September 26, 2005

• What's new, what's new... Apartment Hunting anyone?

  Well I officially began apartment hunting over the weekend. I know this
  is going to be a daunting task and my father has been supportive of it
  (always has), my grandmother as well (but I need to get out more and
  stop being addicted to games)... My mother on the other hand, I haven't
  told her yet.

  See that's the thing, she always says that I should stick around and I
  know that she is worried about losing me, etc etc. But doesn't a
  mother's love last forever? I'm sure she understands this and just
  doesn't want to let me go, but I'm just sick and tired of being told to
  do this and that. I'm not 13, I'm not 10, I'm not 18.... 26 and
  counting and I cannot just keep living here, eventhough I am paying
  rent.

  But this weekend took the cake for me.  Friday night I'm raiding
  MC till 1am (we cleared the 6 bosses, although I wasn't in on the full
  raid until the very last one) I was DL'din Farscape all of the seasons
  and just generically leveling up. She was just constantly saying, it's
  this time in the morning or this time at night, shut it off... W.T.F. I
  set aside this time because 1) I had nothing else better to do. 2) It's
  a scheduled event and I had nothing else better to do.

  Saturday morning, I cut the lawn at 9am. Four hours later (and I'm in
  the middle of a ST Mage quest run) she asks me to go into town pick up
  what I thought was a big bottle of floor hardener for the floor. It
  turned out to be a small bottle (like what you would use to dye one's
  hair). It took me an hour to get back. So I called her and asked, when
  she knew about it. She said, what did that matter. Before I could blurt
  out explictives (I calmed down) and said, if she knew eariler, then I
  could of gone after the grass was cut.

  Saturday night, MC Raid we killed Majordomo Executus and were up until
  2:30am, she was still constantly bitching at me for being up that
  late.  Before that, Dave and Jenn called asking if I wanted to go
  to a Stag and Doe party. They called as they were driving out of town
  towards my area. I usually like a day or two warning on an event like
  that, so I politely passed. Meanwhile, Jenn in the background was
  saying: You never want to hang out with us anymore.... No Jenn, I don't
  want to hang out with you anymore because you are a 'negative person'
  that is constantly trying to put me down and I don't give a shit about
  you. Dave on the other hand, will have his hands full... let us bow our
  heads in prayer, anyhow...

  If anything I just wanted to sit relax and since the weather wasn't
  great and rainy outside, I stayed in and saved money and played WoW.

  Honestly it is not like I am a fricking recluse. I workout. Play golf
  (when I can). I cook for myself. I enjoy going out on weekends (if I
  lived in the city I know I'd go out more).

  So Apartment hunting I went.
  
  
  I printed off a few places and called and left messages at others. My
  price range is not totally limited, but fair. I just want a nice place
  that is safe, clean, close to places like restaurants and has high
  speed DSL internet. I don't care about Cable TV and I don't need much
  of a phone. If anything I'll decorate in the japanese manner because
  they have great simplistic taste, and know how to save space as well.

  I called up my dad and told him that I started looking at
  apartments.  He's been living in apartments most of his life so
  his knowledge is very helpful. I'll post what he sent me below.

  So, I called up my first aparment landlord, and was able to view the
  apartment that same day at two. I arrived and knew immediately that
  this was not a good neighbourhood. When you have a family of 6 in a
  corner house with 3 vans and a pitbull with loads of tattoos smoking
  pot on the front porch, to me says: WARNING!

  But undaunted, I went to this tri-plex and it was the top right
  apartment. Let's put it this way, my room in which I sleep is 8' wide
  by 16' long... Split my bedroom in thirds and that was the size of this
  apartment. But for $450 a month, and parking in an alley... it's all a
  learning experience... that's what I keep telling myself.

  So I look at my answering machine today and two LL (Landlords) that I
  called, called me back. I'll have to make appointments with them to see
  their places.
  ---------------

  Utilities

  Renters have to pay for the
  electricity (also called “hydro” because you get it from the hydro company) they
  use so when you get an apartment you have to contact the hydro company (is it
  still called city Hydro?) and asked to be connected.  They set up an account
  and then send a bill every one or two months for the electricity you use. 
  Usually this includes the electricity for the hot water heater and usually there
  is a charge for renting the hot water heater if the landlord doesn’t own it as
  part of the building.  Electricity, including that used for making hot water,
  isn’t that much on a monthly basis and it depends on usage.  What really impacts
  the hydro bill is if there is an air conditioner so in the summer the bill will
  increase.  Also, if the apartment is heated by electric base board heaters (like
  mine) then the bill gets bigger in the winter.   My apartment does not retain
  heat well so for November through March I will see hydro bills of about
  $150/month, sometimes more.  For April, May and June my hydro bill will be about
  $50/month (basically lights, stove and hot water).  The same for September and
  October.  For July and August when I use the air conditioner at night I will see
  hydro bills about  $75/ month, sometimes less if it is not too
  hot.

  Try to find someplace that is not
  heated by electricity but if it is you should budget about $100/month
  recognizing that some months will be more, some less.   During the high usage
  months you will want to keep a little extra in the bank account so that a big
  bill won’t cause trouble.  Your place as well as your old place and
  Grandma’s etc are heated by a forced air furnace that operates on oil or gas. 
  This is cheaper than electricity.  Ask the landlord how the place is heated and
  what the monthly hydro bills are usually.  If the place is not heated by
  electricity ask what the heating bill usually is.

  Telephone

  Some people include telephone when
  they talk about utilities.  I don’t and tend to think of it as a separate item. 
  Nevertheless, the tenant is responsible for getting the apartment phone hook-up
  with Bell and then paying the
  monthly bill.  Whether you get a conventional telephone hook-up or not is up to
  you.  You may want to forgo that type of hook-up and just use your cell for
  people to call and leave messages.  It costs me about $35/month for the standard
  Bell hook-up plus any long
  distance charges.  I don’t have any internet connection so my phone is just the
  standard old-fashioned phone hook-up.

  Cable TV
  Internet

  Another monthly expense will be
  whatever cable TV internet connection you get and whether this connection is
  separate from the phone hook-up.  My cable TV bill (no internet, just the basic
  Rogers package) is $55/month.
   Some of the high-rise apartment buildings will give you free cable TV so you
  have to ask.  Also some buildings may not have high-speed internet cable
  capability.  You can see that the cable/TV/internet/phone/cell phone combination
  can really add up in a hurry if you don’t think it through. 

  Insurance

  Depending on what is in the
  apartment you may want to get insurance to cover the loss due to a fire or
  theft.  Usually the company that does your car insurance will handle a tenant’s
  package as well.  This will cost about $250/year and you can usually arrange for
  a monthly automatic bank account withdrawal.  These packages also provide what
  is called liability coverage which would kick in if someone is injured in your
  apartment and sues you (example, you open the door and your guest comes in and
  trips on the carpet and breaks his arm and then sues you – no fault of your own,
  just an accident but the insurance pays.  Or as happened to me one time, the
  bathtub overflowed and caused water damage in the apartment below.  Those people
  got mad at me (just an accident, sorry, I said) but they filed a claim for a new
  bed and some stuff and my insurance protected me against the financial
  loss.)

  Parking

  Check to see if parking is included
  in the rent.

  All
  of these things add up, as you can see, with the hydro bill and the
  telephone/internet/cable/TV thing making up the most of it.  You
  can lower that amount by finding something that will keep the hydro
  bill low (an apartment heated by something other than electric
  baseboards like forced air furnace like your house and your old
  place.  Also when you look at apartments ask questions about how
  the place is heated and what the monthly hydro charges usually are,
  what the monthly heating bills are).  You could consider a place
  with no air conditioning, but I would not suggest that because it gets
  too hot during the summer to be without it.  Also, think through
  the telephone/cell phone/TV/cable/internet thing as you will likely be
  able to find some combination that costs less. 

  The more apartments you see the
  better idea you will get as to how much more beyond monthly rent you are likely
  to have to pay.  Also the more you see the better able you will be to figure out
  all these combinations of costs etc. 

  -----------------

  So that's about it. But I am curious, please tell me your apartment
  hunting and/or living stories when you first got your own apartment. I
  might be able to learn something.

  Vx Out

  • 5:43 pm
  • 2 Comments