Ah life how you mock me...
I was at my Vancouver apartment earlier today and it was fine...
Actually, let me back it up.
K...I live in Marpole. We are conveniently located between Oak St, Granville St, 70th and just a hop, skip and a jump away from Richmond via the Oak St or Arthur Laing bridge. Very soon we will even be a scant 5 blocks from the new Skytrain on Cambie.
In Marpole there are two types of residences: Million-dollar+++, tiny-ass homes and REALLY old 3-story apartments. While I wish I lived in one of those super-pricey homes, I actually live in one of the apartments. Marpole is one of the biggest tradeoffs in the entire region because there are huge pluses and minuses. First, we all know that transit in BC pretty much sucks...except in Marpole, where it is fucking great. We have the Marpole loop, easy ways to get to the 17 or the 98 B-Line, it's a short and quick bus ride to the airport, we're 5 minutes by car to anywhere in Richmond, 15 minutes to downtown or Burnaby, 25-30 to the border, so on and so forth. We kick ourselves for not moving here sooner.
Also, because the apartments are old, people were not as concerned over space and thus they are huge. Anything since the 90's is around 400-500 sq ft for a 0/1 BR apartment. I remember being told ours here in Marpole was 780 sq ft. I'm not sure if it's quite that big, but it's way bigger than our last place, which was 500 sq ft. I guess it's about half the size of the house in Birch Bay, which is 1560 sq ft. The point is that if you want a huge apartment and not have to live in a suite in someone's house, Marpole has those kinds of places.
Onto the bad. We've been robbed and attempted to be robbed. Because we're close to everything, there's a lot of foot traffic. And the fact I split time between Canada and the US means my neighbours knew I was gone for a few days at a time. When we got robbed, I was sure it was a neighbour who told the robbers we were gone.
Since things are old, shit is often broken or breaking. We just tolerate it. For $700/mo in Vancouver, there's a point where you don't have much of a right complaining too loudly. So yes, there are annoyances like our bathroom that is never fixed, but whatever. It comes with the territory. Even being broken into, I can rationalise that to a point. We're on the ground floor and near a street. The sliding glass door was busted, someone saw their opportunity and took it. Of course we drilled a ton of metal screws into the door and you can't even open it now...which leads to a problem in my story. And I'm getting there.
I was gone for only a few hours, but when I got home I saw nothing as I entered. I thought "shit"...I got robbed just days before moving out of here for good? Seriously? I was even thinking to myself on the drive up "don't let anything bad happen God, you already screwed me with the Jeep being broken into when I got kicked out of Canada for a year for being an illegal"...yes, the day I was to leave Canada, some dickhead broke into my Jeep and robbed it. Enjoy your CD-Rs of The Cure, asshole.
Turns out it wasn't the area this time, it was the age. I walk in, take off my shoes and notice my carpet is ripped. I was thinking...ok, thieves looking for buried treasure? Don't laugh, stranger things have happened in the search for weed in this province, BELIEVE ME. When we got robbed, the place smelled like pot. They way they ransacked it, they were looking for weed and drugs.
I call Gen and she gives me the landlord's phone. I call her and find out that the sewage pipe broke in the next unit. I'm walking around barefoot in mine. The patio door is drilled shut. I have God knows what on my feet and the place smells. I'm supposed to be leaving for a 5-day drive in less than 8 hours.
I don't want to start any Blasphemous Rumours, but I think that God's got a sick sense of humour and when I die, I expect to find him...laughing
So that's my evening. I was trying to make it to Montreal as fast as I can, but fuck it now. The landlord moved all of my shit. I can't even get to my bed. I had all of this stuff staged and ready to go for the trip tomorrow. I was going to load it up quickly, but now I can't. I'm just going to take my time.
Was it still worth it to live in Marpole? Yes, I think so. But I'm not surprised. Old buildings break down. That's why you get the cheap rent and the big floor space, close to everything. What sucks is that had a few things turned out differently, I would have been moved out of here already, rendering this entire ordeal a moot point.
Actually, let me back it up.
K...I live in Marpole. We are conveniently located between Oak St, Granville St, 70th and just a hop, skip and a jump away from Richmond via the Oak St or Arthur Laing bridge. Very soon we will even be a scant 5 blocks from the new Skytrain on Cambie.
In Marpole there are two types of residences: Million-dollar+++, tiny-ass homes and REALLY old 3-story apartments. While I wish I lived in one of those super-pricey homes, I actually live in one of the apartments. Marpole is one of the biggest tradeoffs in the entire region because there are huge pluses and minuses. First, we all know that transit in BC pretty much sucks...except in Marpole, where it is fucking great. We have the Marpole loop, easy ways to get to the 17 or the 98 B-Line, it's a short and quick bus ride to the airport, we're 5 minutes by car to anywhere in Richmond, 15 minutes to downtown or Burnaby, 25-30 to the border, so on and so forth. We kick ourselves for not moving here sooner.
Also, because the apartments are old, people were not as concerned over space and thus they are huge. Anything since the 90's is around 400-500 sq ft for a 0/1 BR apartment. I remember being told ours here in Marpole was 780 sq ft. I'm not sure if it's quite that big, but it's way bigger than our last place, which was 500 sq ft. I guess it's about half the size of the house in Birch Bay, which is 1560 sq ft. The point is that if you want a huge apartment and not have to live in a suite in someone's house, Marpole has those kinds of places.
Onto the bad. We've been robbed and attempted to be robbed. Because we're close to everything, there's a lot of foot traffic. And the fact I split time between Canada and the US means my neighbours knew I was gone for a few days at a time. When we got robbed, I was sure it was a neighbour who told the robbers we were gone.
Since things are old, shit is often broken or breaking. We just tolerate it. For $700/mo in Vancouver, there's a point where you don't have much of a right complaining too loudly. So yes, there are annoyances like our bathroom that is never fixed, but whatever. It comes with the territory. Even being broken into, I can rationalise that to a point. We're on the ground floor and near a street. The sliding glass door was busted, someone saw their opportunity and took it. Of course we drilled a ton of metal screws into the door and you can't even open it now...which leads to a problem in my story. And I'm getting there.
I was gone for only a few hours, but when I got home I saw nothing as I entered. I thought "shit"...I got robbed just days before moving out of here for good? Seriously? I was even thinking to myself on the drive up "don't let anything bad happen God, you already screwed me with the Jeep being broken into when I got kicked out of Canada for a year for being an illegal"...yes, the day I was to leave Canada, some dickhead broke into my Jeep and robbed it. Enjoy your CD-Rs of The Cure, asshole.
Turns out it wasn't the area this time, it was the age. I walk in, take off my shoes and notice my carpet is ripped. I was thinking...ok, thieves looking for buried treasure? Don't laugh, stranger things have happened in the search for weed in this province, BELIEVE ME. When we got robbed, the place smelled like pot. They way they ransacked it, they were looking for weed and drugs.
I call Gen and she gives me the landlord's phone. I call her and find out that the sewage pipe broke in the next unit. I'm walking around barefoot in mine. The patio door is drilled shut. I have God knows what on my feet and the place smells. I'm supposed to be leaving for a 5-day drive in less than 8 hours.
I don't want to start any Blasphemous Rumours, but I think that God's got a sick sense of humour and when I die, I expect to find him...laughing
So that's my evening. I was trying to make it to Montreal as fast as I can, but fuck it now. The landlord moved all of my shit. I can't even get to my bed. I had all of this stuff staged and ready to go for the trip tomorrow. I was going to load it up quickly, but now I can't. I'm just going to take my time.
Was it still worth it to live in Marpole? Yes, I think so. But I'm not surprised. Old buildings break down. That's why you get the cheap rent and the big floor space, close to everything. What sucks is that had a few things turned out differently, I would have been moved out of here already, rendering this entire ordeal a moot point.