WTF? Time to move!? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**omisan** · 02-12-2006, 11:59 PM

So this weekend has been brilliant... Gorgeous sunshine - which is insane for mid-February in San Francisco, blissfully doing nothing. Got my whole place cleaned up and my life in order and for the first time in ages, I got on the turntables last night and had a blast putting together some tunes.

I slept in knowing that for once I had a weekend to myself to blissfully do nothing. As the sun warmed up my room I enjoyed the view of the nice, green park outside my window... Sat down with some lemonade and caught up on some reading. The topic: snowboarding in Japan... I wanna go! I put my mind back in local mode and thought it'd be a good idea to go to the corner market, get some eggs, and whip up breakfast for my friends. A few afternoon beers - nothing can spoil this day, right?

Then my roomie calls me and asks me to meet at his room. Rut roh.

Turns out he's not renewing the lease, and that we have the place through March. Then it's bye bye giant room. Bye bye cheap rent. Bye bye awesome view of the park. Bye bye gorgeous hardwood floors and super-tall ceilings.

The worst part is having to find a freakin' affordable place to live in San Francisco on relatively short notice. I know I have over a month, but still - it's not going to be easy. Especially since I have a (non-refundable) trip booked for the end of March/early April and a crazy work schedule until then. All of a sudden I'm going from the most blissful, stress-free day to a stressed-out, WTFAMIGOINGTODO!? situation.

Anyway, I don't know if this is the appropriate forum (bad mod, bad mod!) nor if there's any point to posting this, but I just had to say something. Carry on...

**U2fan** · 02-13-2006, 12:42 AM

Wait so he is totally in charge of the whole place? Not an option to renew it yourself and find a new roommate? I am assuming no or you would be doing that but still....

Sorry to hear that; hope everything works out!

**omisan** · 02-13-2006, 12:54 AM

The (crazy) landlord only wants to deal with one person, so we have a "master tennant" (aka one of my roommates) and he along with one other have decided to leave. That leaves me and one of my other roomies to assume - if we want to - a 4-person rent ($2700) which isn't all that economical, unless I can quickly rally to find some new blood. So I'll pretty much have to find a new place.

Hey, would any of y'all like to pick up and move to San Francisco?

**Joker** · 02-13-2006, 01:28 AM

craigslist and roommates.com are your friends, Omi.

**omisan** · 02-13-2006, 02:06 AM

I've been combing through Craigslist like a madman for the last couple of hours.

I should be asleep as I have an early morning meeting, but hell, who can sleep?

On the plus side, I was able to engage in a little retail therapy, for better or worse. I was going through CL postings and got an email regarding the on-sale for the Cure at Royal Albert Hall on April 1st in London... and wound up getting some of the best seats in the house before the floor sold out! God, why does spending money I don't have feel so right??

**SuDz** · 02-13-2006, 09:53 AM

Well Omi it wounds like your in a tough spot as far as staying in the place now. At least you still have about a month and a half to figure out where you want to go and what you will for changes and stuff.

Are you looking to stay in the same area?

SuDZ

**omisan** · 02-13-2006, 10:28 AM

Yeah, I would love to stay in SF proper. I did my time in the suburbs and don't think my wrists would survive any more time in strip mall land intact.

Luckily, everyone's been pretty supportive thus far, including one of the newbies at work printing up a big ol' rental listing from her university program in SF... which happens to be right around my current neighborhood. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll find anything remotely as ideal/economical as my current setup. Gah! Maybe I should just up and move to another country now

**space virgin** · 02-13-2006, 11:13 AM

Well.... I bet if you applied you WOULD get that job with Mervin/Lib Tech/Gnu.

Seriously though, I'm hoping for ya!

**blinkchick2134** · 02-13-2006, 11:36 AM

Calm down...take a deep breath! You have a month and a half to figure everything out...and trust me - it always works out in the end. Have a roommate meeting and see why exactly the other 2 roomies want to move out. Is it the cost, location, living with you (hehe), or something else. More than likely it can be fixed, unless their moving to Alaska.

Relax!

**omisan** · 02-13-2006, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Have a roommate meeting and see why exactly the other 2 roomies want to move out.

Hahaha.. it's definitely not because of me. A lot of it has to do with our nutso landlord, and the fact that they want to live with another friend of theirs, but it needs to be a place that guy can afford as well.

I've been finding some cool leads on Craigslist, as well as some serious freakazoids. Hahah.. always a good time! I know I have plenty of time to search, but I'm also super-busy with work this month, so it just adds to the stress. Arrrrrgh.

**bellelass** · 02-13-2006, 12:01 PM

Oh god, good luck with craigslist. When i came back from the UK I had to find a place to live in austin, not too expensive, not too far from campus. God it was hell. There are so many loonies on craigslist. Good luck man.

**kingcrazylegs** · 02-13-2006, 12:27 PM

dude, hope it works out!

**Somnambulation** · 02-13-2006, 06:20 PM

I wouldnt think it would be too hard to find people wanting to move in to a place across from the park in SF, especially if the rate is good. How about you tell us the real reson you have to move out?

**Esterina** · 02-13-2006, 06:50 PM

You could sell everything and hit the road. Just an option to think about...

**bluepea** · 02-13-2006, 07:13 PM

I have had such good luck with CL - we got our super duper awesome apartment there, found a few jobs, etc. Maybe I just know how to spot the loonies and avoid them?

Or maybe I am just one and blend in too well.

Anyhow, I have nothing of substance to offer except keep looking. You have 50 something days of new postings to go through.

**omisan** · 02-14-2006, 12:46 AM

Quote:

How about you tell us the real reson you have to move out?

Som: Because I tried to kill two of my roomies in a drunken fit the other night

Nah, it wouldn't be hard to fill out the spot, I'm sure, except I'd rather bring in people I know since I wouldn't really have much time to properly interview people. While I love SF and the people here, there are a lot of crazies out there, something we learned in the process of getting our last new roommate in the house.

Jamie: It turns out the move-out date is sooner than I thought. Garrrrrrr. Every day the place goes unfilled would be a bigger percentage of the $2700/mo. rent that I'd have to eat, something I don't want to pay for.

Were it not for one factor, I'd happily assume the lease and get by until I rent the rest of the place out, and that factor is that the landlord is a raging asshole with no concept of renter's rights. He has a ton of complaints lodged against him via the rent board already, and now that I'm at the point where I have the option to leave, I want to go elsewhere and not give another penny to this guy on principle.

I'm still a little irked at two of my roommates (the master tennant and his friend) for pulling this on such short notice. It would've been courteous for the rest of us to have gotten at least some notice that they were looking to move elsewhere. On the other hand, my friends downstairs have offered for me to crash in their (tiny) spare room until I can find a place - I'd just have to move all my crap into storage, but hey, at least now I have a stopgap measure.

Atchoum: I love the idea, but that's just not in the cards right now. But don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind

**omisan** · 02-25-2006, 01:49 AM

Woohoo! I've scored a new place and will be slowly moving in in the next couple of weeks.

It's about 5 blocks away from my current place, in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Beautiful apartment, cool roomie, a big ol' sundeck - which I know sounds a bit odd in foggy San Fran, and a ton of cool shops, bars & restaurants in stumbling distance. I'll be paying a lot more, but now I'll only have one person to share a bathroom and kitchen with, which I think will be worth the cash. I love my place right now, but often feel like I'm in a dorm or hostel fulltime as far as common areas go.

In the meantime, I've been actively discouraging potential replacements in our current unit by telling them just how butt-boonky-ass crazy our landlord is. So far everyone's been amused and horrified.

**space virgin** · 02-25-2006, 01:55 AM

When's the housewarming party??

**omisan** · 02-25-2006, 01:56 AM

I've already started

**space virgin** · 02-25-2006, 01:57 AM

Ha! I'm sure you have.