|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 12:19 pm
"Is this... correct?" Nataniel asked flatly as he squinted dark eyes to try and make out the faded foil number that had long since been all but scraped off the mailbox at the end of the street. He unclasped his phone from the clip holster in the dash of his bike and leaned back against the seat to scroll through the pictures of a "for-lease" house they'd seen advertised. The pics had seemed a little old, and they certainly weren't showcasing anything newly renovated, but they still looked better than the house they'd pulled up to.
Nat had arrived at the designated address on his motorcycle, with Basyl in tow. They were really starting to scrape the line for the other man's move-out date, and if they waited much longer they wouldn't have time to actually move the piles of "collectibles" Basyl kept.
Being two recently-graduated adult men with a trail of college debt in their wakes, the budget was pretty modest, so looking around in the scuzzier part of town seemed...
It was a place to start, anyway.
And this looked like about what they should expect for the area. The house had been nice in its prime, if a little boxy. Two stories with cracked, dark paneling and a small screened-in mudroom toward the back. A detached one car garage, with a walkway littered with cracks and overgrown grasses. The whole of the yard was somehow both untrimmed and brown, with scraggly grey vines snaking up the sides and unkempt bushes sprouting into the porch from the front garden. None of the windows were broken, but Nataniel didn't have to look too hard to see that they were single-paned and poorly insulated, with paint scraping off the sills.
It was labeled as a two-bedroom with a basement, and it looked to need all the work promised in the ad and more.
He eyed the house and its unruly yard and dead trees and cracked pathway, and glanced up to the potentially unstable roof, and out to the empty driveway where the owner would probably be pulling up eventually to let them view the place, before looking back over his shoulder at Basyl. "Do you still want to look inside? There are probably other places nearby in less disarray..." Though nothing they'd seen on Zillow or apartments.com had quite met everything they were hoping to find.
They were, unfortunately, hoping for quite a bit.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2021 7:15 am
“Think so,” Basyl assured as he hefted himself straighter, so as to be able to peer over Nataniel’s shoulder at his phone screen, where the rent information was pulled up. He glanced back at the house. It was definitely in way worse off condition than his pretty, well-kept apartment complex close to the hospital. But it was also an entire standalone house within their budget, with a crazy amount of square feet for all of Basyl’s things. He didn’t want to count it out, yet. Anything else would for sure be much smaller and more cluttered with his belongings. An easy trigger to agitate his roommate.
The woman he’d spoken to when he made the appointment sounded so excited that anyone would give it a chance. She’d assured him that it was completely liveable. Good bones, even if a little ugly. Definitely safe.
Which he worried over the need to mention, but…? He didn’t know that much about house buying or renting. Maybe it was standard practice to assure potential tenants that things were one hundred percent safe.
He swung his leg off the bike, hoping that the forwardness of checking it out would encourage Nataniel to do the same. It wasn’t so awful! It just needed work! “We knew it’d be bad, s-so, y’know, no reason to pretend otherwise. I-it looks- I mean, it is a whole house, at least. Do you want to walk around the other side while we wait, and see what other damages there are? This is just the outside, so maybe the inside…”
Probably wasn’t nicer, and even Basyl didn’t think it was worth insinuating it was. But it existed. It existed, and they could afford it, and they already had the appointment with the woman.
Basyl fidgeted with the loose hems of the old shirt he’d worn out today, twisting a stray string around his finger. He didn’t want to say he knew of a couple ways to encourage the other man to hang out a bit longer, but- “We would’ve wasted all the time coming out here if we left without even looking. It won’t take long to see the inside, I’m sure?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Oct 18, 2021 12:17 pm
Nataniel let out a strained sigh, put the bike in park, clicked it off, and dismounted. It would be a waste if they did a quick drive by and didn’t scope anything out. But he did not personally believe that there was anything worth seeing here. Even the internet pictures showed that the inside wasn’t immaculate. There were wobbly floorboards, dim lighting, old fixtures, outdated decor… And that was just what the pictures showed! All the little cracks and issues wouldn’t become apparent until after they’d had the chance to experience the house in full.
He wasn’t convinced he wanted the experience, and he didn’t know how “fixing” things went when he would just be a tenant.
“Might as well look,” he grumbled in acquiescence, though he did not even try to feign enthusiasm for it. Basyl was optimistic. Truly a curse. Admittedly the amount of space was much more important to the lavender-haired man than it was to Nataniel. As long as things were neat, that would be good enough for him, even if the place was small.
But Basyl had so many things. So many things that he had no interest in surrendering. Nat almost thought a large space would give the impression he was fine with so many necessary items. They’d be better off getting something more modest, but taken care of.
They could do a quick survey of the place, but Nat was already mostly against it.
They walked around to the side of the house they couldn’t see from the street. The grass was overgrown all the way around, and it was quite a huge yard that he was almost positive they would be expected to take care of. There was a pile of litter (old boards and crumbly bricks) tucked to the back side of the screened-in mudroom. THings they’d probably be tasked with discarding, themselves.
It made him exhausted to think too hard about it.
“I am not sure we have the free time required to upkeep someplace this large, even if it was already well-put together… A big yard, and three stories, all in a complete mess. It seems like too much for us.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 07, 2021 2:16 pm
Basyl was content to do a quick circuit around the outside before the owner showed up. He couldn’t express enough that yes, it needed work. But there wasn’t going to be more bang for their buck, no matter where they went.
Just a nicer bang, probably.
“Come on, it’s not so bad?” He tried to encourage. “L-like, yeah, the initial time investment would be kind of a lot, but once all this yard is mowed down and cleaned up, once the cracks are spackled, a-and… new windows, probably. Some paint, the weeds in the driveway pulled- I don’t even know what the inside of the garage looks like? It could be truly unusable. The kitchen had tiled countertops in the pictures, so that actually seems pretty gross. I wouldn’t want to slap raw food on that…”
Okay, so he’d been hopeful. He was still somewhat hopeful…?
Alright, he had to admit seeing it and talking about it did make him consider that it would be a lot of work. They both had full time jobs, with Basyl working late or weird hours often. A lot of this work would fall to Nat, so of course he should be considerate and not push too hard…
“W-well, I mean, if we need to keep looking, I understand. Let’s just keep an open mind, okay? Most of what we’ve checked out so far has been so basic standard.” Little apartments around town, or cute duplexes. Some were very nice! They just didn’t hit all the two-bed, two-bath, 1000 square feet, pets allowed, washer/dryer hookups, dedicated laundry room, sizable kitchen, preferably under $1000. This had all of that!
It was just ugly as sin.
By the time they’d done their rounds, a car was pulling up in the crumbling driveway. An older woman was quick to hobble out when she saw them, and she approached the edge of the driveway and waved at them to come back over. She seemed so excited. Completely opposite of Nataniel.
Basyl gave him a little, reassuring pat on that back, then whispered a gentle, “Come on,” as he headed toward the woman.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2022 9:19 am
Basyl was worried about the “initial investment,” but lawns didn’t stop growing after one mow. Houses didn’t cease needing to be cleaned after they were renovated. Basyl kept a lot of junk, so he didn’t have much space that needed cleaning. Just items tucked into all the nooks and crannies he could find. But this much space would require time Nataniel didn’t think either of them had.
Between work, the Negaverse, and an incessant want to do nothing, Nat didn’t want to keep up with a lot of extra space… And he was not especially open-minded about it.
But that didn’t make him rude. Basyl could do most of the talking, anyway.
They walked over to the woman, a smiling thing with wide glasses that took up half her face, and short, curled grey-brown hair. “Welcome, welcome!” She was so exuberant, giving an excited little clap as they neared, before extending a hand to shake each of theirs in turn. “I’m Julia. I’m so pleased to have someone finally call about this place. I thought it would be so easy to rent out in a college town- all these students! But it hasn’t landed anyone yet. Very sad. It’s a good house!”
“My name is Nataniel. It is nice to meet you,” Nataniel stated as he shook her hand before stepping back to allow the same for Basyl. “We are happy to be able to look.” That seemed polite. “We started looking to get out of our current place later than we might have liked, so we are a little desperate.” His dark gaze lingered back on the house before returning to her fully.
He just wasn’t sure if they were this desperate.
If Julia read the look, she didn’t seem bothered. She started down the driveway toward the back entrance, waving them to follow her as she fished around in her purse for the house keys. “Well, this is the place for you, then! Come on, let’s have a look. I haven’t been up in a few weeks… It looks like things have gotten a little overgrown…”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2022 7:50 am
If nothing else, the woman was enthusiastic, and Basyl could hardly begrudge her for being excited about the prospect of additional income. While she definitely wasn’t on-the-cusp-of-death old, she did look old enough that it might be difficult to maintain long work hours. He hoped this wasn’t all she had to support her…
“I’m Basyl,” he introduced, as she reached to take his hand.
And then they headed toward the house.
At the mention that the place had gotten overgrown, Basyl decided this was as good a time as any to make sure who was in charge of yard maintenance. “Do you have someone come up to mow very often? Oooor, is it something we’d have to worry about? It’s kind of a lot of land,” he hedged, but also doubted she was out here doing it herself-
And nope. “You’ll have to clip the grass,” she replied as she just started fumbling with the key in the lock. “There’s a lawnmower in the garage, there, so you won’t have to buy one. But if there’s anything like ant hills or wasp nests, you know, something that needs to be sprayed for, you just call me and let me know, honey. I will take care of things like that.”
Okay, so, no surprise that the day-to-day stuff, but at least maintenance would still be handled for them, just like if they were in an apartment? He shot a quick, nervous smile in Nat’s direction as the woman got the door open, and in they went.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2022 8:00 am
Keeping up with an entire yard was more outside chores than Nataniel had ever been tasked with, and he knew it would be him to do it, in this scenario. Basyl would be gone more of the day than he would be. He sighed softly. At least it would be winter in a few months. Grass and bugs would be less of an issue, then.
He didn’t see Basyl’s little smile, distracted instead by the interior of the house. The screened-in mudroom was as expected. Most of that could be seen from the outside. It wasn’t large, but had a few shelves built into the wall for shoes beneath the windows, and hooks for large garden tools next to the door.
From there they entered the kitchen: a dimly lit space with the promised tile countertops, grimy-looking wood laminate floors, off-white cabinetry, and lacking refrigerator and dishwasher. Amenities Nataniel was accustomed to having. He glanced to Julia. “Are there any plans to install a refrigerator?” Since he didn’t see a space for a dishwasher, it was hard to expect that. But most rentals he’d encountered had at least come with a fridge!
The woman gave him a sheepish sort of look. “No, sorry. You will have to provide that on your own. But if there are any updated fixtures you want to match whatever hardware you bring in, I’m happy to order them for you!”
Updated fixtures? Nataniel squinted at the knobs on the drawers and cabinets, then up to the overhead light. “I am not sure I understand.”
“Oh, I mean, I know it’s a little inhospitable here, so I don’t mind updating things to make it more comfortable! I can’t do anything very extravagant, but I can work with you to pick out some things that look nice and fresh.”
“Such as?” Nataniel prompted.
“Well, I can’t change the floors or the countertops or the cabinets, but I can help you paint or add little handles to the cupboards. Everything will be fully cleaned up by the time you move in- no spiderwebs or anything, but I know some of this is quite old, and I’d like to fix it up a little.”
He didn’t say anything, but his gaze flicked questioningly to the weird, small, yellow-lit, chained chandelier dangling overhead.
Julia followed his look and gave an enthusiastic nod. “We could change something like that! My son was the one who lived here before it was for rent. He’s already gone and moved, but he’s handy enough! I think he would help me install things, if you wanted to do something like that.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2022 11:41 am
More than long grass or dingy interior, Basyl only had eyes for the space. There was so much floor here. He’d never had a mud room, and the kitchen (while it certainly had its problems) looked big! Not a lot of counter space, but plenty of room to put in shelves for more. It wasn’t exactly open-concept, either, but so much space! From the mudroom, it had a door out either side, one presumably to the dining room, and one to a hallway that led to the front door.
It wasn’t ‘nice.’ It wasn’t ‘pretty.’ But with some TLC, it could certainly be good enough for them (and a suitable spot for all the kitchen ceramics Basyl had collected over the years).
He nodded agreeably to the woman’s words. Okay. Okaaay. And if they could do a little remodeling while they were there, that wasn’t so bad! A fresh coat of paint for these dreary walls, and some shiny new hardware would make everything seem brighter and newer, and if something worse happened, like a floor caved in or something, it wouldn’t be coming out of their pockets! That sounded pretty good to Basyl. All- or most of the benefits of renting with the space of an actual house!
He didn’t see anything he couldn’t live with. One good scrub to get everything in order initially, and then cleaning up after themselves would be easy after that. There were only two of them. Handwashing dishes wasn’t that hard, and they could… find a cheap fridge on craigslist or facebook marketplace.
Basyl was sure his own family would be willing to help. Even if he’d long since moved out on his own, his mother would still be so pleased if she could walk into his house and not be “swamped with clutter.” His Mama could help them find any appliances. His Pa could show him how to like… do handy things. It was a chore, he knew. And he understood why Nat wasn’t enthused about the work, but in the long run of comfort over the next year, wouldn’t it be better to not be flitting in and out of an apartment complex, where any number of eyes could see them and learn their patterns?
“That sounds amazing,” Basyl said as he flit to open some of the cabinets to check shelving and depth. “Was he in charge of the place before? As in tending to it and fixing and such?”
“Oh, sort of!” She said jubilantly. “My husband and I were fortunate enough to have a few properties to rent out, and when my son was old enough, he moved into this one for a fraction of the rent. He’s lived here for about five years, while he was in college, and we never saw any reason to harass him about things, so long as he wasn’t being destructive. It wasn’t especially updated when he moved in, and now… Well, it’s a little worse for wear.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 04, 2022 10:23 am
Basyl was too excited.
Nataniel kept a side-eyed look on him as the other man started checking out cabinets and drawers and a little side pantry. The enthusiasm was not shared. Basyl didn’t need all the things he had. It was more important for them to find something low-maintenance and comfortable. Even if the landlady seemed jubilant and was happy giving them mostly free reign to alter as they pleased… Nataniel didn’t want to need to alter things.
He just wanted a safe, homey place to relax during the extremely infrequent availability they had to do so, and it was difficult to get past that thought enough to even consider what he should ask if he was still treating this place as a viable option.
"Everything works?" He prompted. "All the outlets, all the switches? The A/C, the heater, stove burners?"
Julia seemed a little taken aback by the question, but she gave a little shrug. "As far as I know. My son never complained."
Nataniel couldn't help but think that of course he wouldn't complain if something wasn't working, given that he would be one of the parties responsible for fixing it. That was the thing with these family-operated sort of rentals. They weren't held to the same expectation one might hope from an actual business.
They moved on to an adjacent dining room, still with the same grimy-looking wood-panel flooring and another ridiculous chandelier. This place must be at least a century old and not renovated since its inception... It wasn't an especially large dining room, but then, Nataniel didn't expect to be hosting many dining parties where a large table would be required. If anything, he expected this would be the room where Basyl stored all his various nick-knacks, since neither of their apartments previously had had a dedicated dining room, and since they'd done without one so far, it didn't seem necessary to have one now.
There was otherwise nothing to see here. At least there was no garish wallpaper, just a yellowish paint that wasn't help out all by the strange lighting situation.
Nataniel sent Basyl a look that he hoped appropriately expressed how unimpressed with the situation he was. He didn't particularly want to feel like he was living in the '60's, and it seemed like it would be a lot of work to a place they only wanted to stay in a year while their post-college finances stabilized. Hopefully next year they'd be able to afford a significantly nicer apartment-
...Even separately, if that was how it worked out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
