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August 04, 2004
Long-haired brunette with sparkling credit report
I've started looking at apartment listings for real now that the Lad and I have only a month to find our dream home. Surfing craigslist every day with a very limiting set of parameters to work with is like commuting to work on MUNI. You recognize most of the people around you from the previous days; sure, every day there are one or two new faces and one or two people who aren't around anymore, but mainly it's the same crowd. The difference (apart from all the obvious differences) is that on MUNI, a regularly-seen face means respectability, someone who goes to a job every day and can be assumed to have a reasonable degree of cleanliness and sanity. On craigslist, a listing you've seen every day for weeks, maybe even being re-listed sometimes with a new rent amount or description, is probably neither respectable nor clean.
It gets me down, I freely admit it. I haven't had to find a place with someone else since I lived in Santa Cruz, and then we just took the only place in town that we could afford. Now there are more complex requirements on both sides and sometimes I wonder if we will ever find something we can both live with. I mean, it's been three days and still nothing. When I'm really depressed, I head over to the missed connections section. I figure it never hurts to cover all my bases; if the Lad and I can't find an apartment together then maybe I can find a new boyfriend to live with, someone who saw me reading Anais Nin on the train and will describe me as "long-haired brunette beauty with sparkling eyes." Or maybe some landlord will post for me:
Girl walking past Squat & Gobble on Tuesday night (landlord 4 w)
You: ponytail, paperback, strut. Me: hardwood floors, central Castro location, under $1700. Email me. This could be the beginning of a beautiful tenancy.
Posted by didofoot at August 4, 2004 09:10 AM
Comments
Nod. I think you should start applying this housing-as-romance philosophy in earnest in your search. Now get off of Cementhorizon and go seduce yourself a nice flat somewhere.
Posted by: Dianna at August 4, 2004 09:58 AM
Without craigslist, I would never have found the new hellhole I'm living in. At least I can get to Shamai's place without my feet ever touching the ground.
Posted by: brain green at August 4, 2004 04:41 PM
you live with shamai?!
Posted by: michele at August 4, 2004 04:50 PM
i mean in the same apartment building.
Posted by: michele at August 4, 2004 04:50 PM
Well, it's a different building, but it's on the same block. Theoretically, we could walk over the rooftops.
Posted by: brain green at August 4, 2004 07:58 PM
Gene said you guys looked at a really cool place, and that you might be getting it. True?
I think that's ideal. Keep the lad, get the pad.
but stay close. We need you to remain a part of the castro commune. It wouldn't be right otherwise.
Posted by: kati at August 7, 2004 10:04 PM
fuck Craigslist. We tried that shit for months...janky landlords, janky flats...before Jane finally bit the $90 bullet and paid for a house-finding service (renttech? other?). We took the very first place we saw, high-fived and began painting everything orange...
Posted by: kt at August 8, 2004 04:11 PM
Craigslist redeems itself now and again. It got me an apartment, two roommates I actually liked, a job, and three matching rugs for $25.
I leave it up to you to decide whether the price refers to the rugs or the entire list.
Posted by: Dianna at August 8, 2004 04:50 PM
i got my apartment thru craigslist too and it is super sweet. and jolie got all of season 1 of 'the l word' from it, and i appreciated that.
Posted by: michele at August 8, 2004 05:19 PM
Craigslist worked for us in SF, but I agree with KT that money invested in housefinding services is money well spent. Jack found our place and I didn't lift a damn finger, but I think CL helped him.
Presumably, the hallways of Ward Street D are still orange, unless something terrible has happened.
Kristen, I think you should hold out for a place between Noe and Castro, and 17th and 15th.
Posted by: sean at August 9, 2004 02:47 AM
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