and my budget is meager. thus, i have returned to those jewels in the rough -- cheap apartments in the cambridge area.

central square was the ideal compromise for both of us. i go to umass, and she attends bu. we both have lived in the neighborhood there for years and loved it. jane did not want to move to somerville or dorchester, two other cheaper neighborhoods that offered me easy access to my school and somewhat less easy access to bu. she was a sport about it though and agreed to consider apartments there.

two days ago, i found an ad for a two bedroom apartment for $1050 a month, a good $400 dollars cheaper than most other two bedrooms in that location. when we went to look at it, it became clear why it was so cheap. the building is *ancient*. the floor is warped beyond reasoning in the kitchen. the bathroom contains a tub that must be at least 40 years old. the stove likewise appears to hail from an earlier era.

however, there were no scents of mold and rot. the ceilings appeared to be clean and undamaged by leaks. the floor, despite being warped, appeared to be in good condition -- dry and sturdy. there are two rooms with beautiful hardwood flooring, but one of the bedrooms has what appears to be 40 year old linoleum tiles. it's really quite kitch. essentially we are moving into an apartment right out of the 1960s. the building itself must be some 40 years older than that.

to be truthful, it's in better condition than the house with the red door. it doesn't directly face the street because it's tucked behind other buildings. we have access to a semi-private yard, and all the major appliances work. i tested all the sinks and the toilet and all of them functioned properly. so, we wrote a deposit check and went out to celebrate.