Parade of Homes, Part Three

Dorks in new bedroom

When we moved to Berkeley, we put ourselves on the waiting list for married student housing and in August of 2003, our number came up--there was a one-bedroom apartment available in Section B of the University Village in Albany, California (Berkeley's smaller neighboring town). Since our 12-month lease was up with Bernard, the decision to accept the apartment and move to the Village wasn't too difficult, especially considering it would save us more than $250/month in rent.

BUT. In the letter from the student family housing office offering us this apartment, there was a warning. You see, half of the Section B apartments would be emptied and prepared for demolition in 6 months time and they weren't yet sure which half. So by accepting the apartment, we were taking a 50/50 chance that we'd have to move again in just six months. And, since we were just getting into the student housing, if we were kicked out for demolition, we would be at the very bottom of the waiting list for placement in one of the remaining apartments. They would make us no promises. And we'd be back at square one.

But, like I said, the decision wasn't too hard. Over the course of only six months in the subsidized housing, we would save well over $1500 in rent payments. So, we gave Bernard our notice (he wasn't happy) and got packing.

Here's the info on our new place:

1058 9th Street, Berkeley, CA (despite being in Albany, this apartment had a Berkeley address. Don't ask me.)
1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Square footage: small--around 500
Ground floor
Rent: $719/month
Length of stay: August 2003 - February 2004
Flooring: Industrial tile--more on this
Landlord: Paid rent to the UC Regents, but had to rely on the University Village maintenance folks for help.

Highpoints:

• lower rent
• washer/dryer hookups. Except we didn't have a washer or dryer and weren't about to buy them for a potentially six-month stay, so these were useless to us. And a little annoying since the hookups were located right next to the kitchen sink. We carted our laundry to the laundromat down the street.
  
• compared to our last place, the walk from the car to the front door was extremely short. You can get used to carrying groceries up three flights of stairs and then it's nice to get un-used to it.
• Um. I'm thinking. Um. Oh, we gave up being close to campus and downtown Berkeley but we gained being closer to several of our friends.
• Pegboard in the kitchen for hanging pots, pans, and other kitchen utensils.

Me outside our new place

Lowpoints:

• Industrial tile over concrete flooring. Picture the floor in the hall of your junior high. That's what our floor was. Pale dirt-colored. Not attractive or charming even in an old-school way. Also, it hurt. I stopped walking around barefooted because if I did, I would have sore hips and knees by the end of the day. We also had to buy rugs. This improved the look and the soreness issue. But the flooring was by far the worst thing about this apartment.
  
• Upstairs neighbors. Loud. You know, the typical 11pm furniture moving stuff.
• Floor plan. Bad use of space. No closets. The only bathroom could only be reached by walking through the bedroom. The place generally felt small and closed off.
  
• Dead bikes outside--not a big deal but it just added to the crusty desertion ambiance.

Don't know what a dead bike is? Take a look.

This is the sight that met our eyes as we walked out our front door and took a few steps toward the right. Really sets the mood, doesn't it? My mom took these photos.

Some memories:

• Our first week there, my mom came to visit and help us get settled. While she was there, I invited some guests over for dinner. My mom was cooking--I didn't know how back then--and left the heat on under the pan while we were out shopping for about 4 hours. She nearly burnt the place down (which wouldn't have been a big loss--see demolition stuff above). The upstairs neighbors smelled the burning meat and called maintenance services to unlock our door and turn off the stove. That burnt smell was in everything--the couch, our pillows and clothes. And my mom was obliged to hurriedly start dinner over before our guests arrived. I could blame my mom, sure, but really, shouldn't I have been cooking for our guests?
• One evening after dark, we became aware that several of our neighbors and those who shared our "courtyard" were gathering outside with cameras. We watched for a while and discovered that the Village raccoons were having some sort of potty party. They had established their latrene on the roof of the building and were scampering up and down the stairs and dancing about the courtyard with apparently no fear of the on-looking humans. Some of the Chinese and Korean people who lived near us were a little more excited about the event than I felt was warranted, but their excitement was somewhat contagious. The whole thing was fascinating.
  

We didn't live there long, but as you'll see in Part Four, this little Section B apartment really affected our lives for the following two and a half years. Stayed tuned to find out more about that. More pictures next time, too.

As an interesting side note, go here and scroll down a bit until you see the blue "2010-11 Rents" chart for a little shocker about the current cost of living in the University Village. Remember, this housing is supposedly subsidized by the University to make it more affordable for student families. I don't know about you, but that little chart gives me a stomach ache.