HOUSEMATE SEARCH

[letterblade]

Yup, it's that time of the year. Please feel free to signal boost!

tl:dr; Twenty-something woman in Watertown looking for short-term housemate, starting September 1st. 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, all appliances, storage, porches, awesomeness. $775 + utilities.

So here's the situation: My current housemate, fiddle_dragon, is moving out this September to live with her fiance in Natick. I would really like to keep the lease on this place. But to do that, I'm going to need someone to split it with. (And a two-bedroom on my own would be a little weird.)

My girlfriend, mllelaurel, wants to move in with me, and I want her to move in with me. But due to a set of circumstances that's not mine to explain, she won't be able to move in for at least six months after September.

So ideally, I'd be able to find someone to share the place with for just six months or a year. This might be great for somebody who's just moving to Boston and wants a short-term place while they look for long-term. Or somebody who just likes moving around a lot. Or whatever your reasons might be.

IT'S AWESOME.

Yeah, I know, you want more detail than that.

Two not-small bedrooms, one bathroom, large kitchen with plenty of cabinet space, living room, dining room, and a small side room which is being used as a craft room. Nigh-infinite storage space in the attic (though unheated/uncooled, so not for the temperature sensitive stuff.) Small front porch, large back porch. YUP, TWO PORCHES ISN'T THIS AWESOME.

Dishwasher, disposal, free washer and dryer in basement. (As well as a working fridge. Hey, with my past, I have to ask.) Gas stove for you cooking people. Hardwood floors everywhere.

Location: Watertown, off of Mount Auburn, pleasant residential neighborhood, trees everywhere. This is part of a house, not an apartment brick. Free on-street parking during summer, and there will be a garage spot available as well. Bus stop at the bottom of the street for the 71, which runs straight to Harvard and is fairly reliable by MBTA bus standards, at least in my experience. A ten-minute walk from the 73, which is more reliable, but goes to the same place.

If at all possible, I am going to negotiate a cat or two with the landlord, as I want some damn cats in my life already. If you are, like, deathly allergic and otherwise perfectly suited, I will hang my head and spend another six months to a year poaching other people's kitties for pets.

Okay, so first a bit about me, in case this gets signal-boosted beyond my journal. I'm a twenty-something female geek who likes writing all sorts of things, running LARPs, being in musicals, and doing all sorts of random crazy creative things. I can be a bit of a flake sometimes (my brain chemistry's annoying), but I can usually hold it together. Somebody living with me would have to be bi/poly/kinky friendly, and okay with the fact that I have small groups of people over for quiet gatherings once or twice a week, and my girlfriend mllelaurel over about every other day.

My ideal housemate would be somebody who is at least a little bit geeky, and who is friendly enough to hang out with and maybe watch movies with or something, but not omg-we-are-a-family codependent. I like to be somewhere in the middle of the ships-passing-in-the-night to family-codependent spectrum. Also, I do sometimes get introvert-shocked, so please be patient if that happens.

Concerning mess: I am a somewhat messy though not horribly messy person. I find it pretty hard to keep things at a neat-freak level of clean. My ideal circumstance is that public areas (I don't give a crap about private rooms) are in a state where half an hour to an hour's work, at any point, could tidy them up to being highly presentable. I am pretty chill about other people's messes; you pretty much have to get to the no-usable-tablespace-at-all point to even mildly annoy me, and that's only because I'll be zombieing about looking for somewhere to put my laptop and morning coffee.

I don't know what my landlord's prefs on this are, so I'll default to non-smoking; though if you're interested and a light smoker who is willing to smoke on porches, I can ask.

Rent: $1550 total, $775 for you.

Standard utilities: Appx. $180 total, $90 for you. (That's an estimate; hopefully I'll be able to get on the same utilities plans as fiddle_dragon; does not include cable, as I never watch TV.)

Oil heat: Ehehehehehe, it's oil heat. :( I'd be aiming to keep the place fairly cool to keep costs down, and fiddle_dragon suggested a monthly refill plan to keep down the oh-god-we-need-like-three-quarters-of-a-tank-OW-MY-WALLET syndrome. And I honestly don't remember how much we were losing to the monthly plan. $100-$200 a month, maybe, and then split two ways?

Snow removal: During the winter, if there's snow, the landlord has guys come around and shovel it. Which is super-nice for getting out of the driveway, and costs...monies. Again, I don't remember the exact details. It's trivial for a small storm, but I remember dropping like $100-plus on my share of snow removal for the MASSIVE REPEATED SNOWFALL this winter.

So basically approximately $875 with utilities, plus random amounts of money during the winter.

Comments

[zeyr.livejournal.com]

FYI, the snow removal is contracted by the downstairs neighbor, not the landlord. :) But otherwise the snow removal info you have is 100% accurate.

Echoing the fact that the place is very nice and a good price for the area.

[fiddledragon]

That sounds about right for both oil and snow removal. The oil got split two ways - the snow removal was split three ways with the lady downstairs...and is entirely dependent upon when she manages to get the bill to us.

[fiddledragon]

And yet another note. I have loved this apartment since the moment I set foot in it on first viewing. The lady downstairs is *extremely* quiet and easygoing. The neighbors are amazing. The grounds are immaculately kept by the landlord.

Trust me - if zeyr and I weren't about to get married, wired_lizard wouldn't be making this post.

[yendi]

A couple of other notes about the location: It's a nice walk (or a insanely short drive) from Watertown Square, which has some good eats (including two gluten-free places), assorted shopping and coffee places, a 24-hour CVS, and a library with a ludicrous amount of manga.

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

I x-posted to my facebook. I sort of realized after that I should have asked permission first. I hope it is okay anyway.

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

contradictacat has a list of people searching for housing here (http://contradictacat.livejournal.com/563905.html). If I think of anybody else, I'll let you know!

[tenshikurai9.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately not in a position to look nor would have the money.