Aug 1, 2026, 4:31 PMI only had a weekend to find an apartment and was quickly learning that I was up against multiple applicants everywhere I went, so we ended up in this tiny studio overlooking Lake Merritt.
It was vintage AF with a rickety tiny elevator and without anything fancy like a dishwasher or washer/dryer and it was still $2,000/month which was a "good deal" at the time.
Aug 1, 2026, 4:39 PMI was the first person to apply and knew I'd qualify, so I was feeling good and celebrating at a Naughty by Nature concert in San Francisco with @friedoxygen when the girl who currently lived in the apartment called telling me that the person who came after me offered to buy her sofa and bed frame and that it was too good of an offer for her so she was going to choose him unless I'd by both instead.
I was just standing there taking the call in the bathroom like WTF scammy girl but I didn't have any time left to find an apartment so I just paid over $1,000 dumb extra dollars and locked in the apartment.
The sofa was a piece of garbage from IKEA that kept falling apart, but the bed was super nice and probably something I would have bought on my own, anyway, and I still have it to this day, so no regrets there!
@Alice I think there was a story there about moving? But I just want more pictures of that gorgeous tuxedo cat.
Aug 1, 2026, 4:44 PM@ives That's Pixel! He was the raddest/chillest little (big) guy. He passed several years ago, but we had many good years with him.
@Alice Beautiful. Had my own pair of tuxedo cats years ago. And even though I like all cats, I'm still particularly fond of the orca kitties.
@Alice The person who was living in the apartment was also the landlord?
Aug 1, 2026, 5:39 PM@apontious No! She was relocating and cutting her lease short, so she was working with the landlord to find a replacement tenant.
@Alice Lol and using that leverage to extract payment!
Good ol' capitalism.
Aug 1, 2026, 6:04 PM@apontious For real! It was so scammy and I doubt there even was another guy and she just didn't want to move her big pieces of furniture.
But the bed was less than a year old and was like $1K new and it's genuinely nice and it meant I didn't need to move my own bed or sofa, so I was fine with it in the end.
But that IKEA sofa was garbage. It was L-shaped and had this pop-out to make it into a rectangular sofa bed, but it kept detaching so my guests would wake up in the middle of the night on what was essentially an ottoman island.
I would normally get annoyed when my cat would scratch my furniture, but I was to the point of essentially cheering on my cat as he tore it apart so I could justify replacing it.
@Alice That three part table on the left was definitely bought just for the cat, right?
Aug 1, 2026, 5:04 PM@Star12Mt At least Pixel thought so.
Aug 1, 2026, 4:45 PM@Alice I used to live in one of those big old apartment houses overlooking the lake. Coolest place I ever lived, still miss walking to the Grand Lake to catch a movie, or read the marquee telling me Bush did 9/11.
Aug 1, 2026, 5:02 PM@ja2ke Yesss to all of this! Our apartment was in Adams Point and looked out over Lake Merritt which is mostly why I wanted this specific apartment. I loved that I could walk to Grand and turn left and be by the Grand Lake Theater and all of the little restaurants and shops or turn right and be downtown or go south and be right at the lake.
We eventually found a nicer and newer apartment with in unit washer/dryer, dishwasher, A/C, parking, etc. for only $100 more a month so we ended up moving after about a year and a half, but you can't beat that Lake Merritt location.
@Alice Wife and I had our first place together in a little condo on Lakeside Drive. I remember walking to the Kaiser Auditorium to see NIN with The Jim Rose Circus. Good times and a great town.
Aug 1, 2026, 5:00 PM@Alice Oh I've played the "You get to pick where you're going to live RIGHT FUCKING NOW" game but it was also going to be short-term which made it even harder (and more expensive, although still lower than SanFran prices).
I love the cat tax in these.
@Alice I think the white comforter bothered me more because these other pictures looked fine at worst. Maybe not 2k/month good, especially with how dilapidated the building itself apparently is, but it looks like a halfway decent interior designer handled everything serviceably and them left the bed as a giant middle finger to everyone else invovled.
@Alice
I, for one, think the cat ties the room together quite nicely.