Apartment opening in nearby Porter Square (x-post)

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Cross-posted to many Boston and Camberville groups, as well as my personal LJ.

Singularity, our amazing Porter Square apartment, is looking for one more friendly, responsible, geeky housemate to fill out the apartment as of 9/1/2009! Do those terms fit you or someone you know? If so, please contact us!



The Apartment
As mentioned, Singularity is a gorgeous second floor apartment in the heart of Porter Square. We've lived here in some configuration or another for something like seven years now, and have an excellent relationship with the landlord. Presently, the rent in the rooms opening up ranges from high 600s to mid 700s a month.

More about the apartment . . .

• Location - The house is on a quiet tree-lined street off of Elm Street, the main thoroughfare between Porter and Davis Square. The walk from here to Porter is a bit over five minutes.
• Space and Amenities - We have a nice-sized living room and dining room, a big kitchen with modern amenities including a fairly new stove and a dishwasher, and a free washer and dryer in the basement. We also have two porches in good repair that have served us well in social situations.
• Furnishings - Most of the common rooms will be pre-furnished with our things, but we'd love additions to the place! Come see; it's pretty swank.
• Landlord - The landlord only owns this property. He's kind, respectful, attentive, timely and cares a lot about his tenants; he's offered us a lower rent (the price listed is the lower price) than he would offer to new people, and he's had us over for dinner a few times in the seven years we've lived here.
• Geekery - The apartment would come with everything we own, including a full entertainment system (with Playstation III, XBox 360 with Rock Band 2, and Wii), a laser printer and tons of board / card games, and wired and wireless Internet options.
• Misc. - No pets. No smoking, even on the porches; you'll be asked to do it on the curb.

The Tenants
We're all young professionals (a coder, and an admin for a video game company) or graduate students (in library science). We all enjoy the arts (acting, writing), cooking, recreational gaming (board / card games and so on) and general puttering around on the Internet. We also have individual interests: Beobai likes cooking, rigel is (temporarily) part of a work a capella group, and so on.


You!
We're looking for someone who . . .

• Pays rent and other bills on time, and takes responsibility for managing the cost breakdown of one utility in the house.
• Keeps the apartment clean. We're not obsessive about it, but we like to think of our place as a home as much as possible, and that includes keeping it tidy. Feel free to check our posted chores list for more information.
• Is open-minded! There's a reasonable amount of bi/gay and/or poly within our housemate set, and we prefer to live with people who are comfortable with that.
• Is communicative. We try to address any house concerns in a forthright, tactful manner that respects everyone's perspectives, and we expect the same behavior from our housemates.
• Preferably, is geeky and somewhat social. If you prefer to keep to yourself or aren't into what we're into, that's totally fine. But we welcome those who indulge in our hobbies and would enjoy our occasional get-togethers.

So, that's us. If this sounds like your cup of tea, please feel free to reply to us here or ask us for an e-mail address at which to contact us. Thanks for reading, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Comments

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

I think it's considered discriminatory to specify "no children" in a housing ad.

Really?

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Looks like you'd prefer for people with children to waste their time and go check it out, so they can be turned down anyway. Nice logic.

[rigel.livejournal.com]

On the practical end, we simply don't have a child-friendly house. Our outlets aren't protected, for one, and we'd have to do a lot of shuffling around (and probably asking permission of the landlord) to make the house child-friendly.

On the more esoteric end . . . I'm not the landlord. I'm a tenant indicating an opening in an apartment. I'm pretty sure the Massachusetts Fair Housing statute (http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocamodulechunk&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Licensee&L2=Division+of+Professional+Licensure+Boards&L3=Board+of+Registration+of+Real+Estate+Brokers+%26+Salespersons&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=dpl_boards_re_conted_re19rc01_fairhousing&csid=Eoca) specifically applies to the person renting/leasing the apartment, which I'm not. I'm also speaking to a strong preference rather than a requirement.

That said, I've edited the wording to indicate it's a preference.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

I love how it's perfectly okay to say "no pets," but say "no children" and it's OMG notify the authorities! time.

Kids will do more damage to an apartment/home/residence than any animal could ever hope to.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Children and their parents, OTOH, are recognized as people, unlike cats, dogs, birds, fish, etc.

Adults can do more damage to an apartment than kids can.

Re: Really?

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Ooooooh, you've cracked my secret code! Curses!

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the specifics of it. Whether the house is child-friendly or not, though, I'd be careful about wording that--same as I'd be careful with phrasing when indicating that a house is not well-equipped for people with disabilities.

[diatomacearth.livejournal.com]

Children, contrary to the belief of many hardcore childfree people, are actual human beings with rights. My stating that it's discriminatory isn't my personal agenda--it's an issue of actual law.

Especially adults with guns.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

...

Awwwww!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I almost cried at reading this. Not really. They are not going to take people with kids, whether it's written in a pc manner or not...

[whaler.livejournal.com]

This isn't really a housing ad so much as people looking for a roomate though.

Re: Really?

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Hey. Since this seems to be of interest, I've added a post to the community to talk about the issue. Would you mind taking the discussion there? I just don't want folks to see the number of comments and think I've a lot of interest in the apartment already when it's about this.

Sorry for the trouble, and thanks!

[rigel.livejournal.com]

I think I've done the best I can. If it becomes a legal matter, well . . . I suppose I'll tackle that as it comes.

Thank you for the heads-up, though.

Since this seems to be of interest, I've added a post to the community to talk about the issue. Would you mind taking the discussion there? I just don't want folks to see the number of comments and think I've a lot of interest in the apartment already when it's about this.

Sorry for the trouble, and thanks!

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Hey. Since this seems to be of interest, I've added a post to the community to talk about the issue. Would you mind taking the discussion there? I just don't want folks to see the number of comments and think I've a lot of interest in the apartment already when it's about this.

Sorry for the trouble, and thanks!

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree with that; humans can do more damage than any animal can.

I'm just tired of people with pets having such a hard time finding places to live, while people with children cannot be discriminated against in that way.

Of course, I also once lived in an apartment one floor down from an apartment with two pre-teen girls who used to rollerskate on the hardwood floors up there...

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Being a new stepdad and all, I have to say that this is a far different situation. This is a roommate situation and I'm assuming only 1 room is available, so IMHO separate guidelines are at work here than if one were to be looking at an apartment and they said 'no kids'.

Which I kinda had happen. I scoped out a place and walked through with the landlord, things were going ok, and then when I mentioned I had a kid, well.... suddenly things didn't seem to be so ok, and after, he wouldn't even return my calls. If I had the time and inclination, I would have gone after his ass, but I have bigger fish to fry at this time.

Which is a long-ass way of saying we're comparing apples and hand grenades here. My feeling is no harm, no foul, play on.

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm hoping the conversation will die down now (since I've made a place for it nearby).

[whaler.livejournal.com]

How many bedrooms/bathrooms are there? Also about what ages are the people living there? Is it all female or both genders?

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Hey. I've made another post in-community about the topic. :)

[rigel.livejournal.com]

The current tenants are two males and a female. I haven't found much gender distinction in the housemate behavior, but that may be because "kinda geeky" ends up overriding that. *grin*

I believe the ages in the house range from mid-twenties to low-thirties.

There's only one bath, unfortunately, but we've surprisingly found it to not be a problem. This may be because of the flexible schedules of two people in the house leading morning shower times to be less of an issue.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahaha. Not only is this the internet, this is Davis Square. (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/) Nothing ever dies down here. And even if it does, well, someone could ask about the parking, can you hear airplanes, and how close is it to a burrito joint?

[whaler.livejournal.com]

Ah well I'd either want to live on my own or just with girls I've decided. I've lived with too many guys and seen too many bathroom sinks grow beards.

Good luck though! You guys sound fun.

[cutieperson]

same as I'd be careful with phrasing when indicating that a house is not well-equipped for people with disabilities

you're joking, right? housing that's well equipped for disabled folk, especially those who use wheelchairs/can't handle stairs, is exceedingly rare, especially in the Boston area. it'd be nice if folks listed when they *are* accessible, but people listing that places are not accessible? unlikely.

[rigel.livejournal.com]

Well, I can always try. :)