MyNewPlace Blog

A move into a new apartment is such a well suited time to institute the kind of lifestyle changes that people tend to consider from December 31st until, oh let's say February 1st. (we'll grant that it was a particularly ambitious year and New Year's Resolutions didn't quite become total parodies of themselves for about a month) And honestly, moving into a new apartment is much more conducive to self improvement than the day after the holiday season closes.

Consider the differences between the scenarios; a New Year's Resolution is basically promising your present self that your future self will take care of whatever is afflicting your present self based on the facts that 1) the holiday season has perhaps highlighted some personal areas of self-consciousness and 2) the number of revolutions the Earth has made around the sun has very personal implications.

By contrast, moving into a new apartment is taking the first positive step towards eradicating at least some of the Pavlovian conditioning factors that engendered the bad habits that people tend to pick up and, at the same time opens up all sorts of wonderful ways to live a more resourceful, healthy lifestyle.

For example, the old apartment, it was located right next to the bar, Pizza Hut was on speed dial and the balcony was furnished with an all weather recliner for smoking. The new apartment, however, is within walking distance to the gym and the grocery store in addition to featuring the wonderful amenities of a patio grill and a pool for relaxing weekday nights.

With this concept in mind, we are going to concentrate, in the next few weeks, on ways to be a little more resourceful, to be a little healthier and to get more out of apartment life. Like these people, who despite personifying the elevator music version of Rockin' in the Free World, seem to be getting the most out of apartment life:

Issue Number 1: Cable? Get that Out of Here

When the roommate whose name was on the Comcast bill moved out last week, the remaining roommates agreed that television, not religion, was the true opiate of the masses, and we were going into detox. Now, this opens up a pretty large hole in the after work but before sleep schedule. We'll discuss creative things (aside from the obvious novel-a-week pipe dream) that are way more entertaining than your regularly scheduled programming. The indication that a need for change exists could very well be the uninspiring notion that watching a device that presents contrived stories with pompous life lessons is the most enjoyable way to spend your free time. We'll discuss ways to find better things to do during the week as well as ways to avoid completely revoking modern technology.

Issue Number 2: Use Every Part of the Buffalo

Start cooking for yourself in order to save money, learn the 2nd most practical skill in life and get healthier. Just picking up a cookbook can be very overwhelming, timely and costly. For example, it is useless and discouraging to return from the market realizing that you spent more money on meal provisions than you would have spent on a fancy dinner at a high class establishment, and all for exotic ingredients that you will never use again. We'll use some great online resources and helpful videos that will accomplish those three aforementioned goals. Videos tend to distinguish the difference between chopped and minced as well as how “brown" a lightly browned chicken breast is supposed to be.

Issue Number 3: TBD

I am sure that we'll think of something.

Editor's Note: This is a guest post from our friends over at Relocation.com, who will be providing us with information on how to gracefully handle relocating.

Entire books could be written on mistakes people make when planning their move.

Thankfully, we've distilled it down into 5 of the major ones.

1. Packing Panic

OK, more alliteration: people who panic often up procrastinating. Then they throw everything together quickly, and things get lost or broken in the move, and you get majorly stressed. A simple plan entails gathering together all of your moving supplies before your move and setting them aside in their proper rooms, labeling your boxes in a way that lets you know what you should unpack first, and keeping a detailed inventory of what's in each box. Don't put it off.

1. Procrastinating

Many things can be done well before your move — you can change your address, switch your utilities, get all your medical reports ready to be transferred, and pack items you won't need for the next months. Do them now — you'll feel better about your move, and you'll have less stress on your moving day.

1. Misunderstanding Options for Insurance

Hey, it's a move: Things can go wrong. Your household items likely won't be covered under your homeowners insurance policy, and the default insurance from your moving company is minimal. So check out options for higher coverage, either through your moving company, or a third-party insurer. And remember this: if you pack your own boxes and suffer damage, your insurance probably won't cover you.

1. Letting Expenses Get Away From You

Moving is like when you buy a house and all the costs associated with the home loans start adding up: Just like then, your moving costs add up, so prepare for them by drawing up a budget of likely expenses and have the funds to pay for them. Some of these include travel to your new home (lodging and gas expenses), auto transport, temporary living expenses, insurance, and any deposits to set up your new utilities.

1. Not Taking Care of the Pets or the Kids

When a mover is a moving a 200-hundred pound couch, you don't want small animals or children around. So either find someone who can watch them for the day, keep them confined for a room in your house, or use a kennel (for your pets, of course).

If you have more questions about moving, need some advice or trying to figure out whether it's worth it to move yourself, check out the MyNewPlace Moving Guide for more articles.

It seems like every few months we come across a story about the controversy that surrounds a person's right to smoke in their apartment versus the rights of other residents to have a smoke free apartment.

Certainly an apartment owner has the right to ban smoking in their building and many are choosing to do so in order to command higher rents. The question is whether a local city government should impose restrictions on multifamily properties.

(photo courtesy of Mia Mabanta)

Over the past year we have seen some smaller California towns prohibit smoking in multifamily properties; Belmont banned all smoking from all multifamily properties, Dublin courts granted a restraining order to one couple to keep a smoking neighbor away and Oxnard required that senior public housing be made smoke-free.

Now, apartments in Tacoma, Washington may soon face similar restrictions. A study by the Human Rights and Human Services Department was presented to the city council's Neighborhoods and Housing Committee last month, which highlighted the fact that secondhand smoke is the third-leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.

Although the officials made no specific recommendations and council members took no actions, the report seems to have focused on multifamily apartments as a target area; prohibiting smoking in apartments would be one of the most effective ways to curb exposure to secondhand smoke.

The report laid out different options for the city, from an outright ban of smoking in all multifamily properties to keeping a percentage of units in each building smoke free. The report acknowledged that the most difficult part of any ban would be enforcement, and offered incentive programs to landlords who would take on the responsibility of enacting and enforcing any legal actions.

About a year ago, we wrote about how many apartment owners were opting to keep their apartments smoke free. Have property managers or renters witnessed that trend continue?

Last night, we added some new functionality to our apartment details pages that will show you what's in the neighborhood. We feel that your ‘neighborhood's amenities' (grocery stores, restaurants, schools, banks, places of worship, bars, pharmacies, Laundromats, etc.) are just as important to deciding where to live as what is inside your apartment.

So now, when you are looking at a particular apartment's page on MyNewPlace, (shown below), you will also be able to use Google Map search functionality to see what else is in the neighborhood. We provide a few suggestions in green on the right, but you can certainly enter anything that you are looking for in the search field at the bottom right of the map.

Also, if you are looking for directions from your apartment anywhere, simply type in the address right below the map to check what to expect from your commute or travel distances to any destination.

What kinds of things do you want in your neighborhood? For me, three consecutive storefronts indicate a thriving economic center, regardless of the retail items and artisanal quality contained within. A nice bar with beers and jokes helps, too.

Following a weekend of 60 degrees and above, the urgency with which we are putting up the final step in keeping your apartment warm this winter has somewhat dissipated. The probability that we take our own advice on this one is also yet to be determined, but for those renters in a colder climate, using a vaporizer or humidifier to keep moisture in the air can aid insulation.

Nonetheless, this last step is important because it will keep your apartment warmer without turning up the heat as well as improving the hospitability of your apartment in the probable case that you catch the flu this winter.

By using a humidifier or vaporizer to keep the air from drying out, the air in your apartment will hold warmth more effectively. Also, your apartment will be a much better suited for recuperation, as a more humid climate will not dry out your nasal passages and it will allow for a more productive cough. Another great way to keep your apartment healthy is will certain detoxifying plants, which are also helpful for when either you or your roommates are sick.

According to one anecdotal account, a renter was able to keep their thermostat 5 degrees lower after employing the use of a humidifier.

After doing some research, it seems to us that a vaporizer is a better option for a cold and until very recently, drafty apartment because it boils water and releases the steam into your apartment. This makes the water vapor 1) warm, and 2) eliminates the spread of any mineral or bacteria that is in the water.

Now, it is important to first insulate your apartment against the outside elements with the techniques laid out in last week's blog posts. Make sure that you are not losing heat through your windows or through other holes in your walls, such as electrical outlets and under door gaps. If you try to run a vaporizer without having an insulated apartment, you will just be cold and damp, which are not advisable conditions for anyone, sick or not.

So, a quick rundown; first, touch your windows, if they are cold, create an air pillow by using insulating plastic film. Then, plug up all the other leaks in your house, paying special attention to outlets and door gaps. Once your apartment is sufficiently insulated, use a vaporizer to put moisture in the air, which will help retain heat.

For some unknown reason, the temperature inside of our apartment is actually colder than it is outside. This inversion is the source of much consternation among the roommates and I have noticed that this phenomenon is also present in some other San Francisco apartments.

What option is left to the renter who seeks to fortify their apartment rental from such wintry elements; especially those so mystifying that they defy the laws of the meteorological universe?

The renter, however, is left with some good options in this scenario since you can easily make some simple apartment renovations that will keep the outside on the outside, the inside warm and your heating bills down.

Basically, all that you really want to do is insulate your apartment. First, identify areas like windows, doors and even electrical outlets that let in colder air.

For windows, the easiest insulation technique is using plastic film to create a barrier of air between the cold glass of the window and the air in the apartment. You can purchase the plastic film at any hardware store and tape it to your windowsill.

Measure it out, cut off the excess, tape it down with either the provided adhesive or use masking tape and then blow dry the plastic until it is taut. This method will allow you to see through your windows as well as you did before, (it's not like putting a garbage bag over a busted rear window) and it will create a pillow of air that will insulate your apartment. Just as glass conducts temperature, air insulates it.

Serendipitous legal circumstances may have contributed to the establishment of a new legal precedent in one northern California town located east of the San Francisco Bay; citizens of Dublin, CA may now be eligible to file temporary restraining orders to escape secondhand smoke.

(photo courtesy of Mia Mabanta)

From an article in the Contra Costa Times, we learned that an Alameda County Court judge granted a temporary restraining order to a couple who complained that their downstairs neighbor had violated a town nuisance ordinance by smoking near their residence. Read the rest of this entry »

(picture courtesy of Mia Mabanta)

Unlike finding an apartment for rent on MyNewPlace, renting a car is a logic defying process of truly stultifying proportions. What capricious madman makes up these rates, why do they change so much and why can't you return a car on a Sunday night?

For example, in San Francisco, if you are renting a car for the weekend, it is actually cheaper to take a cab (which is $40) down to San Francisco International Airport and rent a car there rather than rent a car from within city limits. You can save even more money if you take the BART (the San Francisco Bay Area's subway) down to the airport, which costs $6.

Although this is a wicked inconvenience, with all things considered it is still far superior to actually owning your own car in the city. Part of the appeal of moving into an apartment downtown or close to public transportation is that you can get around pretty easily without the expense and hassle of owning a car. For some, jettisoning the costs and responsibilities of owning a car is quite liberating. Read the rest of this entry »

(photo courtesy of Mia Mabanta)

After last week's Apartment Rental Match Game, it became abundantly clear to me that I urgently needed to seek consultation for decorating my apartment. This unnatural inclination to spruce things up was prompted by the fact that many of the games participants incorrectly matched a dog named Henri with my room.

So, I began the search for ideas much the same way I would search for apartments for rent, on the internet. The site Rental Decorating Digest provides a pretty comprehensive guide full of tips and information on how to approach interior design for your apartment.

Another great site that I was familiar with through my roommate was Casa Sugar, which features articles on stylish and trendy home furnishings. Admittedly, their ideas offer a bit more than would be appropriate for a domicile such as mine, but they certainly do offer some creative suggestions that look really cool.

More on my level are the suggestions from Oh My Apartments article, Decorating from Smart Garage Sale Purchases. They recommend having a good idea of what you are looking for before you head out and start buying things, cautioning readers how easy it is to get carried away and end up with an apartment full of furniture that takes up space rather than serves a function.

Most puzzling to me, however, is what to adorn my walls with. I would like to upgrade from the current status of things (maps of San Francisco and surrounding areas duct taped to the walls) to something a bit more aesthetically pleasing.

What do renters out there have on their walls for decoration? How do you mount such things? Duct tape is probably the most reliable substance I have ever used, but its ability to hold posters on a wall is frustratingly pitiful.

Let us know, or, better yet, send us pictures of your apartment for the next round of Apartment Rental Match Game!

In honor of the fact that today is Friday, and our fair city of San Francisco will be brimming with revelry throughout the weekend due to the Outside Lands Music Festival, we wanted to share an appropriate and indispensable online tool.

StumblingDonkey.com is a map-based happy hour search for San Francisco, Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. This crucial information is displayed on citywide maps powered by Google; clicking on the red markers will display the name of the bar, the special, its contact information and a link to Yelp.

This blows prior happy hour innovations right out of the water. I can remember thinking an Excel spreadsheet with a list of happy hours organized by day and neighborhood was the greatest thing since the Patriots lost the Super Bowl.

The site uses the same concept that we bring to our apartment search. Location is critical, whether you are looking for an apartment for rent, or looking for the most cost-effective way in which to increase your blood alcohol content.

This could also be a good site to check during an apartment search. Some find it desirable to have a nice neighborhood bar to stop by after work; this feature is a glaring omission from Walkscore.

Where would you rather have a local watering hole, near your office or your apartment?