(no subject)
Went to see the second apartment that we're interested in today.
And a bit of stress it was... Stupid me forgot to watch the time at the office, got caught up in a telephone call and, of course, missed the train I needed to get. Late half an hour. Way to make a good first impression, Milena...
Good thing the landlady gave me the phone number of the current tenant - the apartment's doorbell seem to be broken. Even better thing she wasn't there herself, but let him (the tenant) show me around. Phewwwww...
So.
98 square meters. 3 and a half rooms, plus bathroom, kitchen plus extra WC room. Mock-wooden floors in all living rooms. (I don't know the proper English expression - in German we call them "Laminat" floors.) Easy to care for and nice to look at!
The current tenant has only been living there for about 4 months, so the rooms are nearly newly painted. I didn't see any necessary decoration works. The wall colour is a light and friendly yellow - me likes.
Square balcony, perhaps 7 or 8 square meters, one half of which is roofed over. (Bonus point for possibility of drying your laundry out there...!)
The sleeping room is out to the side street, so there's less traffic. Even though the bus line is noticable, it's not really a main street on the front as well.
The rooms are nice. There's even a fireplace in one of them... ^____^
And it's reasonably priced. 490 € plus heating and secondary costs. (Yeah, I know, Colognians and Londoners are going kick me now for calling that "reasonably", but, think people, this is a 160,000 inhabitants provincial town we're talking about.)
Surroundings:
Close to the city, 5 min by bike, 10 to the main station. Bus station 100 m from the house, running every 10 min. (It's not a direct line to the main station, which is a minor flaw.)
Supermarket close by. The area's very popular with OS's student population.
Parking around the house is possible. I don't know about a garage yet. There are garages in the yard, but I don't know whether they're free for rent.
Flaws:
The doorbell obviously need repairing. It might be a sign for less-than-stellar care of the house owners if they know about it, but don't go fixing it.
The current tenant has a cat. Michael claims he's allergic. I actually think it's paranoia, but there you are. He does have asthma, and badly. So he tends to object to any living space which has been haunted by cats or dogs for a longer time. But then, it's been 4 months in this case, and all floors can be washed.
The kitchen seems rather small and weird in its room structure. There are a handful of build-in closets at one of the walls, which leaves you even less free wall to place kitchen furniture. The current tenant has an agreement with the landlady that she keeps his carpenter customized kitchen furniture for the flat. I'm going to have a hell of a problem what to do with my own (admittedly old and ugly) kitchen furniture. Shall have to think about that one.
And what's more, there isn't much basement space, and it's not possible to keep washing machine and tumbler there. Considering the rather small bathroom, they'll have to fit into the kitchen as well. And I have to find a place for my dishwasher, too, because said customized kitchen does not contain a dishwasher. Tsk.
Also, the very most of the walls are outbound, as in: are not leading to neighboring flat. While this makes for a lot of windows and sunlight, it also makes for cold rooms if you don't heat a lot in winter. And remember what I told about German gas prices before? That goes for heating and energy as well.
Compared to my current flat it does have the perk of not being ground floor with only a thin wood-on-concrete floor over a totally unheated and badly isolated... well, more of a cellar as of a basement actually! It's not going to be as foot-cold as my flat now.
So, FL, what do you think?
Should I take it?
On a side note:
You know you're learning too much Japanese if you start looking up words with the letter "L" under "R" in your English dictionary.
@_@
And a bit of stress it was... Stupid me forgot to watch the time at the office, got caught up in a telephone call and, of course, missed the train I needed to get. Late half an hour. Way to make a good first impression, Milena...
Good thing the landlady gave me the phone number of the current tenant - the apartment's doorbell seem to be broken. Even better thing she wasn't there herself, but let him (the tenant) show me around. Phewwwww...
So.
98 square meters. 3 and a half rooms, plus bathroom, kitchen plus extra WC room. Mock-wooden floors in all living rooms. (I don't know the proper English expression - in German we call them "Laminat" floors.) Easy to care for and nice to look at!
The current tenant has only been living there for about 4 months, so the rooms are nearly newly painted. I didn't see any necessary decoration works. The wall colour is a light and friendly yellow - me likes.
Square balcony, perhaps 7 or 8 square meters, one half of which is roofed over. (Bonus point for possibility of drying your laundry out there...!)
The sleeping room is out to the side street, so there's less traffic. Even though the bus line is noticable, it's not really a main street on the front as well.
The rooms are nice. There's even a fireplace in one of them... ^____^
And it's reasonably priced. 490 € plus heating and secondary costs. (Yeah, I know, Colognians and Londoners are going kick me now for calling that "reasonably", but, think people, this is a 160,000 inhabitants provincial town we're talking about.)
Surroundings:
Close to the city, 5 min by bike, 10 to the main station. Bus station 100 m from the house, running every 10 min. (It's not a direct line to the main station, which is a minor flaw.)
Supermarket close by. The area's very popular with OS's student population.
Parking around the house is possible. I don't know about a garage yet. There are garages in the yard, but I don't know whether they're free for rent.
Flaws:
The doorbell obviously need repairing. It might be a sign for less-than-stellar care of the house owners if they know about it, but don't go fixing it.
The current tenant has a cat. Michael claims he's allergic. I actually think it's paranoia, but there you are. He does have asthma, and badly. So he tends to object to any living space which has been haunted by cats or dogs for a longer time. But then, it's been 4 months in this case, and all floors can be washed.
The kitchen seems rather small and weird in its room structure. There are a handful of build-in closets at one of the walls, which leaves you even less free wall to place kitchen furniture. The current tenant has an agreement with the landlady that she keeps his carpenter customized kitchen furniture for the flat. I'm going to have a hell of a problem what to do with my own (admittedly old and ugly) kitchen furniture. Shall have to think about that one.
And what's more, there isn't much basement space, and it's not possible to keep washing machine and tumbler there. Considering the rather small bathroom, they'll have to fit into the kitchen as well. And I have to find a place for my dishwasher, too, because said customized kitchen does not contain a dishwasher. Tsk.
Also, the very most of the walls are outbound, as in: are not leading to neighboring flat. While this makes for a lot of windows and sunlight, it also makes for cold rooms if you don't heat a lot in winter. And remember what I told about German gas prices before? That goes for heating and energy as well.
Compared to my current flat it does have the perk of not being ground floor with only a thin wood-on-concrete floor over a totally unheated and badly isolated... well, more of a cellar as of a basement actually! It's not going to be as foot-cold as my flat now.
So, FL, what do you think?
Should I take it?
On a side note:
You know you're learning too much Japanese if you start looking up words with the letter "L" under "R" in your English dictionary.
@_@