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I've been looking for a simple hardwood desk/table like http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=19633&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuCategory=213&menuSubcategory=4Is is that reasonable a price for what I want? $1008 shipped for something that seems so simple just seems overpriced to me.
Duck and Cover fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Jan 23, 2012 |
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Jan 23, 2012 05:30
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dopaMEAN posted:I want to get one made of microsuede I think, since so far a cheap microsuede ottoman has gone unmolested by the cats. I have $500 to spend. BigLots looks like it might have some nice options made by Simmons, but I don't want to waste my money on a sofa that will have poor construction and I'm not sure if BigLots if trustworthy. I got microsuede for the same reason, but just FYI it is not all created equal. Mine holds up PRETTY well, like they're not going to tear it apart like they will a woven fabric, but little threads are poking out of it higgledy piggledy in the places they latch on to the most. I'm not sure how you'd know ahead of time whether you got the hardy kind of microsuede... Maybe just read a lot of reviews and look especially for ones by cat owners? :\ Mine are from American Signature. They're definitely cheap ($740ish for a couch & loveseat set) but they look pretty nice.
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Jan 23, 2012 22:57
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So my work status has gotten a little more fluid, and I'm in the situation where I'm working in one state but could be asked to move on short notice (less than a month) any time, and it may be an option I could be choosing depending how things work out. Aside from that, due to a few factors the lease-holder of my current apartment is moving, and I cannot take over the lease and will have to be finding myself a new place by March. I've been looking at local places and evaluating costs when time permits. One of my friends knew I was in a bind, mentioned it to their parents, and the parents are offering me to rent me their family home (that they've since moved out of but still own). I'm going to be sitting down with them later to work out all the details, but the rough overview of what they're offering is I'd pay them for rent whatever I'm paying now in my current apartment, they'll pay for the utilities other than TV/internet, and that I only have to commit to be there month-to-month in case I end up having to move on short notice. The caveats are I'll have to take care of the yard and lawn, and keep the property in reasonable shape (I believe they have a ~half acre). Also, they are currently using two rooms in the house for storage, and the garage is being used for storage of cars and winter storage of motorcycles by my friend. I'd have a master bedroom w/bath, living room, dining room, kitchen, and basement with washer and dryer. Basically it sounds like a sweet deal to me, more or less taking care of everything I was looking for in an apartment. My only nervousness/hesitation is I've only ever rented apartments from apartment complexes with standard Lease agreements, and this so far sounds like it would be a handshake situation for a house in which some parts of it are still a bit in use by my friend's family. I've known my friend for ~6 years now and have known the family off and on since then and trust them, but I was wondering if it would be smart to have some sort of general lease agreement we can both sign that outlines the rules and guidelines, ensures any state laws on landlords and renters apply, etc. Has anyone else had experience in this sort of situation? Are there particular concerns or lease agreements that I should be looking at that may have been taken care of by a rental company as a matter of course?
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Jan 24, 2012 21:18
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Getting some kind of basic lease agreement might be a good idea, yeah. I'd check with the Legal Megathread for that.
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Jan 24, 2012 21:48
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Getting some kind of basic lease agreement might be a good idea, yeah. I'd check with the Legal Megathread for that. Roger that! Thanks for the advice.
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Jan 24, 2012 22:35
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First thing to buy in an apartment... Bandaids. You will need them and not have them... Seriously.
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Jan 26, 2012 01:06
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Eurgh. Just got an amazingly passive-aggressive email from a flatmate who's changed her mind about moving out 8 times in a month and a half. The kicker is I still feel like a dick for calling her out on it... Even though a huge part of me wants her to take it badly and just leave already!
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Jan 26, 2012 11:05
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Blackbird Betty posted:Eurgh. Look for a new flatmate. Tell PassiveAggressiveGirl that NewPerson is moving in on MonthDay and she'll need to be out by then. Note: actual existence of new flatmate is optional.
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Jan 26, 2012 22:00
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I have been living with family for the past several years and wish to once again strike out on my own. The only issue is that at the moment I am unemployed, however due to a recent inheritance I do have a substantial amount of money in which to hopefully offset that minor detail. So my question is this; how likely is it that should I wish to live in a nice place that they'll let me live there if I can pay for the lease in its entirety up front in lieu of not having, for the moment, a monthly income? I'm afraid the fore-mentioned 'nicer' places will just think I'm a drug dealer or something and tell me to piss off. Anyone have any experience with this?
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Jan 28, 2012 19:59
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So I'm in the process of hunting for an apartment and seven for seven of the ads I contacted on craigslist in my area(Southern PA) were scams. Is Craigslist pretty much worthless or am I just unlucky?
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Jan 29, 2012 14:24
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It probably varies with area, but yea there are a lot of scams on craiglist. It isn't totally worthless, but you have to get used to filtering out the poo poo. If all the ads you are hitting up end up being scams, chances are that you are shopping under the market rate and so getting snagged by scammers low bait prices. When I use craiglist I set a lower bound to filter out spam.
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Jan 29, 2012 18:30
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TheKeeper posted:I have been living with family for the past several years and wish to once again strike out on my own. The only issue is that at the moment I am unemployed, however due to a recent inheritance I do have a substantial amount of money in which to hopefully offset that minor detail. Not a landlord, but... I would offer to bring a copy of your bank statement, not to pay the whole lease in advance. If you pay the whole thing in advance it leaves you up poo poo creek if something goes wrong or if you have to leave suddenly. You can offer to give a bigger security deposit or something, or pay maybe 2 or three months' rent upfront instead of just the first month. Kasonic posted:So I'm in the process of hunting for an apartment and seven for seven of the ads I contacted on craigslist in my area(Southern PA) were scams. Is Craigslist pretty much worthless or am I just unlucky? Yeah, what Ashcans said basically. I haven't had too many problems with scams when I have used craigslist, but I'm in a university area with tons of apartment turnover so maybe the scams just get drowned out. Keep on looking, but you might need to do more legwork (like literally walking around looking for for rent signs) in your area.
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Jan 29, 2012 21:22
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Duck and Cover posted:I've been looking for a simple hardwood desk/table like http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=19633&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuCategory=213&menuSubcategory=4Is is that reasonable a price for what I want? $1008 shipped for something that seems so simple just seems overpriced to me. Your link doesn't work.
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Jan 29, 2012 22:56
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2508084 posted:Your link doesn't work. I make no promise that this one will http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=19633&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuCategory=213&menuSubcategory=146 . Anyway it was the portica desk I was looking at and from what I could tell for real wood furniture you aren't going to get much cheaper. I went with http://www.laxseries.com/work_and_study/free-standing_desk.html in the end though.
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Jan 30, 2012 00:02
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Edit: sorry, wrong thread.
Huge Liability fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Jan 30, 2012 |
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Jan 30, 2012 06:51
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I'm moving from Toronto to New York in mid-June. I've never hunted for an apartment in a remote country (or even city), and it seems like a daunting task. Does anyone have any advice for this kind of situation?
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Jan 31, 2012 04:14
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I have a rather hate-filled review for google places that wrote for my current apartment but I'm not sure how to format it so its not a giant wall of text, it appears to ignore any line-breaks so I'm not sure what to do about that
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Jan 31, 2012 09:16
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Escher posted:I'm moving from Toronto to New York in mid-June. I've never hunted for an apartment in a remote country (or even city), and it seems like a daunting task. Does anyone have any advice for this kind of situation? This depends a lot on your budget and what you are looking for. You can hire an agent to look for a place for you, but that would be pretty pricy. You could use all the regular search tools and fly to New York to view apartments and sign a lease. That will also not be cheap (but cheaper than an agent). Lowest cost option is to find someone who is looking to sublet a room or studio for the summer - this will probably be a student who is out of town for the summer and planning to come back to their place in the fall. You take their sublet, and use those months to find a more permanent place. Your biggest challenge here is in getting past people's scam filters. When I moved from Atlanta to Boston, we spent a few weeks looking for stuff online, and set up a bunch of viewings for one week. My wife flew up to Boston for that week, looked at the half-dozen places, and picked one. It wasn't great, but it worked until we were actually in the city and could look around and make a better choice.
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Jan 31, 2012 15:42
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I haven't read the whole thread yet, it's only 8 pages, so I'll be getting to it after I finish this post, apologies if any of this has been repeated. First off, my current situation. Earlier this month I discovered that I can get paid a lot more for what I do somewhere else (I hate this town as is), and in a different industry (not aircraft), so I'm doing the only logical thing and skip town. I have to sign a new lease today on my current apartment (more on that later). I have obligations keeping me here until at least Mid-May, so I'll be signing a 6 month lease which will take me to the end of June, if I have to stay longer (which I might be until October, depending on some other circumstances) I'll just go with a month to month lease to avoid having to pay off the rest of my lease all at once. My main concerns with finding a new apartment are as such: A few years ago I was unemployed, and as a result my credit rating is in the toilet. At the moment I've been in my apartment for 6 years. It's the only apartment I've lived in so far. In the last month or two it appears that we've gotten a new manager, I had a good relationship with the old manager, and was surprised to find new management when I went in earlier this week to ask why I hadn't received a renewal notice yet. I guess I'm wondering if my leasing plan is a good idea (they didn't even give me any of my renewal information until yesterday, and I have to sign today, so I didn't get a chance to really mull it over), and if my credit and lack of relationship with the current management will be a hindrance to moving? I was going to ask about moving to a new city but it looks like Ashcans answered that one already.
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Jan 31, 2012 18:08
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It's standard to put your old landlords on apartment applications as references, but I do not know how common it is for potential landlords to actually follow them up. Your new management people ought to still have records etc. from the old management, so they should be able to see if you were ever late on rent, caused issues, etc. You could perhaps ask them to provide you with a short written statement attesting to yoru responsibility as a tenant to attach to your apps, so that you could have a positive reference ready to counteract the bad credit score. It can also help to tell potential landlords in advance that you have a bad credit score and it's due to x, not to being a lovely renter, and it's leftover stuff from years ago. Normally you could also show them paystubs to show that you have steady income coming in, but if you'd be moving before getting a job, that might be trickier (once you do get a job, you can show them a copy of your offer letter or contract or whatever has your salary on it). Basically, the more information you can give them about why you're a Solid Choice, the better. You will probably still get rejections, but that's life.
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Jan 31, 2012 18:51
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My experience is that the first thing most landlords do is a credit check. If that comes back great, they'll take a look at your employment information (I have always had to provide my job, how long I've been there, and my salary). If that checks out within their comfort levels, they'll probably just take you without bothering with references. Now, if you stumble on one of those two hurdles (and it sounds like you'll fall down on the credit check) they'll start checking in with your references to get a better idea of what sort of person you are. Usually past landlords, but also credit references and personnel references (if they ask and if you give them - saying no looks a little bad here). I agree with Eggplant that you are usually best of owning up to this stuff at the front end. If you tell someone 'Hey, I had some bad luck, I lost my job and had to do X, and so my credit is bad. But I have been a good tenant at this place for six years, I have a good job, here are my references' they are much more likely to give you a chance than if they turn up that lovely credit themselves. You may also have better luck trying to find somewhere managed by the owner and not a property manager/corporate apartments. The latter are much more likely to have a set policy on credit, etc, that the guy looking at your application can't waive. If you can deal directly with an owner, they can do whatever they feel like (such as cutting you a break).
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Jan 31, 2012 19:16
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How should I clean painted walls? Theyre not a shiny finish paint, looks acrylic..?
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Feb 2, 2012 06:32
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Veg posted:How should I clean painted walls? Theyre not a shiny finish paint, looks acrylic..? Latex wall paint(definitely the kind on your drywall) comes in a spectrum of gloss types - flat, matte, semi gloss, high gloss. This is how shiny it is. If you have a poorly spackled room, lower gloss helps bumps and scrapes not be so obvious, but maybe doesn't look as nice. It's still the same type of paint, and can be cleaned the same way. Warm soapy water.
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Feb 2, 2012 09:54
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RobBorer posted:Latex wall paint(definitely the kind on your drywall) comes in a spectrum of gloss types - flat, matte, semi gloss, high gloss. This is how shiny it is. If you have a poorly spackled room, lower gloss helps bumps and scrapes not be so obvious, but maybe doesn't look as nice. It's still the same type of paint, and can be cleaned the same way. And a nice bottle of elbow grease, thank you
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Feb 2, 2012 11:02
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Hey everyone, this is kind of a random question but I think it fits here. MY GIRLFRIEND and I are planning to move in together sometime in the near future - luckily we're both on month-to-month leases so we are fairly flexible about when this actually happens. My question is if anyone has advice on planning for this move. I'm not talking relationship-wise (since that would be more of an e/n question), but purely stuff/apartment-wise. We're both mid/late 20's and as a result have accumulated a lot of the necessities for living like a grown-up. I'm on my own now and she still lives with roommates. I guess what I'm wondering, is what are some strategies we can take to work on starting to combine/pare down the stuff we have (so we don't overlap and have 2 of everything when moving in), plan for what we might need in the new place (for example - dressers/storage/etc enough for 2 people instead of 1), and generally get ready to make this happen. Maybe I'm overthinking it and it's just as simple as "make a list of what each of you have, eliminate the duplicates, see what's missing" but figured this might be a good spot to ask for advice from people that have done this before.
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Feb 3, 2012 07:53
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Clevername Lookhere posted:Maybe I'm overthinking it and it's just as simple as "make a list of what each of you have, eliminate the duplicates, see what's missing" but figured this might be a good spot to ask for advice from people that have done this before. That'll be a good start, yep. This may be more on the E/N side of things, but before you sign a lease, make sure you're both clear on how payment for things is going to be divided (50/50? Does one of you make more than the other and want to pay more? etc.). Don't let it just work itself out. Another thing to do is talk about household chores. And this is pretty pessimistic, but JUST IN CASE poo poo doesn't work out, I wouldn't hurry to give away the extra TV or other expensive items. You may also find that one of you really really their your couch and wants to keep it, and the other person hates it and can't wait to never see it again. So be prepared. It might also go super well with no hiccups! It can happen!
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Feb 3, 2012 15:05
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Something else to keep in mind is whether your new place has storage. When my girlfriend and I moved in, the place had a pretty big storage shed, so we could store some dupicate stuff there sort of 'in case'. It was a nice option to have, especially for things we weren't sure would work in the house but didn't want to abandon without trying. Making a list is a good place to start, yea. There are some things that you really don't need in duplicates (dining tables, couches) and others that can be handy to have more of (bookshelves, dressers, tvs if you feel like you want one in your bedroom, for instance). Some of this you can work out in advance, but some of it will probably have to wait until you know where you are moving and can work around the layout/space. Definitely have a conversation about which dresser is going to be the first to hit the curb if they both won't fit, stuff like that.
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Feb 3, 2012 15:38
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Eggplant Wizard posted:And this is pretty pessimistic, but JUST IN CASE poo poo doesn't work out, I wouldn't hurry to give away the extra TV or other expensive items. You may also find that one of you really really their your couch and wants to keep it, and the other person hates it and can't wait to never see it again. So be prepared. A good way to avoid this problem is to not buy major items together. Rent and utilities? Sure, go halvsies on those, but don't split the cost of the tv or the couch you decide to get, even if it means you have to wait longer to get them because you'll have to save up individually.
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Feb 3, 2012 16:14
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Eggplant Wizard posted:That'll be a good start, yep. This is very solid advice. I did the same thing with my girlfriend (pre-planning/writing out) who is responsible for what with rent and all. You are kidding yourself if you think doing it last minute or once you get there will be easy. It's not. Also I had my initial stuff with Comcast business go through without a hitch. I am very happy in my decision since I've been able to speak to a live rep with ease each time I've called and scheduling my installation and everything has been extremely easy compared to when I had to deal with their residential/consumer services.
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Feb 3, 2012 17:38
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Eggplant Wizard posted:That'll be a good start, yep. I'm going to recommend treating it like a roommate situation at first. So get a second bedroom for that first year, you'll need your own space from time to time. If one of you has a couch with a hide-a-bed, put that in there so it can double as a rumpus room and guest bedroom. Put your extra (inferior) TV, dresser, what have you in there.
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Feb 3, 2012 17:48
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Boondock Saint posted:Also I had my initial stuff with Comcast business go through without a hitch. I am very happy in my decision since I've been able to speak to a live rep with ease each time I've called and scheduling my installation and everything has been extremely easy compared to when I had to deal with their residential/consumer services. Make sure the tech knows it's a commercial installation if you're getting it installed in an apartment (otherwise they'll mark it as a residential line at the box), and you'll need a wireless router/AP (if you use wifi) as the unit they'll give you will likely be wired-only.
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Feb 3, 2012 18:44
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grumperfish posted:This was one of the major reasons I decided to get business class instead of residential. After spending a year with residential comcast and then 2 years with AT&T DSL/UVerse I was pretty fed-up with lovely customer support (AT&T's billing division is the worst I've ever seen), so it was worth it for me to spend a bit more for better/more-reliable service. Thanks for the advice. I've got a wireless router thankfully so that's all taken care of, I guess now the only thing I need to mention to the tech is that it's a commercial account. I'm going to be living in a mid-rise apartment building so I want to make sure they mark the line correctly. One nice thing is that they are giving me a Saturday installation which I've never had the option of going with before with either Verizon or Cox. So it makes my move that much easier.
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Feb 3, 2012 19:14
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Thanks for the advice all - very helpful. I'd like to think we are beyond the point of "just in case", but I like the idea of having extra storage space to store some of our major stuff "just in case" something happens to us, or even more likely, in case like you guys said below, we decide we want to save the extra stuff in case we need it, the TV breaks, furniture or stuff wears down or doesn't survive the move, etc. The extra room idea is also key - we're definitely looking for at least an extra den/bedroom so we can have some additional space to personalize, host guests, have alone time, that kind of thing. Would also be a good spot for our extra dresser, storage, etc since right now it doesn't seem like either of our dressers could accommodate all of our stuff but we couldn't really fit them both in the same bedroom unless it's huge (plus they don't match). I think that the discussions about money, chores, decoration, whose stuff will be first to go, and all that will also be a very good thing to clear up ahead of time. I've always been more laid back and assumed it will just work itself out, but that makes me realize that the more of that stuff we can figure out before we move in, the less stress we'll have to worry about on top of the normal moving in stress, adjustment of living together, etc.
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Feb 3, 2012 23:50
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Computer paper boxes make the best moving boxes. They're sturdy, they don't have a seam on the bottom that can rip, and they come with lids. If you know someone who works in an office, ask them to grab a few for you, they are great. Does anyone have experience with moving cats across long distances? We're moving around 900 miles, with a planned stop at the halfway point. Will they be ok in their carriers for 8 hours at a time? Will we need to stop and let them out in the car to use the litterbox?
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Feb 4, 2012 18:19
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witherlegs posted:Computer paper boxes make the best moving boxes. They're sturdy, they don't have a seam on the bottom that can rip, and they come with lids. If you know someone who works in an office, ask them to grab a few for you, they are great. When we moved from AZ to IL we got our cats a large dog carrier that was big enough to hold both them and the litter box. Initially we tried to let our cat who wasn't terrified roam the car, but she kept trying to escape when we would stop at gas stations. We left them in their carrier for most of the trip and only let them out in the hotel room. They were fine.
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Feb 4, 2012 18:27
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Yeah, don't let cats out in-transit, you will lose them. Large crate, small litterbox (you can use an aluminum roasting pan or something), and a bowl that clips to the side for water. If you know they don't do well in the car or stress easily you can talk to your vet prior to moving about some options to keep them calm. We had to dope up our old cat on ACE every time we had to take her somewhere.
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Feb 5, 2012 09:03
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witherlegs posted:Does anyone have experience with moving cats across long distances? We're moving around 900 miles, with a planned stop at the halfway point. Will they be ok in their carriers for 8 hours at a time? Will we need to stop and let them out in the car to use the litterbox? RabbitMage posted:Yeah, don't let cats out in-transit, you will lose them.
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Feb 5, 2012 09:51
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witherlegs posted:Computer paper boxes make the best moving boxes. They're sturdy, they don't have a seam on the bottom that can rip, and they come with lids. If you know someone who works in an office, ask them to grab a few for you, they are great. A thousand times this. My wife and I have way too many books, and the only reasonable way to move them all is in paper boxes. Right now I have a dozen stacked up and we'll probably need another five or six.  They are amazing for pretty much everything, though, they're really durable and just about the perfect dimensions for carrying.Next best is liquor store boxes, but they're slightly smaller than you really want (unless you are packing some heavy stuff)
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Feb 6, 2012 15:50
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I'm trying to determine how it would be living on $860 a month, rent/utilities/gas included. Rent, gas, pets, etc. is going to take $1040 and I make $1600/mo, sometimes $2000 depending on the work. I really have very little idea how much things like laundry, food (cooking at home), toilet paper and household essentials and all that cost. I'll be living in the north Long Beach (CA) area, so if anyone has any basic guidelines it'd be appreciated. I'd stop eating out pretty much all but like once a week once I'm paying for all of my own food, and I eat things like... egg burritos and chicken breasts and poo poo. I can make a dozen eggs, a bell pepper and a package of flour tortillas go a long way.
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Feb 6, 2012 18:53
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bobula posted:I'm trying to determine how it would be living on $860 a month, rent/utilities/gas included. Rent, gas, pets, etc. is going to take $1040 and I make $1600/mo, sometimes $2000 depending on the work. What? Did you mean excluded?
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Feb 6, 2012 19:23
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