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Efficiency Sized Apartments
Ok, I've been in my 2 bedroom apartment for about 3yrs now. I like it but sometimes I just feel like it's to dam big for me. My rent is pretty cheap (only $440) but I have to pay gas/electric. That can be expensive bc my ceilings are like at least 13ft!!
Since I live alone, and rarely ever have company, I was considering getting an efficiency. Would that be a good idea or a bad one? I know they can be rather small, so would that be a good move to make or a bad one? I dont' want to live to cramped, but then again, I dont' need as much space as what I have currently. Ideas?
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
I have a one bedroom apartment with nothing in the bedroom. My living room is everything. my kitchen where I put good food to it's untimely demise, then my bathroom, where I put good urine to it's untimely demise...in the bathtub.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
Efficiency means you might as well get yourself a shoe box and keep it on the curb outside the 2 bedroom apartment. How much is it out there anyways for one? I mean if I were you just move to a 1 bedroom.
Basically you can cook dinner, take a poo, and sleep by turning in one circle in an efficiency. I don't recommend it. In fact I moved from a small 1 bedroom where I was going nuts to a larger 1 bedroom and I feel soooooo much better.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TigersMilk
Basically you can cook dinner, take a poo, and sleep by turning in one circle in an efficiency. I don't recommend it. In fact I moved from a small 1 bedroom where I was going nuts to a larger 1 bedroom and I feel soooooo much better.
I don't mind the circle thing. Walking is for chumps!
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
Aren't there fill-in ceilings to minimize heat bills...? I've seen them in Snow Belt state residences. If you can't get your landlord to do that, Put up scads of mosquito netting or just turn down the heat & wear layer clothes indoors...I dont think an efficiency would be good for you....I lived in one & never spent time there...too cramped.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
Its really a matter of tastes. My eyes are very light sensitive, and I don't particularly like the whole openness thing of an efficiency or studio when I sleep. I might feel differently if the bedroom was separated, which to some extent describes my current apartment.
You may want to look into just finding a 1 BR with a lower ceiling, and a hide-a-bed for when you have a guest over.
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I've lived in some nice studios.... they can get rather spacious if you don't have 8 metric tons of shit.
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I once lived in a 440 sqft studio. It would have been OK if it had a dishwasher.
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If you are anything like me, you'll hate the efficiency. I contemplated getting one...until I really looked at them..and I felt claustrophobic.
I would recommend downsizing to a 1 bedroom. You get privacy, smaller space, but still room to stretch out.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
what, no one else wants to say
$440 for a TWO BEDROOM APARTMENT? STFU! Shit, at that price my heating would have to cost more than the rent before I started worrying. I mean, I know you're in Cincy and all, but we paid $1200, had 2500 sq ft that was big and drafty, and still the most our electric/gas ever was was about $250 in a month.
shit. it sure is cheap over there.
Anyhow, back to your point, why would you want to go all the way down to an efficiency? Why not a 1-bdr? And I lived alone in 2-bdrs most of the time before I got married; I liked having one bedroom for an office.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
You might already do this, but one thing that helps conserve heat in too big apartments is to close off the room(s) you don't use much and don't heat them. When you need to use them, it doesn't take long for them to warm up. This saved me a significant amount of money.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
How much cheaper is the efficiency? $440 is cheap. I can't imagine finding even an efficiency around here for that.
I personally like my space and my tall ceilings but if you don't have a lot of stuff and don't mind smaller spaced and the price difference is worth it then go for it. It's all a personal choice.
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lol. i like having no space- pretty weird for someone who grew up in the country!!
i always live in a one bedroom, but sleep in the lounge- the bed room is just a bare empty space. i prefer studios. i dont really care for 'stuff' so i have hardly any posessions. 15sq meters is more then enough for me and my partner to live in.
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Shit, I would say at that price just buy more stuff to make it seem fuller. Wouldnt an efficiency be pretty much the same price but with way less room? I vote with the rest and say go with a 1 bedroom if you must downsize, but I wouldnt if I was you. You never know what might happen and its good to have extra room just in case....
On the other hand, my first apartment ever was a studio and I LOVED it! I still miss it to this day and it was super ghetto and small...ah we never forget our firsts...
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when my man and i move to austin we are looking to get an efficiency, not only for price reasons, but it's just us, and we both would be working alot anyway. We don't have a zillion things, just the things we cant live without (tv, laptop, old school NES, PSP, playstation heheh) really, it is a matter of what you can live with. =)
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Susan Wayward
what, no one else wants to say
$440 for a TWO BEDROOM APARTMENT? STFU! Shit, at that price my heating would have to cost more than the rent before I started worrying. I mean, I know you're in Cincy and all, but we paid $1200, had 2500 sq ft that was big and drafty, and still the most our electric/gas ever was was about $250 in a month.
shit. it sure is cheap over there.
Anyhow, back to your point, why would you want to go all the way down to an efficiency? Why not a 1-bdr? And I lived alone in 2-bdrs most of the time before I got married; I liked having one bedroom for an office.
LOL I knew you were gonna chime in Susan. Ok, so I think an efficiency may just be to small for me. So maybe I'll start looking into a 1bd. My 2nd bedroom was originally for my nieces (when they would come sleep over) but now that my sis and her hubby have a house, they spend more time over there :( So, maybe I will just turn the 2nd bedroom into an office. Or better yet, put a stripper pole up in there. I've been wanting to do that for a while now too.
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
I would stay with the apartment that you have now. $440 a month is a good deal for a 2 bedroom apartment, and I agree with everyone else that an efficiency wouldn't be enough room. I've lived in a studio apartment before and I hated how cramped it was, it always seemed messy just because I had so much stuff and nowhere to put it all, and how there was no bedroom for privacy if you had people over. It wouldn't be worth the little bit of money you'd save, plus there would be the hassle of moving. You could turn the second bedroom into an office or put a pole in there like you said, or turn it into a workout room if you have a treadmill, weights, or anything like that-that's what I did with my spare bedroom. :)
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I pay $1280 for a studio...(I hear gasps... keep in mind I live in Nob Hill, that's just how the market is around here) Keep your nice, spacious apartment. Make a hobby or gameroom or something. I would love to have the space to do that. Or downsize to 1 bdrm. Trust me, you will miss having the extra space of a seperate living room. *sigh* :(
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Re: Efficiency Sized Apartments
Heh. When I lived in Buffalo, I had a 3 bedroom for $400. And it had hardwood floors, parking, laundry, storage and a big front porch. We could do whatever we wanted in there. I miss that apartment so much!
If there's anything I miss about home, it's the super low cost of living.
I say keep your current apartment! Heat conservatively by turning down the thermostat when you leave the house or go to sleep. If you ever feel drafts coming in through your window, check your lease because usually landlords are responsible for providing plastic for you to cover your windows. They make some kinda foam stuff too that can fill gaps temporarily. If your place is anything like the old east coast architecture I know, then your windows might be kinda old and drafty.
You can also cut out drafts from under outside doors by placing a rolled up old beach towel at the bottom. My grandma used to make these knitted snake things for stopping door drafts.
Also make sure your gas company is not giving you an "estimated" bill either. Sometimes that can be way higher than an actual meter reading.
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Miss Jessica, whenever I visit my sister up there, she wants to go to all these places around "Nob Hill" and look at the houses and stuff. EVERY time I hear that, it cracks me up. Hehehe, "knob", hehehehehehehehe. :)
I'm tempted to make a thread to find out everyone's rent! I mean, $440 for a two bedroom apartment?!?!?!?!?
I also vote that you just get a one bedroom. How much would that lower your rent by?
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Damn,these prices.....In DC a studio is about $1500,in a better secure building.I would love seeing prices that some of you listed over here...Time to move...
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Ohh I love hardwood floors so much. To bad my apt doesn't have that. On a plus side, I do have a dishwasher :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlexxaHex
Also make sure your gas company is not giving you an "estimated" bill either. Sometimes that can be way higher than an actual meter reading.
Wow, I never thought much about getting an actual meter reading vs. estimated. I'm gonna call them today and find out!
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440 for a two bedroom????!!!!! DON'T MOVE! Omg I could only have that kind of rent in my dreams. Get the stripper pole, you would need a whole empty room for that anyways I'd imagine.
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I used to have an eficiency apt and I loved it and i would go back in a heartbeat.
I moved for all the wrong reasons... now I pay $1350 instead of $650.
IDIOT thats me.
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hey 242... i LOVE the quote in your siggy.