[Note: less than an hour after posting this the apartment was rented. I like to think it was my creative approach to marketing or my wit, but I know better.  It was luck, even if I don’t believe in such a thing.]

2.11.2013

My Lower Unit is for Rent.

and other observations.

The other week my brother was visiting St. Louis.  We talked, drank martinis and watched a movie.  He asked me if I had for a renter yet, and I said no, but that my other two family was fully rented. We woke early the next morning and despite the temperature only being 10 degrees we went jogging in Tower Grove Park.  Afterwards he went to work and I went back to bed. It was nagging at me that I should really rent that lower unit; it’s been over a year since I’ve had a tenant in there, but my brother runs marathons and I smoke and after my morning nap I was distracted by other projects.

Well now here it is.

Large one bedroom (1200 sq. ft.) first floor apartment located at 3523 Halliday. One half block from Tower Grove park and near the South Grand Buisness district. Dishwasher. Central heat and two AC units provided in the summer. A shared washer/ dryer in the basement. $650 a month.

When I bought the place the mantels were gone and the fire place opening’s bricked and plastered over. In retrospect I might have over did it, but I opened two fire places in this lower unit and four in my unit above, bought (or was given) mantels and installed gas five logs in each.   They’re nice for parties or cold winter nights when you need some place to curl up in front of with a bottle of red wine, but I don’t recommend actually trying to heat the place with them (very inefficient and the Lennox does a much better job at it).

There is a lot of closet and cabinet space and also a small room, which at one time was considered a second bedroom, but by today’s standards shouldn’t be considered more than a comfy office.  I’ve considered changing the layout to make a two bedroom, there is plenty of room for it but I don’t need the extra money and I don’t want to screw with the apartments aesthetics... Someday I might convert the building into a single family, and then I’ll screw with its aesthetics.

The back yard is both a great place for contemplation and a barbeque.  It’s very peaceful and no guns. In the winter there is a fire pit. In the summer the garden has an abundance of basil and other spices and boy, if you like walnuts it’s got them.  Just watch one doesn’t land on your head or for that matter on your car if you’re parked in back in during the months of September and October.  I am thinking about cutting that tree down and building a two story carriage house (a two car garage with an artist studio above), but I’ll probably be ‘thinking about’ it for several more years.

The previous time a tenant moved out I went through the place and removed all the cracks. Not just covered them up, but “removed them”.  I could discus in great detail my thoughts and observations plaster, horse hair, lathe and the passing of time, but I can’t see any constructive or beneficial  point in it in regards to potential tenants… and friends you’ll just have to wait for some future dinner party or barbeque hear of my plaster exploits.

Regardless of a few OCD traits, I’m a fairly laid back guy, good at fixing things, honest, six foot tall, with a dry since of humor.  I like cats and think all my previous tenants will gladly offer references to anyone as to my good character as a landlord… I do sometime get a little carried away with the mulch in the back yard.