Trading Spaces

Oh, the joy of apartment hunting in San Francisco. There are a lot of weird ones out there.

I'm looking for a new place, you see, because I now work in the up and coming IT industry. I work 9-5, get a paid lunch, and a company paid-for fancy cell phone which is basically a tiny computer with a phone built in. So with all these other luxuries going to my head I've decided that I'd like to have more than 1 window. And while I'm at it I think not having to drive around drug deals to get to my street would be nice as well.

The most interesting apartment of the weekend was one in the inner Richmond. I walked along the side of the house to find the apartment's front door nearly a foot and a half off the ground. Not a place for a person with bad knees.

Directly through the front door was the, um, living room? Foyer? One way or the other it was a little tiny linoleumed room with a big closet along one wall. Or so it seemed. In reality it was the portal to the water heater and central forced air heat for the rest of the house. I imagine it might get noisy when the other members of the household got chilly. Although, judging by the space heater in the room, I'm not sure any of that heat is shared with the in-law. Also, judging by the smoke detector dangling from the vent by a piece of wire, they might worry about the space heater.

Another highlight of the foyer is the little table they provide. It was placed right by the window for maximum light and matched the floor. Yep, matched. It had linoleum glued the top.

The bedroom was small but otherwise unremarkable. The kitchen, however, was just super. Much larger than my current kitchen and, like the front door, nearly a foot and a half higher than the room that precedes it. The half of the ceiling closest to the foyer slants down to allow the heating ducts to come off the furnace. I have to think that if they didn't raise the level of the kitchen floor so much they would have had plenty of room for the vents. And conveniently, if you cook like I do, you can shower off after making dinner as the bathroom is right off the kitchen.

And, they don't take cats. I'm still on the lookout.