Ok, for anyone who doesn't know about dolce's adventures in living for the past two months, its crappy and long, so I'll skip it. But, two days ago I needed to find an emergency 6 week sublet, so I hit craigslist and then hit the town. I saw some real shocking dumps! But I get to this one place and it looks surprisingly clean and nice (though in a not so great part of town, so no walking alone after sunset). It was definately a giant loft at one point, that had those cheap quick walls put up to serve as painters studios. The guy who posted said the room was fully furnished, which is why I came to check it out. I ended up taking it, because it comes with a bed (loftish, so like the top bunk of a bunk bed) that had (under the bed) a desk and bureau. It pretty smart use of a space to fit in a bed, work station, and place to put clothing, plus a little book shelf, all in a room no bigger than 6 x 6. Anywho, he takes me around, the place is clean, he informs me there are 5 people to one bathroom, that there is one thermostat for the whole place, etc. At this rate I know that basically the three makeshift "rooms" down hear were clearly inserted. I've got the tiniest, etc. I'm getting charged $500/month for it (not bad, actually cheaper than way dumpier places I saw).

So I think to myself, no way is the guy paying more than $1500/month for the entire place in this part of Brooklyn. So I realize he's basically furnished the whole place (all of the furniture is his including blankets, pillow, and plastic hangers) and is running it like an extended stay hostel. What a guy, he's not paying rent plus I'm pretty sure he's making an extra 500 or so a month even above that. He's a student who doesn't want to waste time doing dinky part time work when he has to focus on school, so the way he furnished it made it perfect for quick, transient, workers. He's got this down automated. No seperate utilities, you just pay him a lump sum so he doesn't waste his time chasing people for bills when they've already left, changing names, etc. Its all under his name and he just collects from everyone staying here. Freaking genius.

I betcha he stole the idea of having a desk right under the bed from the IKEA catalogue. I remember seeing something just like that in there about 3-4 years ago...

And, good luck climbing up to the bed...

Is he covering a seperate phone line, too?

my bro used to do that.

Serious bABA? With a couple coat hangers and everything! It feels like in moving into one of those japanese capsule hotel rooms or something! Such a smooth transition that he's not even here this weekend and the move took 30 minutes (granted I don't own anything). Basically he set it uo like that cause its actually otugher to have people moving furniture in and out all the time, chasing bills, and argueming over cleaning and cupboard space. Geesh its odd to me, but pretty smart if because the layour gives him a seperate room upstairs. He doesn't even deal with his little hostelers down here.

No natural light though. Makes me sleepy.

no .. not exactly .... he just didn't pay rent for a time ..... its a long story. i'll tell you all about it some other time over cheetos and dr pepper.

This sounds creepy.


It also reminds me of the communal apartments back in Odessa. Though over there it wasn't by choice.

You can read about them here. It's about St. Petersburg, though, but it was the same way in Odessa and many other Russian cities.

You think this is my choice?!?!?! I am a principessa, if it were up to me, I'd be on the 30th floor of a south and east exposure windows on the upper west side right near the park. The furniture would be turn of the century nouveau with a bit of American deco. I would have a thick victorian curtain with velvet and embroidered patterns, and if heaven forbid I ever found a single pea under my matress......

Ironically, for $500/month you could probably rent a place like that in Odessa

Maybe I could find "Little Odessa" in Brookly?

"Little Odessa" is what Americans call Brighton Beach. It is nothing like the real thing, of course, but it has its own flavor, and there are indeed plenty of people from Odessa there. Take the Q train and check it out once

East Coast people are weird.

Haha! Is it a stop called Little Odessa? I was only joking, but hey, I'll go check it out. Beats the massive hassidic jewish population that lives a few blocks away from me now. Geesh I feel like the outer post of a kibutz.

Not at all my dear Mr. Makeshift! They're just very horny.

No, the stop is called "Brighton Beach". Russian people don't call it "Little Odessa" either, they just call it Brighton. And, if they're anything like me, they get all uppity abou the horrible name misappropriation and roll their eyes at you if you call it that. It's right next to Coney Island rides too, so on a warm sunny day you can mingle with the Russian Jews (just try not to address them in English, they don't speak it there anyway), check out Russian cuisine right on the boardwalk, go to the overcrowded beach, and top it all off with a ride on the Cyclone.

UR JUST JELIS!

Ha! Horny, indeed.

Seriously, though. I just can't imagine paying $500 dollars a month for what is essentially a closet just to live in a big city. I have a three bedroom, three bath apartment that is $800 a month and in the nice part of town. Sure, the "town" kinda sucks, but it has enough stuff to sustain me until I can afford a nice place in a bigger city.

I'm obsessed with Coney Island! I've never been there but have raved about it for years to the point where two years ago my sister went with her girlfriend and came back telling me it was the dumpiest little park. She said she got massive whiplash from the coaster and was shocked I spoke about it so nostalgically. She was expecting a six-flags, I had to remind her that I still cling to the 1893 World's Fair.

Yeah, the place looks like it hasn't been updated since 1911. Don't ask me why 1911, it just feels that way.

You can get a place like that for the same price in Philly, thankyouverymuch.

It's just that New Yorkers and wannabe-New Yourkers are nuts.

Because it seems comparitively cheap compared to the crummier closets I was seeing. :wink: New York is a bit much as far as this goes, but you pay for the space, and access to so many great institutions, and think about it. You might pay less for an apartment but then have to lob on car payments and car insurance bills and weekly gas fill-ups, etc, and then a bit cheaper of a place isn't as cheap anymore. Yeah, renting here is insane, but I say that in regards to other major cities, not to suburban landscapes, which make less to me for some reason.

Oh, and not everyone is willing to pay $500 for a closet, look at the guy who is subletting to us. He;s not paying $500, in fact he's not paying anything plus he's making $500. Smart cookie.

Anyways, it has nothing to do with hornyness, if you saw this little closet the back of a taxi cab actually really does make so much more sense. http://www.worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopi ... ght=dating

Can you really? That's pretty cool.

Yah. I guess my confusion is mainly directed at New Yorkers. I mean, i've been to New York. Take out the history, and you're left with a big city filled with jerks (oh, i'm sorry - they're just being New Yorkers ) that smells really bad.

Well, I don't have a car, so I guess I don't notice the added expenses.

With that said, I need a car. It's getting pretty hard to ride a bike and use public transportation now that Meddy has been hit with the urban sprawl bug.

Yikes, dolce.

May God protect you from evil and shower you with extra good fortune and happiness for living in such strange locations. [-o<

Thanks! Its kind of lame because I'm not going out after dark for the next few weeks, but then I hope to get lucky, so everyone keep your fingers crossed. [-o<

@Makeshift, the reason everyone fights to live here is the institutions. There is ten times the opportunity here in almost every field, unfortunately that pretty much means New York attract ten times the people looking to get those jobs. That's why I came here. It wasn't my #1, I gave Chicago a chance first. Heh this plays grows on you. It was still always one of my favorite cities, but one that you have to come to when you're a bit more established and can make a good living situation for yourself. I wanted to build up somewhere else and then settle down here. I don't think this is the place to come for college, that is, unless you want to hang out with the Olsen twins over at NYU, but they can afford to set themselves up in a nice place, so I guess that just re-enforces my arguement.

Off-topic, but Krem:


1) did you finish Atlas Shrugged? Did you like it?

2) your avatar, what is that the emblem of? Odessa?