Be Excellent To Each Other

The most stressful thing you'll have to do seven times in five cocking years, indeed.

Hello! I'll try to keep this short. Basically, I need to move house as soon as possible (though can't really afford to for another week, but just signing onto a place will do for now, because the last two times I found a basically perfect place, I waited for 24 hours to weigh the options and the bloody things got taken). I've seen several places in Stratford-upon-avon (where I'm working, and where I think I'll be better off in every way) and two really stand out.


1) 5-10 minute walk from town (and work). Living with three blokes. Cheapest place going, and the landlady is thoroughly lovely and we get along very well, and I wouldn't have to pay the deposit until I could afford it (which will be when I get my old deposit back, or get paid a second time, whichever comes first).

Pros: Cheap, flexible, very close to town, brilliant landlady.

Cons: Dirty house (not just 'needs a wash', which is fair enough, but you know when a house just feels dirty and worn out? That). Small kitchen. Shit garden. I've not met two of the housemates. The one I have met struck me as a right moody prick and didn't even introduce himself as he showed me round the house (basically by pointing at rooms and naming them). Instinct says "you'll end up doing all the cleaning again, and being tense all the time again. You're not a blokey bloke, you're a womany bloke. This is a blokey house".

2) 20-25 minute walk from town (and work). Living with two women and a croatian bloke. The house is clean, bright and comfortable. The tenants seem happy and at least civil, and when I arrived two of them were cooking. Real food, as well. I haven't seen someone cook real food since January. There's one more tenant to come. The room is tiny, but clean and not unpleasant. Biggish kitchen/dining room with a counter you can work on while chatting to people at the table. Small but effective garden. The landlord was helpful and friendly, and seemed to get on well with the tenants without bothering them. There's a bunch of fields, hills and a nature reserve next door, and a gym in the garage.

Pros: clean, friendly, roomy-ish, tenants accounted for and at least civil. If I need space I can mooch about acres of it in the reserve/fields. General positive feel about the place. Reasonable distance from town/shop with visiting butcher and grocer.

Cons: Storage - hardly any in my room. Price - £85 a month more than the other place. I can afford this, but it'd mean a lot less money to save/play with, and I'd have to get another job within two months. I could do this, and grabbed a few forms for shop jobs in case all else fails, but the other place would give me three months, possibly even four. I'd basically have no spending money (though enough for food) until I got another job. Instinct says "You're just nervous because everyone else here and the house seem pleasant, and you're totally paranoid that you'll be the one to fuck it up. You fat idiot."


3) Wait and look around other places. One of the other places listed could be what I need and affordable. There are always rooms going.

Pros: It's sensible. Throwing my lot in without proper caution is what got me into this mess. Outside chance of finding somewhere ideal, or closer to it.

Cons: I could lose one, or both rooms. This has happened twice before, when I waited as little as 24 hours to give a definite answer. The first time would have changed my life immeasurably had I said yes (you know that czech girl I'm always banging on about falling in love with ages back? It'd have meant another six months with her, for a start). I need to move as soon as possible - this place has sapped my spirit almost dry (seriously, my friends have been worried sick, apparently), and dicking about dithering won't achieve that. Money - I can't keep trekking about the place and afford to feed myself for much longer. Time - I'm busy most of this week already. Instinct says "Much more of this house and you'll be the tenant of a very small room decorated mostly with iron and brick by the end of the month."


I've three other places lined up for this week, with more possible if I make some more phone calls. But I doubt they'll be significantly different from the above two options, and in any case I have a lot of work to do as well, plus I'll need to fill in all these forms and get some more jobhunting going.

What do you lot reckon? Bear in mind that if I make the wrong decision, I'll blame anyone who also concurred with that decision, come round and shave you in your beds. Also, does anyone have any hilarious househunting anecdotes?

A pleasant living environment is possibly one of the most important things in existance. Forget number 1. 2 seems fine - from memory you've never been someone who seems particularly foreign to living without much money. 3 of course depends on how desperate you are to move.

Shave? Shaving I can cope with.

To me, I'd tell myself I was going to carry on looking but I'd already be mentally moved in to the second place. Peace of mind (not constantly worrying about the things that bug you) and general happiness at home mean much more. Plus they make it cheaper - the double whammy of not wanting to/not being fussed for going home making you either a great employee (so many extra hours!) or, more likely, the most sociable person in the world, versus having a house you live in, knowing you won't always live with these people but while you do - hey, it's a social life *at home* when you need it. Even if in the former case you do things relatively cheaply much of the time it'll cost you a little more which will add up, plus a lot more general frazzlement.

Course, ideally it should be the same price, with the deciding factor being that extra 20mins or so to work and the like, but frankly 5 or 25 mins is neither here nor there.

Ring 2 and say you'll take it if it's £50 a month cheaper. IF they say no, take it anyway.

It sounds like you've already made your mind up to move to 2.

Ask the landlord/lady if there's any possible chance of a few pounds off the rent price as you love the house, would treat it with respect and like the look of the other tenants, but the money is the biggest stumbling block.

If they say no, sign anyway, but at least you asked.

I'd certainly be going for 2, personally.

2, definitely.

You don't want to be somewhere you won't feel happy coming home to.

Cheers folks. I won't be able to get anything off the rent - he can't go lower for that room. I will try, however, to get him to split the deposit over two or three months, perhaps offering to show people round the other room on his behalf to give a little something back. I could always rent someone else's cupboard for my extra stuff, or just sell it.

I think I'll give number 2 a shout tomorrow, and if all goes well, call the landlady of number 1 and invite her out for a drink. Screw it, right?

I also vote for option two.

I vote option 2 plus get a bike.

Definitely Option 2. It's a quality of life thing, and you won't get any in a shabby house which won't get any less shabby while it has blokey blokes living there.

option 2.

2..again

i'm also moving now. Right now i'm living in a couch in a completely empty house. Depressing

If you're considering anything other than 2 you need your brain testing.

Hello

That's certainly not meant in aany kind of derogatory way, or some silly "waheeey" way. It's just a sort of "oh, fuck all this dithering about and worrying about what's proper" thing.


Thanks very much folks. I've taken your advice on board (so it's ALL YOUR FAULT, ha!*), and called the landlord after work (while on the way to see another place actually. I didn't have a good feeling about this place, but I'd promised to turn up and it couldn't hurt, and as it turned out they were a nice pair). He was very agreeable, and had apparently held the room for me for a day against another viewer, he was that happy to have me there. I explained that I can't pay the rent until the end of the month, but could get the deposit on monday (or vice versa, really). This was more than enough for him, and I'm moving in on Wednesday.

I literally sang in the street on the way home. Fucking hell, I knew I was stressed, but until tonight I had no idea how much weight I'd been carrying.

/blog

Right, stomach- and form-filling time.

I LOVE YOU ALL




*Unless things work out as well as I feel they will, naturally, in which case it will be all thanks to me and my greatness.