Space Ninja

Buckman Duplex
Top floor- 1920s duplex, one-bedroom, large living room, dining room, updated kitchen w/downtown view, three walk-in closets, available 11/10. $750/month, one-year lease required, no dogs/smoking. SE 18th and Couch.

That was the ad that Annie and I were checking out on Saturday. We had finally saved up enough money to start looking for housing, so Annie checked out a car for the day, and we drove around SE Portland, looking at the places advertised in the Willamette Week. Most of the ones we saw were disappointing. Really small, or run-down, or too far away from everything. But this one place looked too good to be true. It was a new ad, just placed this week. The address referred to a nice-looking house which had clearly been remodeled in the not-too-distant past. So we went home and left a message on the landlord’s answering machine.

The next day, the landlord called us and volunteered to drive us out to see the inside. When I said yes, he said “I’ll be there in 10 minutes!” Sure enough, 10 minutes later, he pulled up in his black pickup.

On the way, we talked, and found out that we were the first ones to reply to the ad that he had been able to get ahold of. When we got there, he pointed out that our duplex was the entire top floor of the house, since we had been concerned that it might have a shared kitchen or something. Then he showed Annie the little plot of dirt that he said she could use for a garden if she wanted. He let us in, and basically let the apartment do the talking. It has a nice little entryway, with stairs headed up to a french door. The landing has a little window seat in it.

When we reached the top of the stairs, we found a suprisingly large carpeted home! All of the rooms have several windows, and the landlord had replaced the old windows with newer, double-paned ones, and put up mini-blinds. The living room has two walk-in closets, one on either side of the room, both large enough to work as small computer rooms. The bedroom, which is a little smaller than the living room, has a larger walk-in closet, and that closet has another small room connected to it! It’s actually a section of attic from the downstairs part of the house, but they put up sheetrock so it could be used as an extra room if you want to (Annie plans to make it a sewing room). The dining room is painted yellow, and is well-lit. It adjoins the kitchen, which has been completely remodeled with modern appliances and new countertops, as well as wrap-around windows, with the downtown view the ad mentioned.

We were already thrilled with the place and ready to sign up when the landlord mentioned that we could store our bikes in the basement we share with the other tenant, by the washer and dryer. That’s right! No more coin-operated laundry for us! And that’s also when I noticed that dangling from the phone jack was a DSL noise filter… which means the previous tenant had DSL, which means that I can get my DSL!

We gave the landlord a down payment last night, and we’re moving in on Saturday. The place is just amazingly perfect for us. It’s in a nice quiet neighborhood, but it’s not too far away from all the stuff we like. It’s only two blocks away from Annie’s work, and there’s a coffee place at the end of the block.

By Saturday, I plan on going over there with Dad’s digital camera and taking a bunch of photos of what the place looks like before we put all our stuff in it. I’ll post those and a floorplan up here as quick as I can.