I did it. I dropped a $1200 check yesterday as a deposit for my new home and picked up my new keys. It scared me. I don't like that kind of commitment on an iffy situation. But, I couldn't ask for a better shared living situation. I'm not thrilled about the shared living with strangers bit, especially 3 of them. But, as I reflected on my past roommate situations, if there is a problem then it's better to have other people around to diffuse the situation. Living with one person you don't like alone is worse than living with one person you don't like and some other people you do like.
It's a pretty sweet deal. 4 of us share the whole 3-story house in Brooklyn, in the Crown Heights area. The bottom floor is common space with the living room and kitchen and dining space. Then on the second and third floors are the bedrooms, two on each floor with a bathroom between them. So I'll only share a bathroom with one person. I have a big bedroom, the girls are ok with my cats and they don't smoke. They're a little bohemian, they'd rather have pillows than furniture in the living room, but that's better than living with a princess. Now I'm just waiting to hear from the guy who let me store my things in his empty house--to see when I can go get them. I also have to find a place to rent a truck since I refuse to EVER use U-Haul again, due to the 4-hour drama I had last time waiting for them to send a mechanic out to start the truck.
This is a good deal for me because I'm lazy. I don't want to have to produce the paperwork these landlord's require in addition to producing the same paperwork from my father in Florida. They want employment letters with salary information, credit reports, references, bank statements and I don't know what else. And if I moved into my own place then I'd have to pay to turn on all the utilities and my rent would be about 650-750 and would be exceptionally small or in a violent neighborhood. I'm paying 600 a month for my new place. My buddy said that's the lowest rent he's heard of anyone paying in Brooklyn. That's because the house isn't in the hipster-land part of Brooklyn.
I'm excited. My room faces the street so I'll get some sunlight instead of a view of the brick wall like I had before. We have our own stoop. And now I won't live above the barber shop that just re-opened after getting closed by police order for selling drugs on the premises. I don't mind the drug selling but the loud R&B music from 10 am to 10 pm got very annoying.
I dropped off my old keys this morning. So in a few days time I can get back to whining about more interesting things in life, men.
Read about the Three Degrees of Glory of New York City over at Times and Seasons here
Come back for more TRUE stories of the strange, sad and pathetic exploits of me not having sex in the city.
