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I am giving serious consideration to moving.
I’ve lived in the house on Bay State Ave for 5 years and have been Lead Tenant for 3.
I love this neighborhood and once loved this house, and it will hurt to leave when I do. But I can’t go on in a situation where I am increasingly regarded as a utility rather than a paying human tenant with a life.
The responsibilities of Lead Tenant were originally to collect/deposit rent, call contractors and plumbers as needed, and keep the yard picked up. This, in exchange for a small reduction in rent. Things would still be fine if it had stayed that way. One of the problems with being personal friends with one’s long-distance landlord is that it becomes difficult to say no when they need extra help and favors. He lives in California and is broke. I’m here and am being increasingly perceived as an installed household appliance.
The breaking point:
For the past 8 weeks I have been effectively tethered to the house to help in the fruitless crusade to rent out the downstairs 3-bedroomshit hole apartment. I am expected to make myself available at a moment’s notice day or night to show it to disinterested yuppie maggots prospective tenants, with not one bit of concession to my work or personal schedule. While I’d be glad to disembowel help my landlord and the people looking for apartments, I can’t continue in a living situation that trespasses into every sector of my life that matters to me. I have to miss classes at the gym, social functions, the morning exercise walks that I love, all to show the apartment. I’ve had to show it at 5:30 AM, was asked to show it at 9:30 PM on a Saturday night when I had plans (said no), and am taking heat because I’ll be gone for 3 days next week in SoCal. It'll rent eventually, sure. But then the 2nd floor apartment will need to be shown at the end of summer. This would be a perfect living situation for a little old man with a tool belt who never leaves the premises. I’m not that. I’d rather pay a higher rent somewhere else and have my human freedom back than go on in this restricted, utilitarian set of circumstances.
I can’t move now, because as a temp I won’t pass screening with any sane landlord. I’ll need to wait until I land a permanent position. If/when I do move, it will probably have to be to JP. As much as I love Davis Square, I couldn’t realistically afford anything else here, and I’d sever my jugular before moving further out into the suburbs at this juncture. I could do worse than JP, though. There’s a vibrant arts community there, as vital as Somerville’s. Still, where would I be going? My friend group there is aging so rapidly around me, and the social agenda there has eroded to watching videotapes of TV programs, and book clubs centered around one self-help book or another. If I want to go out for live music, and I always want to, I just go by myself now because absolutely nobody will pull themselves off the couch anymore. I don’t even bother asking. Shit, these are the same people I used to be in bands with, used to raise hell in P’town with. I have Theatre@First in Somerville. That’s enough to keep me occupied in Davis until the moving options open up and I decide what I want to do.
Home should be a sanctuary, not a second job.
Wow, my first real rant in this journal. Uh... sorry.
I’ve lived in the house on Bay State Ave for 5 years and have been Lead Tenant for 3.
I love this neighborhood and once loved this house, and it will hurt to leave when I do. But I can’t go on in a situation where I am increasingly regarded as a utility rather than a paying human tenant with a life.
The responsibilities of Lead Tenant were originally to collect/deposit rent, call contractors and plumbers as needed, and keep the yard picked up. This, in exchange for a small reduction in rent. Things would still be fine if it had stayed that way. One of the problems with being personal friends with one’s long-distance landlord is that it becomes difficult to say no when they need extra help and favors. He lives in California and is broke. I’m here and am being increasingly perceived as an installed household appliance.
The breaking point:
For the past 8 weeks I have been effectively tethered to the house to help in the fruitless crusade to rent out the downstairs 3-bedroom
I can’t move now, because as a temp I won’t pass screening with any sane landlord. I’ll need to wait until I land a permanent position. If/when I do move, it will probably have to be to JP. As much as I love Davis Square, I couldn’t realistically afford anything else here, and I’d sever my jugular before moving further out into the suburbs at this juncture. I could do worse than JP, though. There’s a vibrant arts community there, as vital as Somerville’s. Still, where would I be going? My friend group there is aging so rapidly around me, and the social agenda there has eroded to watching videotapes of TV programs, and book clubs centered around one self-help book or another. If I want to go out for live music, and I always want to, I just go by myself now because absolutely nobody will pull themselves off the couch anymore. I don’t even bother asking. Shit, these are the same people I used to be in bands with, used to raise hell in P’town with. I have Theatre@First in Somerville. That’s enough to keep me occupied in Davis until the moving options open up and I decide what I want to do.
Home should be a sanctuary, not a second job.
Wow, my first real rant in this journal. Uh... sorry.