Better get that sink fixed ASAP!

http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/brooklyn-building-workers-at-flatbush-gardens-housing-complex-managed-by-renaissance-equity-holdings-protest-pay-cuts

This doesn't add any more information than was already posted on each building's front door, which was previously mentioned here by MM. However, taking the fight to the media is usually an escalation right before actual striking.

Personally, I've had an 8.8% reduction in pay over the last year, and it will be 13.5% on Oct. 1st. Far more acceptable than a 30% benefit cut (maybe, depends on what "benefits" were cut, and how much the salary was cut). I don't know, I'm sure a lot of people, especially time/salary reduced people and unemployed people have mixed sympathies.

What about you? Support the strike? Or support 100% benefit cuts and scabs pulled from the ample ranks of the unemployed?

Anyone have a story idea for Mr. N?

Hello,
My name is Richard N----. I am a reporter for TheBrooklynInk.com and journalism grad student at Columbia University. I will be covering the neighborhood of Flatbush for the next few months--writing stories about the news, people, events, and goings-on in the area.
I found your blog as I was doing some research on the neighborhood. As a blogger in the area, I was wondering if you had any general viewpoints or concerns that might lead me to any good story ideas. Is there anyone you'd recommend I talk to?
I'd love to meet you in person if you have any free time coming up. We could grab a quick cup of coffee or something. Perhaps you could tell my what I need to know about the neighborhood, from a resident's perspective. I promise I'm not a creep or anything, just a journalist from California who is a long way from home. I really want to do my job right.
Thanks for reading. I hope to meet you soon.
Best,Rich

Do I still recommend Flatbush Gardens?

No. Unfortunately. Those of you familiar, will likely know my opinion of FBG is that it's a reasonable place to live. That you get what you pay for here, and it's a fair, if not good deal, with regard to quality/service/safety/etc per dollar.

While I still have no super-serious complaints, has anyone noticed a marked decline in the complex?

My kitchen sink is broken in at least three ways, and literally unusable. It has been this way for over a month. The roommate (having some weekdays off of work) is in charge of interfacing with maintenance. She has been down there at least 20 times, all during the hours they're scheduled to be open. Over half those times they were in fact, not open, with no explanation. (And different times of the day, like maybe they got in late, or left early, or were at lunch, but those could only explain a few of the misses). The other times, a work request was submitted, and she was told it would be placed in the queue, pointing to the huge stack of papers on the desk, with a subtle, "don't hold your breath" look.

I also see less advertising, less security (but to be fair they could easily be out there just as much and I wouldn't run into them because of my schedule recently), less renovation teams, less of our porter, etc.

It could just be me, but it feels like maybe things are in a serious decline.
Anyway, point being: At this time, I'm no longer comfortable saying that if you can tolerate mediocre quality for a cheaper price, then Flatbush Gardens presents a value option. My current perception of the quality/service/safety/etc per dollar, is that it does not provide a very good value.

Single Female

Well, I've not posted anything in a while, and everyone's number 1 super-happy-fun topic is the Single Female perspective on safety, so I thought I'd elevate MM's recent comment to a post:


MM says by way of update:

I am a 20-something, single, white female. Over the past 6-9 months I have felt a little more unsafe than when I moved in in 2008. There does seem to be an increase in the amount of "creepy guys" loitering in the courtyards and they always seem to have something smart to say to me. I do have a tendency to snap back at them so I'm sure that doesn't help my situation. And with summer being here, it's only going to get worse. Come to think of it, it's not just the courtyards, it's the whole neighborhood in general. Am I afraid of physical violence? Honestly, sometimes I am. A group of teenagers tried to start trouble with me one night on the walk to the gym on Flatbush Ave, but a good samaritan interfered. I've started carrying pepper spray. I'm not afraid of being robbed though. I live in one of the best buildings in the complex and I'm sure that helps my situation alot. I think it would be rather hard to rob someone since it would be VERY obvious what is going on with all tenants always coming and going.Either way, when my lease is up in Oct, I'm out of here.All I can say here is that if you are considering the move, ask to see available units in the best buildings-1370, 1372, the ones directly across from there (I don't know the #'s), as well as the one above the maintenance office-these are all well maintained and have lots of friendly neighbors. Spend an afternoon wandering around the neighborhood to see how you feel (night too!). But to be frank, since the economic crash, you can find a cheaper unit closer to Manhattan that will probably have better maintenance and mgmt.

Just checking in, and maybe checking out.

So, I haven't been home much. Probably 1 night a week. Don't know if anything is going on or not. Last time I did laundry the "gym" was still as unfinished as it was before. But there is a sign about "information on membership fees coming soon." So I guess the gym is not an amenity. (Probably because they would have to offer it to the rent stabilized people who are paying under-market too, so they can't really roll the cost into rents).

I'm thinking about moving. Not for any particular reason, except I like change. I'm tempted to stay, it being stabilized with free utilities, including free A/C (and I like it cold).
Does anyone want a 2-bedroom in FBG? It's 1,350/month (which is the current going rate), but it's stabilized at that level, whereas most units have that as a preferential rate that can be jacked up quite a bit after the first year or two. Also, though FBG wouldn't agree with this, they cannot demand an A/C charge for any of three air conditioners, so it's free utilities, including free A/C. Also, there's a queen sized loft bed in the smaller room (which is good, because unless you're a kid, the second bedroom in FBG is just too small). That cost like $800 to build, and I don't really want to have to remove it (no piece of it fits out the door, i.e., I'm going to have to unscrew everything to get the wood out to the trash).

Why is Flatbush Gardens so great?

Well, great may be an overstatement. "A viable option"? Because of this:

http://www.brownharrisstevens.com/detail.aspx?id=940654 (link is dead, see image below).

350 sqft with one window facing the back ally for $375,000.

This is the neighborhood I lived in when I first moved to NYC 15 months ago; the neighborhood I broke a lease in to move to Flatbush Gardens. I went down there to see this place for something to do on a Sunday (not because I have anything close to the $37.5k you'd need for a 10% down payment (assuming one could get a 90% loan these days)). It's "cute as a button" as my grandma would say, but 350 sqft, and one window facing the back ally. Maybe, MAYBE, if it had a street view, but even then the other side of Court street is a boring cookie-cutter office building.

Anyway, they won't get more than 300k for this place, but the point is, 1000 sqft for 1200/month flat, or 350 sqft for whatever the crazy rent on a place with this "value" would be.

Rainy days. In my bedroom.

I came home to my bed soaked with a couple gallons of water.

My ceiling leaks. My radiator leaks too, which no doubt causes my downstairs neighbor's ceiling to leak. I called emergency maintenance 4 days ago to have them fix it. The security guy said he'd put me on the list. I said that's fine, but he should understand that the water will cause serious damage to their building. He said he understands that but there's nothing he can do. Needless to say they didn't show up.

I thought it was just my radiator (that leaked water and steam) causing it, and that I fixed it myself. However, I was mistaken. I awoke to a new drip drip drip in my bed. So I went down there to ask why they haven't fixed this serious problem yet. I was nice at first, then we fought. Having gotten nowhere, I next fought with the middle supervisor. These things are never successful, but for some reason it was this time. They sent someone over. My radiator still doesn't work 100% but it no longer leaks, and most importantly to me, the ceiling no longer leaks.

So, that's enough for me to call this a win.

Bubble - a drip from the bubble did most of the damage. There were several.

More damage was done when the bubble bust (insert wall street joke here).

And the resulting bed.

Laundry Day!

Ok, so I've done laundry several times before now, but always forget to bring my camera.
First, the laundry facility (near the mail room) is quite large, with many machines. This is a good thing, because many are often broken. Also, I scoped out the private laundrymat, and they're a little more expensive. I remember when I first did laundry, I was impressed with the number of machines (in how it implies I'll never have to wait), and the size of the machines. By my count, there are 21 1x machines, 34 3x machines, and 5 5x machines. The 1x machines are pretty small. A little smaller than your usual small apartment washer. I'd say 4-5 towels or jeans, or 8-10 shirts and you've maxed out. Then of course the 3x are about 3 times that size, and the 5x five times the 1x size. The prices are not proportional, as the 1x is like 1.50, and the 3x is like 2.00, and the 5x is like 2.50. So, bigger is better for cost savings.

Please keep in mind as you read the below complaint (which is fairly outrageous) that I have done laundry at least 4 times already without having to wait for a machine.

Yesterday, I went to do my laundry and couldn't because 88.5% of the machines were broken! That seems like a lot. Actually, 78.3% of the machines were broken, but since only smaller machines worked, 88.5% of the capacity was broken.
By my count, 0 of 5 large (5x) machines were working, 2 of 34 medium (3x) machines were working, and 11 of 21 small (1x) machines were working. You can see that with 60! machines (totalling 148x (i.e. 5x5 + 34x3 + 21x1 = 148) there's quite a supply for people to use. However, with the outrageous level of almost 90% broken, it's not that convenient.

As I was in there counting some FBG employees started asking what I was doing. I said "counting". They said the machines were almost all down, and I said "yeah, are you going to fix them?" They said, something to the effect of "we don't fix them, the contractor has to come fix them." Another employee came up and said "what are you doing, are you with the contractor?" I said "no, I just count." We exchanged some banter, as I continued to give ambiguous and semi-smart-alic responses, and they continued to say the contractor screwed up the installation and needs to come fix it. One either called or pretended to call security, apparently not believing I was a resident and though maybe I was from the news (as if any news gives a crap that we don't have laundry machines). I was done counting so I left, but probably should have stuck around to see what would transpire if I kept counting and taking pictures. I do love confrontation, but the guys were appearing to be jovial during our "confrontation" so I didn't feel defensive and just went about my business (i.e. going to work when I was done counting).

Update: I went by the next day to take some pictures (which I'll post once I get them off my camera), and they were back to their usual 75% availability. So all is well again in the land of cheap laundry. Let the cleaning begin!

Washers

Dryers

More Washers

Fresh whole goat.

I find this odd. Posted outside the "meat" grocery store, along with 100 other ads for the week:

Up until today, I honestly didn't know where one could buy a whole goat. If anyone has a recipe for whole goat, please post and I will buy a goat.

The good, the bad, and the clogged.

So I’ve moved. The place looks pretty good. I really think it’s pretty much exactly the quality I had in DC (but much bigger, more expensive, and less “safe”). Safe is a term I use in a very stereotypical way. “Safe”, as I use it here, is “word on the street” rating of the safety. Because, honestly, I feel very safe, and everyone seems very nice. Unfortunately, safety is not a majority vote. It only takes one person to make a place “unsafe”. They gave us our apartment keys, but not our mail keys.

They clearly did not finish the place. There are several things wrong such as:
The kitchen window is broken (though only one of the double panes, so it’s still closed).
The security gate on the kitchen window was removed and not put back up.
The entry light has no cover on it.
The front door is missing two locks and a working peep-hole.
There is no phone-jack in this apartment.
The dinning room electric outlet does not work.
One outlet in the living room barely works.
The bottom hinge of the smaller bedroom is not properly installed, which means the door does not close.
The bathtub is missing the drain ring and stopper.
I requested that the child proof window guards be removed.
The radiator in the small bedroom is missing the control knob.
The bathtub does not drain.
Dirty laundry was left in the built in hamper thing.
Debris was left in the bathroom.

There was less wrong with the ex-roommate’s place, but some different things. Like the smoke detector isn’t working. The paint job was ok. A little sloppy around the edges (i.e. windows). The grout job in the bathroom is less than great, but that’s ok. The floors look great, and are certainly better than the floors I had in DC where the wax would chip up in big yellow flakes. However, it is pretty easy to scratch the floors, and initially, some things were sticking to them. I think they’ve mostly dried now.

The only thing on the list that is an emergency is the fact that the bathtub does not drain. The referb guys thought it would be brilliant to let all the grout and construction powder/dust debris go down the bathtub drain. At this point the office is closed though. Fortunately the lady from last night gave me security’s number, and I called that. They were very nice, and said that the apt complex has 24/7 “emergency” maintenance. She put me on the list. It took about 3 hours for him to come, but that’s fine. They installed the sink in the wrong place, so he couldn’t open the drain access port all the way. He got it open a good amount though and sent this snake down. It took about an hour for him to fix it. Not his fault though. He was excellent. He gets a full five stars, all around. He was nice, friendly, hard-working, didn’t give up and say he’d have to call a plumber Monday. He even cleaned up the construction debris left in the bathroom. Emergency maintenance gets my highest rating.

So, we’ve started unpacking. We’ll go to target tomorrow. Good times.

Do I like it? Very much so. Will you like it? No idea. It's not luxury. It's not for everyone. But I'm a simple person, who likes functioning and adequate over fancy and luxury. I'll take some pictures later.

My review of FatRate Movers

(Part 21)

My review of FatRate Movers

Do you see what I did there? I left off the “L” turning FlatRate (a good thing) into FatRate (a bad thing). LOL, I’m hilarious. But seriously, I have a complaint.
Ok, so they showed up on June 3rd instead of July 3rd, I can’t really complain about that since they didn’t try to charge me or anything and showed up again on July 3rd.

So, they come in to check on the stuff. They have to compare the “FlatRate” inventory to what’s in the apartment. My quote has 25 boxes on it. They said they counted 60 boxes. That’s kind of a big difference. We didn’t add stuff since the quote. In fact, I took several boxes to good will and the dumpster. Maybe we can’t pack properly. I know I can, and I know my roommate can’t, but she had like 20% of the stuff, so that can’t be it. Maybe we hide our stuff well, or maybe they’re running a low estimate high move cost scam. Anyway…. They’re already charging twice as much as the average price quoted on craigslist (i.e. the dubious 2 men and a truck, $50/hour), and that’s on a quote for less than half our loose stuff. As far as I’m concerned, they came in to do the estimate, they decided how many boxes we had, we did not add stuff, so they should move it for the quoted price. I would have thrown them out of the apartment and started calling craigslist numbers to see who needed a job if they had tried to charge us more. They didn’t, they just tried to pad their tip, with a “we’re supposed to call dispatch and get a new quote, but nobody wants that, but we’re only being paid to more 25 boxes, so maybe you’ll remember that with a tip, but I’m not pressing for that, just pointing it out…”

Once we settle the box issue, they get to work. They’re 4 of them and they’re super friendly. Very professional, fast, etc. It took them about 4 hours to get our stuff out. I dropped the roommate off at the complex and went to JFK to pick up my parents. It took them an hour to get there (took us a half hour), but that’s ok, they have a big truck. Then the roommate calls to tell me they’re giving her crap about not being able to find parking. What? You’re MOVERS, . . . in New York City! Isn’t this like your job? Anyway, I’m mostly not there for this, as I drive my parents from the air port to the new place. The roommate, or at this point, I guess I can officially say ex-roommate. The ex-roommate says they’re going back and forth between management and security trying to figure something out. During this time they manage to park the truck at the point that is literally closest to the front door of the building. But they’re still upset, because the complex is arranged such that none of the entrances are on the streetside, and you have to go into the central courtyard to get to the entrances. It’s like, 200 feet max, and they’re saying it’s too far. This time they actually do call dispatch to get a bigger quote. However, dispatch (or I’m told this) says that the sales woman forgot to put that in the contract so they can’t charge us for it. Whatever. At this point they have our stuff so I’d have to pay them, but I sure wouldn’t be giving them a tip if I was charged more.

They finally get they’re act together. I try to help a little until 3:30. Then I have to go return the rental car. Since that’s near my old apartment, I turned in the keys, and got my dry cleaning. By the time the subway got me back to newkirk, they movers had just left. There were 4 of them and it took them from 9am to 5pm or about. I don’t know what a normal tip is in that situation but I gave the guy $120. I hope that was reasonable in light of the excellent job they did, but tempered by the crap they gave the ex-roommate while I was gone.

Anyway, all in all, they get 3 stars. 5 stars for performance, minus 1 star for price, and one star for the bullcrap.

I think if you can get a recommendation of a good craigslist type operation then you’re better off. That way they don’t give you crap. If they have to walk 2 blocks then it takes longer but you’re paying them by the hour so it doesn’t matter. If I can find a per hour crew that won’t steal or destroy my stuff, I may go that route next time.

Pre-Move Costco Run. I love Costco.

(Part 20) Ok, move time is upon us. First, I have an extra couch that was left for the garbage downstairs a few days ago. It’s a perfectly fine couch and the roommate loves it because it’s purple. So I hauled that upstairs and Flatrate told me it would be an extra $150 to move it. I can buy a used couch for that much. Anyway.

My schedule this holiday weekend is kind of packed (no pun intended). On Thur. I move. At 1pm, on Thur., my parents’ flight lands at JFK, and they will be visiting for 4 days. They leave on Sunday, which is also my birthday. Then I have to take a major professional exam on Monday. Oh, and BTW, my parents are not currently speaking to each other, so that should be fun. When we planned the visit, I didn’t even know this part of Brooklyn existed. They thought they’d be staying at my nice place, doing fun things, while getting along. But things change, now they’re staying at my “cheap” place, helping me unpack, while not speaking to each other. Oh, and Clay Aiken was supposed to be in Spamalot when I bought the tickets, but now he’s not. My parents are huge Idol fans, so I picked that show, even though I’ve already seen it.

Anyway. I don’t even want to tell you what the plan originally was, because it sucked, but I came up with a new plan. Wed. at 4 pm, I left work to pick up a zipcar truck (ziptruck?). I also bought a gps navigation unit shipped 2 day express (thank you amazon.com prime). I make the roommate guard the truck (no tickets please), and I park right behind the UPS driver who has my gps unit (timing). I carry the roommate’s couch down and load it into the truck. I also haul down two air conditioners, and some tools. Off to Flatbush Gardens. I drop the roommate off to pay the remaining money on our places and get the keys. I park and start unloading. We dump the stuff off and immediately head to Costco. Which was insane, especially the last several rows as Costco employees are yelling “the store is closing in five minutes!” I don’t even want to tell you how much we spent, but even without my new glasses, it was a new Costco record for me. I think it was a new personal record without counting the glasses or roommate’s stuff.

We load the truck, and head to the UPS depot. That took some effort to find, but get there a little before they close to pick up the roommate’s air conditioners. There are crazy, crazy people at UPS at 10pm in Brooklyn.

Back to Flatbush Gardens for the Costco unload. It’s painful. We forgot my shopping cart, so we’re stuck with a cardboard box and a luggage cart. It’s not too bad, but certainly not fun, and we’re getting very tired by now. The cart breaks with a huge final load, so one of us is stuck like an idiot in the middle of the courtyard watching the stuff while the other takes slow trips up to the apartment. We meet a nice lady whose “baby’s daddy is up in this building with another woman.” (Roommate’s building). She advises us that it’s a crack house, and in the 16 years her baby’s daddy has lived there, she’s been attacked in a life threatening way 3 times. Anyway. She seems a little, um, upset, and just generally not happy with the area or the building her baby’s daddy is currently in (her terms, not mine). So, we take her warnings with a grain of salt, and also, 16 years is a long time. The current management admits before they got there, fixed it up, implemented very strict rental application guidelines, and added a 24/7 security force, that it was a crack house with a serious crime problem. We hope today it’s not so much.

Once the stuff is finally in the apartments, I install the air conditioners, and we go home. I’m asleep by 4:30am and up again at 8am. Good times. I through some laundry in the washer, take a shower and go downstairs to feed the meter that starts at 9am.

Checking on the progress, for the July 3rd move in.

(Part 19) We went to the Sunday open house to take some measurements and see the renovations. As the pictures show, the renovations are about half done, and so far look nice. We're pretty happy with everything. I made a floor-plan based on the measurements that is in the picture album (with a queen sized bed in the one bedroom for size perspective). Even though they were busy, they let us take out time and didn't rush us too much. They couldn't leave us alone because the door doesn't lock without a key at this point in the renovation. We measured the windows for window A/C units, and some other rooms.

When we got there, there was a broker who had brought like 10+ people. Flatbush does a lot of advertising (which is how we found out about it), so I felt bad for them. The standard broker fee is 15%, so assume they negotiated down to 12%, on a studio at $875, that's a $1,260 fee they'll have to pay him. They could upgrade to a one bedroom for over 8 months for free with that money. I mean, no one likes paying for things, but I see the benefit of a broker. They can help the rental market of single units, or low volume units, but it seems a shame to get them involved in a place that advertises in every local paper and other places. Oh well. (And no, Flatbush Gardens does not pay brokers for business).

So the plan is: get the keys July 1st or 2nd, install the window A/C units we bought on amazon.com that are currently being shipped there (with $42 in sales tax, thanks to NY's unconstitutional internet sales tax), and move in on July 3rd. My parents were already scheduled to visit for like a month before I even decided to move, and coincidentally will arrive as I'm moving to the new place (i.e. the same day). So, that should be fun.

Fourth visit

Our first event as signed flatbush residents.

(Part 18) Ok, we don't live there yet (moving July 3rd), but we signed a lease and are now officially and legally obligated to be flatbush residents. We're excited, and had our first "Flatbush" experience already. Walking back to the subway to go home (for another month and a half at least). Halfway down the stairs to the Newkirk subway stop, a guy is peeing in the corner. He didn't even look homeless, just wanted to drain the tank before his subway voyage I guess. Anyway, good times.

Signed a lease.

(Part 17) Third time's the charm. The units they mentioned were available. We went to see them. They looked like crap because they have not been renovated yet, but otherwise very nice. Mine is on the fifth floor, and the roommates is on the second floor of a different building in the same courtyard area. I took a picture of the map with all the unit numbers, see below. Also took pictures of the units. However, I cannot tell which pictures are of her place and which are of mine. Her bedroom is 10.1 feet by 12.25 feet or 124 sqft. My rooms are 9.67 feet by 13.33 feet or 129 sqft and 8.08 feet by 12.3 feet or 100 sqft. I didn't measure the other rooms (read a post after I move in and I'll tell you), and frankly those could be wrong. I was in a hurry.

Third Visit

I have no idea.

(Part 16) I was wrong, they still aren't very organized.
I called 5 times Wed. morning. All answering machine. I didn't leave a message because the last message I left took over 24 hours to get a response.
On the 5th time I tried Nora's extension and Amy picked up.
I think this is pretty standard. The phone number will always go to voicemail and Nora's extension (100) will always go to Amy, the girl who sits at the desk.

Amy gave me the voicemail of the person I was supposed to call early in the morning. I left a message. At 12, Clay called me; he is not the person I was supposed to call. Anyway, he was tasked with calling me, i.e., he was allegedly up to speed, but thought my roommate had already picked a place (she hadn't), and that I was unwilling to live on the first floor (she has a preference for a higher floor, I don't care). Anyway, after I corrected his perception of things, he said he'd call back.

He did actually call back. This will allow them to retain half of a responsiveness point. The rest have been lost forever. Anyway, he said I cannot come today, but I should come at 6pm tomorrow. I asked if I could come any earlier and he said it won't be necessary. If these units are not there tomorrow, I'm done. I will move back to Florida before I live here if they have nothing again.

Extremely disappointed.

(Part 15) We showed up at our appointment time of 6pm. After waiting around for a half hour, we were told at 6:25pm that all of the two bed-rooms were already rented, except for the less desirable one of the two I already saw. I am very annoyed at this. I specifically asked for the earliest appointment possible so that this wouldn't happen. I was told that the June 15th availability would not be ready until after Sunday. This is not true, they can do it anytime. I was told people can't sign leases on Sunday open houses. This is not true, the unit I wanted was leased on Sunday. Though Sunday is far more convenient than Monday, since they allegedly don't lease on Sundays, I asked for the earliest appointment I could get on Monday. I was given 6pm. Though it turns out I could have come much earlier (my favorite of the two I was shown was leased to someone else a couple hours before I got there).

I honestly don't know, maybe it's me. Maybe I've been working for an efficient company for too long, and living in a so-called "luxury" building for too long, but it seems to me they have little to no organization skills. Maybe being grossly understaffed is how they keep the rents lower. But seriously, charge everyone an extra $1! a month and hire someone (at $2,500/month) to answer emails, and write things down.

Ok, so having wasted a Monday evening (that's 3 hours of Mario Kart I'll never get to play), we're told that they're evicting a bunch of people soon, and we should call this specific person (whose name I can't spell) early in the morning. Anyway. We're now looking at July 1st. Keep in mind, I was hoping to living in a unit by this weekend. Oh well, at least they sound like they might make an effort this time to do something for us.

More waiting...

(Part 13) I called the number at 10am. No one answered and so I left a message for Clay. By 3pm he had not called back so I called again. This time someone answered, "Flatbush Gardens, this is Clayton, how may I help you?" Well, that was convenient. I asked Clay if he got my message, and he said he had not and they were super busy (they're losing more responsiveness stars). I asked him about the deposit transferring and he said they'd very much rather not, since the deposit means the refurb people start attacking that apartment to get it ready for you, and if you're like "um, just kidding" they get annoyed. So I told him we wanted to go out again and look at June 15th apartments. He said they don't compile the list until Sunday, so we set up another 6pm appointment for Monday. I hope they have a couple of good ones.

Apartment hunting, it's a thinking man's game.

(Part 12) So we took the night to think about it. Playing Mario Kart Wii helps me think. I had been pretending all along that I'm just looking, that it's just a possibility. However, in reality, I think this move was fairly inevitable even before the first Thursday night walk around the neighborhood, and certainly was fairly inevitable after that. The only question left is, do we move June 1st, or wait to see what opens up for June 15th?

I've decided to wait for the 15th. Clay seems to think there is a two bedroom that's pretty nice fairly close to the subway stop opening up. I'd hate to live in an apartment for several years that could have been better if I had just waited a couple more weeks. I'll call Clay tomorrow at 10am to ask if we can put a $500 deposit on our favorite units, and transfer that deposit should we find a nicer place in the complex available June 15th.

Apartment picking day.

(Part 11) We both arrive around 6 and wait for our leasing agent, Clay. It took a while before we went out to look at places. They found 5 units to look at though. 3 one bedrooms and 2 two bedrooms. The first one bedroom was very nice, and spacious with an entrance right on the street (most units only have entrances facing the courtyard (i.e. the center of the block)). However, those units (1425 Brooklyn Ave) are 3 blocks from the subway and both my roommate and myself are pretty pretty lazy. The next one bedroom is a little closer, 2/2.5 blocks from the subway. It's a little smaller, but nice. There's a two bedroom in the next building that is also nice. We see one last one bedroom and one last two bedroom. These are near the management office (which is near the one mail room and one laundry facility), at the corner of Foster Ave and New York Ave. They too are nice. We've now come to the realization that the only thing that matters is size and layout, because they all look the same before being renovated, and they are all of similar quality after being renovated. Though some have tile-floor kitchens and some have tacky laminate floor kitchens (the first being far superior, see pictures). Also, the color of tile may vary after renovation. They seems to buy mixed lots of tile to save money. However, I (and probably most people) prefer that little bit of a hodge podge color look in tiles, as compared to a uniform color look. They look nice. So yeah, if you don't care about tile v. laminate, or slight color differences, then the post-renovated units are all going to look the same (basically).


So, we like them all. Probably want to think about it. Clay seems anxious to leave because his friend (who is apparently picking him up) is waiting. He tells us of a two bedroom near the subway that over looks the basketball courts opening up for June 15th if we want to come back. He also recommends that we could pick now, or call him early tomorrow morning and he'll hold the units for a little bit while we arrange a money order for the deposit. So, we part ways to think it over. Seems likely we'll ask if we can hold our favorites until we can come back to see June 15th apartments, and do that asap.


BTW, Clay doesn't live in Flatbush either. Though I asked him about that, and he said he applied and was approved, but is nervous about living there since they might call him to fill in all the time. A fair concern. He says the guy in the video (see www.flatbushgardens.net) still lives there.

Click for better quality pictures: