Any adult occupants need to be added to the lease per our landlord, and the lease won’t expire until April of next year. For that reason, we can’t accept anyone who’s only looking for short-term housing.
Rent is $1200/mo; you’d be expected to pay $400/mo toward that. As tenants, we’re also liable for water, electricity, and internet; trash removal is covered by the city and the truck comes by on Thursday morning. Utilities come out to roughly $150 altogether, so about $50/person. The bills can vary based on usage, but as long as everyone stays conscious of their water/electrical consumption, it shouldn’t change much. The other roommate handles the payments for rent and utilities, but she shares screenshots of the bills and payment confirmations in a household group chat, so you’ll know where your contributions are going.
Vaping is fine, but no indoor smoking of any kind, please. Not only is it prohibited per our lease, but I’m also on probation (first offense DUI after a Halloween party last year) and could get in serious trouble if my probation officer drops by and smells something.
The house has hard flooring in the common areas and carpet in the bedrooms. It’s one level with an unfinished basement, which is accessible via the bathroom and an outdoor hatch. The basement is currently empty (we’re going to try and get some shelving down there eventually, but it’s pretty low-priority compared to other household needs). We don’t have a washer/dryer yet, but we have hookups and will be getting the machines within the next month. The bathtub has eight built-in shelves and only five are in use, so there’s plenty of space to keep your toiletries there. The common space is still pretty empty, so if you have any furniture or decor you want to bring, you’re more than welcome to do so. The only thing we ask is that it’s clean; we’ve had issues with a prior roommate bringing infested furniture into the house, and we don’t want to have to deal with that again. We’ve already sprayed both of our bedrooms and removed the affected furniture to prevent an ongoing issue, but we’ll be sure to thoroughly clean your room prior to move-in as well.
The room itself is on the small side; it’s just big enough to fit a queen-sized bed, but I’d recommend a smaller one or a futon that can fold up if you don’t want to have to squeeze. There are two closets and a cupboard built into the wall to make up for the lack of square footage; if you have a small dresser, you might be able to fit it into one of the closets to keep the floor space open.
The neighborhood is your average downtown suburb. If you need to take the bus, there’s a Red Line (Elkhart to Goshen) stop about a 10 minute walk from the house. There are also a handful of convenience stores and small markets within reasonable walking distance, so if you like shopping at local businesses as opposed to major chains, this is a really good spot to settle in for a bit. Some of the neighbors will occasionally play loud music outside, but it’s only ever been during the daylight hours and it’s pretty easy to ignore. Aside from that, it’s relatively quiet and peaceful. You can sometimes see neighbors outside doing things in their lawns, and there’s several houses with themed gardens and fun exterior colors, so there’s definitely no HOA drama. If you’ve lived around working-class people before, the area will be nothing out of the ordinary for you.
In order to ensure our safety, prospective roommates must be at a minimum LGBT-friendly if not LGBT themselves. Ideally, we’re looking for someone who’s also roughly the same age as we are (between 25 and 35) but we can be flexible with this for the right person. I tend to be awake pretty late, but she has to be up early for work, so we generally try to keep the common area relatively quiet after 10pm on weeknights. We’re both pretty sociable so we tend to hang out in the evenings and on weekends; you’re more than welcome to join us if you want. If not, we’ll respect your boundaries and leave you alone.
Typically, we order a grocery delivery every couple of weeks and split the cost evenly. If you want to buy your own groceries, that’s perfectly fine too and we won’t eat anything that you’ve bought. All we ask is that you ask one of us before taking anything you haven’t chipped in for. For chores, we generally just clean things as they need to be cleaned, but once we’re more established we may want to work out a schedule or chart to make sure everything gets done.
As far as pets go, we have four cats total (two from each of us) and there’s been a little bit of friction trying to introduce them, so I wouldn’t recommend bringing another animal in unless you’re okay with keeping them primarily in your bedroom for at least a month while they all acclimate to one another.
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