Apartment living adapting

Hey; is anyone else an apartment dweller (I am sure that someone is!) I had been living on a farm in NY; now in Cali, we live in an apartment complex on the ocean. The rent is high and hard to afford, but there are some things (like a gym, and a nice location) that make it worth it to me.

Sure, it is different, living around people again, living underneath and beside other people. But not that bad.. not any bad kids in the immediate vicinity..

Space is an issue though!! We have a studio (with a seperate bathroom and a kitchenette.) In it, there is me, my husband, my cat and 6 snakes, and salamander! And my girlfriend and her boyfriend are moving in too. Yay for packing lots of people into a 300-square-feet space!

I noticed though. Back at the farm, we had bout 800 sq. feet of space.. but we never used half of it anyway. Paring down, selling alot of baggage, has really made me happier as a person.

I am adapting well though, I think. Home is just a place to crash between work and fun outdoor stuff.

How is your apartment life? Anything to look out for in the future? It's not a high-rise; more like, seperate buildings (and wowee, we even have a little patio!) Parking is an issue; not a huge one, but we only get one parking spot in the garage.. so we do have to joust for TIGHT parallell parking out on the street!

use to be an ill never go back lol. Hvaing stacks of 6 foot cages and racks cramed into your bedroom and not being able to sleep because the cages raising the temp in the room to over 80. Neighbors banging on the walls and running up and down and up and down. And I wouldnt be able to have my dogs there. It is so hard housing large constrictors in apartment buildings lol.

I don't live in an apartment, but I do rent the house I stay in. I am rooming with a chick I met on craigslist that was looking for a roommate, it works out great too. To some people they would say I live in the "ghetto" because some of my neighbors are black, but in all truth. This neighborhood is quiet, nobody messes with anybody, no cops come down here, no sirens and such. I think it's a great neighborhood. I wish I could live by the ocean though like you, I would go skinny dipping 24/7. lol

Lived in an apartment once, hated it.

Neighbor kids always stomping around.

I kicked a hole in our wall trying to bang back at them.

I was forced to call the cops on them once for scaring my fiance one morning.....

Manager never gave a crap about nothin....

If your managing, congrats to you. It must be better than where I was at.

I'm homey, I like it nice and quiet:D

<- I has apartment. I has rage.

I live in an apartment and for the most I'm fine with it. My neighbors are perfect (quiet and I don't ever see them), I get left to my own devices by the management, and the one time I had a leak a quick call to maintenance got it checked out and fixed in a timely fashion.

I wish I had the money and time to buy and keep up a house on some farmland out in nowheresville county minnesota. I'd love to have a garage I could do work in, somewhere to keep a couple watercraft(at LEAST I wish I had somewhere to keep a canoe), and I wish I had the space to start a rodent colony and really begin to expand my reptile collection.

I want a garden, chickens, ducks, and a herd of alpacas.

Those things will come in time. For now I have it pretty good having a nice sized 2 BR apartment to myself, which lets me dedicate one room to my pets.

to the OP, I just want to say good luck with fitting two couples in a studio apartment.. I will never EVER live somewhere that would force me into that situation due ridiculous rent. I'd love to move in with my girl, but I would never want to share a single 300 sq foot room with another couple.

Oh my goodness I'm SOOO glad to be out of apartment life! I couldn't image 300 sq ft and you're adding two more people! :O Oh man good luck! :gj:

I'll agree that we don't use a 1/3 of our house (900 sq ft +basement), but man I don't mind the space! The one thing I really didn't like about apartment life is you always had to worry about being quiet, making sure your pets were quiet, listening to your neighbors fighting and their 15 year-old-daughter, uh...having boys over, and dealing with landlords. I just love not having a landlord :D

+ our mortgage is only $50 more than we were paying for rent, so I really like having my own house.

Wow... it looks like I'm the minority here. I actually have no problems with the apartment I'm in now. But I also spent a lot of time last year looking at places and finding a complex that wasn't managed by a big company.

I live in a college town (as a college kid) and the first apartment I had wasn't too bad. I didn't really hear my neighbors, and when I did it was still pretty quiet. They fixed things pretty promptly but it was too far away from campus and their pet policy was ridiculous.

The place I'm at now is much better. I haven't been here long enough to know how quick they are about repairs, but the landlords are great, and so are the neighbors. I live right next to campus and there is just a parking lot separating the complex from a bar, so it gets a bit noisy on Thrus-Sat nights. It's an older building so I hear the neighbors much more often, but they aren't loud people...it's just old insulation. (The upstairs neighbors are super sweet....they even came in to see me at work ^_^ ) I really enjoy it though while I'm in school. I don't have to worry about fixing things, I have just enough space for what I need, and it's a great location.

One day I'll be in a house, but I have no problems with apartment living...however I'm a pretty tolerant person ^_^

I've lived in a lot of apartments, hated every one. The only way I'll ever go back to having the neighbors the thickness of a wall away again is if I'm either arrested or committed.

I love my little apartment! It's just my boyfriend and I, and of course Snickets. She doesn't take up much room though.

We have neighbors on the side and behind us. The ones on the side just moved out, and the ones behind us hardly ever make noise. The one time they did (Blaring loud music at 12:00am when my boyfriend had to get up at 3:00am) I called the cops to file a noise complaint and ever since then they've been quiet. I'm not sure what's going on over there though, they used to have multiple cars, used to be able to hear doors shut, now there's no car that parks in their spot and they hardly make noise. I don't really care, it's nice.

I like tight small places (No wonder I like BPs). Although I wish my kitchen were a bit bigger. Smaller places = Less stuff = no messes, no cleaning.

In California, apartments vary alot. We have a tiny one, we pay a pretty cheap price for it. Our friends just moved outside SF, their apartment isn't too much bigger than ours and they're paying over twice of what we are. Nice community though, ours is ok. Parking is such a pain though. We have one parking spot, and we use that for our Charger. Then we have my BF's work truck, and my little car. We have to park on the side of the road, which has been easier as of lately, I think more people are moving.

Anywho, I'd like a house to call my own and actually decorate, but I'm happy in my small somewhat secure apartment for the time being. It's much nicer on our bank accounts!

Well.... I've never lived in an apartment, and never want to... I like having a place to call my own (Technically my parent's own.......)... And i could never deal with people stomping around and making noise... I have a bit of a really short temper, and go outside and go crazy on kids making noise on the street while im trying to sleep.... I would probably go to jail if i lived in an apartment.... I've stayed in my cousins apartment and i couldnt stand the small space, but i liked it in a way, because there are only 3 apartments in the building, and the other two apartments are family...

I live in a great little apartment complex similar to the one you are talking about. Two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room, two bathrooms and a little balcony. The neighborhood is great, quiet and friendly, and I love it. It's me, my roommate, two cats, three snakes (including a retic) and the occasional foster animal or two. I have no issues with the living space, there is plenty of room for all my critters, and the best part is that my apartment manager owns snakes herself so she doesnt charge any extra pet fees for caged animals, which includes rodents and reptiles. It is basically the best thing for me right now, and I consider myself really lucky. I hope everything is going great for you in Cali, I know its a big change from NY, in fact my family moved from upstate NY to NC about 6 years ago. Good luck with everything!

I actually like living in a apartment when its just me alone I actually plan on living in a one bedroom apartment maybe 2 im sorta like a ball python in a way.

Wow; I must be lucky, to not have such horrible neighbors. I do know that bad neighbors can be a problem with homeownership, though. Back in Buffalo, my mom's had a series of horrific arguing, girlfriend-beating neighbors.. and she owns her home! Kinda harder for her as well, as she can't just pick up and move.
I love the fact that I don't have to spend hours mowing grass and plowing snow (not that there is anymore snow here!) And driving to work (walking is so much easier.) Granted, some might like cutting lawns and driving alot, but I don't.
And my social life has improved. Now if it is 8pm and a friend callswanting to hang out, I can drive 5 minutes to their house.. as opopsed to living in the boonies and calling it a night at 9 because of deer running around and long travels.
I should mention that when we arrived (with our pickup, uhaul, cat and snakes) we were technically homeless for the day. The apartment place that we were to move into, suddenly called and said that we were rejected b/cwe could not provide pay stubs as proof of income (my hubby tattoos.) This place did a quick credit check, and bam, we got right in that day.
Yay!

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Originally Posted by aaramire

I live in a great little apartment complex similar to the one you are talking about. Two bedrooms, a kitchen and living room, two bathrooms and a little balcony. The neighborhood is great, quiet and friendly, and I love it. It's me, my roommate, two cats, three snakes (including a retic) and the occasional foster animal or two. I have no issues with the living space, there is plenty of room for all my critters, and the best part is that my apartment manager owns snakes herself so she doesnt charge any extra pet fees for caged animals, which includes rodents and reptiles. It is basically the best thing for me right now, and I consider myself really lucky. I hope everything is going great for you in Cali, I know its a big change from NY, in fact my family moved from upstate NY to NC about 6 years ago. Good luck with everything!

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Thanks! I am enjoying it here. Northern Cali is alot cooler and foggier than southern cali; I like this just fine, because it means less tourists and annoyance.

Sounds lovely, except for the being homeless part! I wish I could up and move somewhere like that, I love the ocean and there is no big body of water near here :(

I've lived in apartments most of my life and I actually like it. The key is doing a thorough search to find a good complex with good management in a quiet area. You'll always have 'those people' in any neighborhood, home or apartment, so you just have to put up with it. :) But if you do your research well, apartment communities are really nice.

The place we live now is a very nice 2 bdrm 1.5 bath with good space. The complex is really nice and typically quiet, and the biggest problem here is parking...but we don't drive so NP for us. :) It's also an animal friendly place. The manager when we moved in really liked reptiles, so we didn't get charged at all, but then the manager changed to a woman who is VERY afraid of snakes and she made us pay the $300 deposit (only half of which is refunded). Sigh, oh well.
Sad thing is, we're moving in a week and a half. :( We like it here, but you do what you have to do. But guaranteed, we'll be doing a thorough search for a good complex once we get settled up north. :D

I live in an apartment currently. The complex is aimed toward students since its a 5 minute walk to school so I expected it to actually be pretty crappy. I've been here a little over a month and I have to say that its WAY better than I imagined. My neighbors to my left are so quiet that I just found out today that they lived there and to my right they are decent. They do slam the door a lot but I think its more of the door than it is them. The complex is also pet friendly which was my main reason for choosing it. I also dont have to pay a pet deposit as long as I dont get anything too large. My other plus is that I'm already in good with the maintenance so if something does go wrong I know it will be a quick fix.
All in all since this is my first apartment, I cant complain. Especially after hearing my parent's horror stories about their first apartments.

I live in a two bedroom townhouse that I rent with one roommate. It is a pretty nice apartment and although I feel like rent is a little bit high my neighbors are absolutely silent and when something breaks they are here within 15 minutes to fix it. They are also snake and dog friendly. No complaints here. Being in college I don't have nearly enough stuff to fill up the 1,000 square feet so space isn't an issue either.

Sounds good. This complex is also very pet-friendly; although they do charge $25 extra a month per pet (meaning dogs and cats.) I was told by the manager (who's very personable and who we get along well with) that "aquarium" pets/reptiles are ok and not charged for. Lots of people have dogs, but I have heard no barking, ever (it is almost eerie) and they're always leashed. A few feral cats, but they're not that over-populated. They also refuse to enter an apartment if you're not home (unless ofcourse it was an emergency, like a fire or something) which I like; since so many people have pets, they don't want to accidentally let one out. It's great to getalong with your neighbors; one of ours is a nurse who is not home overnight. One is a middle-aged woman who's always making sure that her early-morning workouts aren't bothering us (she lives upstairs; no bother.. no kids!)

You live in a great part of the state. Unlike us, we live in the Valley where the weather is hot and gross!

Congrats on the awesome new place, and welcome to Cali! Heres to hoping your neighbors stay on your good side!

Thanks! :D I love cali so far.

I live in my bedroom, we're talking probably 100 square feet of overall space. It's me, my computer and desk, a bed, and one rack. Add in all my books and the other junk I have and I have more than enough to put in a 500 square foot space.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

I live in my bedroom, we're talking probably 100 square feet of overall space. It's me, my computer and desk, a bed, and one rack. Add in all my books and the other junk I have and I have more than enough to put in a 500 square foot space.

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I hear you. :) We have had to squish alot of furniture together. The couch is pretty close to the TV, etc. I can't wait for a bit larger space, to spread out more.. we are on the waiting list for a one-bedroom.. excitement!