Tell us about your first apartment

It was in a very nice, safe area.

It was a converted garage. No kitchen sink. Had to wash dishes in the tiny sink in the bathroom.

Kitchen: one-burner hot plate (electric coil), toaster oven, decent-sized refrigerator. I ate a lot of fish sticks (made in the toaster oven) and a lot of Chef Boyardee canned ravioli, heated up on the burner.

Roommate: a high school classmate. Not a great situation, personality-wise.

I don't remember the shower, but it was probably OK.

It was a townhouse in Burbank/Toluca Lake, CA. 2004...2 story, 2 bed, 2.5 baths. $1450 a month. Lived with 1 roommate, my best friend right after college graduation. Beautiful area. Beautiful time in my life.

My first 4 were flats created from Victorian houses. Then a mid-sized apartment building, and another flat in a Victorian house.

The first, my freshman year, had been a getaway space rented by my student advisors. As they no longer used it, I took it over. It had a slighty hippie/Victoriana vibe, furnished very minimally with a few 19th Century bits from a local auction house.

The second, my sophomore year, was a picture perfect Queen Anne style house on the exterior, next to railroad tracks busy at night which recalled Thomas Wolfe novels. The interior was a bit of a maintenance disaster, crumbly with alligatored paint and walls that wanted to shed layers of wallpaper and paint. It had a big semi-octagonal bay at the front corner, with a good prospect over the college town. To cover the texture of the walls and ceiling, and maybe because I was a little affected, I painted the walls in my bedroom in an intense dark green faux marbre and the ceiling a shadowy derp grey.

I had only half the 2nd floor and the my neighbors in the rear part of the house were hippies, about 10 years older, who quickly befriended me. They were lovely people. Their friends were immediately mine, and we had many, many dinners together and would take an outing every couple of weeks to the big city for record shopping and exotic food, or maybe a trip in the back of a van to collect driftwood. They made their own granola and mostly vegetarian dinners, and introduced me to the local food cooperative. We were fearless trying food from everywhere. Some of their friends were bisexual swingers which was interesting.

Of the next two Victorian apartments, one was really beautiful, luxuriously large and appointed, and in excellent condition for a change. The fourth, mostly overlapping the period of the third, was small fuck pad in a nearby city. It has a beautiful facade and view of a handsome street but was just one big room with a bathroom carved out if the corner.

Orange “sculptured” carpet

Roach traps around the perimeter of the room and our monthly bug spray had a sign up sheet.

Officially Lincoln Park, but oddly inconvenient for the bus, the L, or anything but the Broadway bus.

Back around 1980, in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, I paid $150 a month for a one bedroom with no refrigerator (that would be $175). It was on the 4th floor, with a marble staircase. I lived on 3.2 beer, Reese's Cups, and leftovers from The Samurai Restaurant, where I worked as a cashier. My parents disowned me when I told them I was gay. There were still riot lights installed on McMillan Ave back then, but I didn't feel unsafe. I used to walk down to Eden Park, and I can remember the magnolias in bloom when I realized I was going to have to make my own way in the world. Sorry....too much wine tonight.

Paid about $150 per month for a small efficiency apartment in 1978. Had a murphy bed that folded up in the wall and was furnished with Salvation Army rejected furniture. Over-all, it was OK for what I needed for an out-of-town summer job. The manager was out of shape woman who had a lot of personal problems. The building had a stench about it but had some early century architecture aspect that made it interesting. Unfortunately, the apartment next door had an AC that blew up one morning and the smoke damage was severe enough that I had to move out after about 4 weeks. Eventually, the building was torn down and a parking lot is now there.

A furnished apartment in the National City section of San Diego. I was on shore duty at the Coronado Naval Base. It is still standing today IIRC at 24th street and National City Avenue. It made me realize how introverted I am and how much I valued my privacy.

I lived on the dorms all through undergrad. Started grad school at USC in 86, from a flyer at the student center I found a small room in a Victorian north of campus right near the 10 freeway. It wasn’t subdivided - just students in all the bedrooms, living & dining rooms with a shared kitchen and bathrooms. The block was all students and poor Mexican families.

I arrived with a suitcase and a car rented long enough to find the apt, buy a small second hand desk and a foam KoreaTown futon for the floor. I got a beach cruiser bike at Pep Boys to get to campus - about a 15 minute walk otherwise. There were often LAPD choppers hovering at night. I bought a basic meal plan for the semester so I ate once a day in a campus dorm cafeteria.

I didn’t even have a radio, but did buy an Ultra Vox Vienna cassette at the Newberry’s in University Village and would play it at night when I had a cassette recorder checked out from the equipment room for a project I was working on. I was very happy.

I had so many rental shares/roommates and slept on so many couches after college that it's kinda hard to answer but.....

The very first one was off campus housing at my college in NW PA. It was a regular apartment building that the college had at some point bought. It was a pretty standard issue two bedroom apartment circa 1990, with 70s everything and smelly carpet. It was ugly but I was living with a hot guy that I pretty much blew every second we weren't busy with research/homework. I have no memory of what it cost because it was tied into my tuition.

My very first solo apartment was hilariously small. Maybe 100-150 sqf? The living room was a small room that had a twin bed on one wall - there was a platform built against the wall and the mattress was on top of it. I could fit a chair and TV in there, and the other wall had shelves just wide enough for books and my stereo. The bathroom was sort of normal sized but the hallway to the kitchen was so narrow that I had to turn my body sideways to get back there! (And I'm not a fat whore!) In 1994 it was $125/month, and if it was still there today I'm sure it would be $1250 a month or more.

Nice efficiency at Hunting Towers in Alexandria, VA…1968.

[quote] A furnished apartment in the National City section of San Diego. I was on shore duty at the Coronado Naval Base. It is still standing today IIRC at 24th street and National City Avenue. It made me realize how introverted I am and how much I valued my privacy.

R7, was it a large complex with lots of units? I've lived in a high rise before (lots of units) and I actually felt like I had more privacy there than I do, now.

No r11, it was a two story apartment complex, pretty basic. Maybe they did tear it down 😧.

Little italy in Cleveland near university circle where I went to school. Small and dark first floor one bedroom. I sort of got to know my nextdoor neighbor while there but not really. Neighborhood was fine but I was glad to move to a nicer place in Cleveland heights

An eight-story building in Rosslyn Virginia, across the street from the newly-opened Metro station which, at the time, featured the longest escalators in the Western Hemisphere.

It was a two-bedroom. The kitchen was tiny and had no dishwasher.

My roommate was my best friend from high school (whom I crushed on in H.S. but was over it). Work was a twenty-minute commute for each of us--we both worked in D.C. The place was clean and comfortable. Rent was $350.

Thinking of the Rosslyn escalator, I remember a phenomenon. At first, when you got off the train, people would walk to the escalator. However, very often, the people who got to the escalator would stand two abreast, blocking people from walking,. So, those of use who wanted to walk up the escalator and save a couple of minutes would have to run to get to the escalator to get to it before it was blocked. Eventually, just about everyone would run to the escalator, including people who just wanted to stand two-abreast.

Hopefully, those people are all dead now.

My first apartment I didn't need to have a roomate because I was 25 (I'm from Latin America, so don't give me shit, it's common to live with your parents until you graduate and get a decent job). It was great in the sense that it was on the last floor so I had a terrace and could even barbecue (though I never did). It sucked because it was on the last floor and I would roast in the summer and freeze to death in the winter. But I loved it, just thinking about it makes me nostalgic.

First college apartment? First apartment with first professional job? First apartment with first well-paying job? First apartment when I dumped all that to be an artist? First apartment as a kept man? First apartment in SF? NY? Paris? London? Geneva? Cairo?

I was at boarding school living in dormitories then shared rooms then my own room years 5-12 (ages 10-18) so living on my own after high school was fantastic.

First flat was a studio in the clubbing part of town which was great for partying but not so great for my uni grades. But uni was free so failing a couple of courses was nbd at the time.

Thefirst place that I bought rather than rented was a lot different. I loved it, did a reno on it, moved overseas, came home, sold it and then flipped a couple over five years and am now in a great place by the beach. Very quiet. Very close to transport and shops. Neighbours are friendly but respect each other’s space. My closest friends are all walking distance but if I have to drive nothing is too far away or difficult. Ferry into the CBD. Absolutely no complaints.

I expect to be carried out of here in a box.

It was small, but perfect for me at the time. It was an alcove studio with a kitchenette, probably about 550 SF on MacDougal and Bleecker in late 1987. Lived alone, while going to NYU. I believe the rent was $750 at the time.

[quote] First college apartment? First apartment with first professional job? First apartment with first well-paying job? First apartment when I dumped all that to be an artist? First apartment as a kept man? First apartment in SF? NY? Paris? London? Geneva? Cairo?

First apartment as a twink in the free world.

A roach-invested, cavernous 1-bedroom in Montreal in the mid-1970s. The layout was very odd: two steps led from the living room to a minuscule kitchen. The bathroom entrance was off the kitchen as was the entrance to a tiny, unheated room that might have doubled as a second bedroom were it not for the sub-zero temperatures. The most terrifying part was the cadaverous concierge who was reminiscent of Mrs. Danvers.

At nineteen, I moved into a 70s one bedroom with my boyfriend. It had popcorn ceilings, green carpeting and orange countertops. We're still together, almost 39 years.

R21 - Shared trauma bonds people together.

Yes, we are definitely codependant. There is love along with the disfunction.

Fall 1986, start of graduate school at Ohio State. I rented a 1BR/1BA ground floor apartment in NE Columbus for $275 a month. My parents contributed used furniture to furnish the place, which, in retrospect, was very nice for a first apartment. The sliding glass doors opened onto the grass in the apartment community; there was a pool and clubhouse. One day I was sick and stayed home. That afternoon banging on my glass door scared the hell out of me and, when I ran into the living room, I saw a group of kids who looked as scared as I was. It turned out that they had made "friends" with my dog and when they did not see her waiting for them at the door, they became concerned. I let her out to greet them for real, and they turned out to be sweet kids who called my dog "Scruffy" (her name was Gretchen; they brought her toys and treats for Christmas that winter).

Alas, the drive to campus was too far so I moved into a slummy apartment near campus the next fall, and found a sociopathic roommate. Luckily, the following summer, construction at the property next door flooded our building and resulted in a foot of mud inside, so I got out of that lease and moved.

East Village on 11th street in the early 90s, right out of college. 5th floor walkup. A 2-room studio that was about 375 sq ft with a working fireplace. Lived there for one year, then went back to school and wound up moving back into the same apartment 4 1/2 years later.

I'm Blanche DuBois, and I won't shut the fuck up about Belle Reve or that queer dead husband of mine.

[quote] Yes, we are definitely codependant. There is love along with the disfunction.

I hope one of you knows how to spell.

Whoops, wrong thread obviously.

A large studio in the heart of Lakeview for $450/mo in 1982.

I loved my 1 bedroom Ravenswood apartment in Chicago. I moved in with a semi-bf and we broke up soon after the lease started, when he once again decided he was straight (a designation that's remained as liquid as water over the years, but I digress).

It was a great place to be single. A "garden apartment" that looked up to and out to the sidewalk. It was within walking distance to Andersonville, The Eagle, and a few great bars nearby, as well as the Montrose el stop. I also lived near a Mexican grocery store.

It was $575 in 1997, which I can't even imagine today.

Sir this is a Wendy’s.

.....

Picture it, San Jose, CA, 1974. North of downtown. Garden 1-BR unit. Carport in the back. $125/mo. My first time living alone, and I haven't lived with anyone else since then.

Little Italy, Kansas City in the 70's. I had the entire top floor of the building. Mobsters owned the record store and cafes. My landlady yelled at me whenever I stopped by her house to pay the rent, her daughter finally came out to say hey nothing personal, my mom is hard of hearing. Every neighbor was Italian, they called me Mrs. Rizzo's little peckerwood tennant. It was great fun. I kept a huge cage of pet quail on the back deck.

Chelsea, 26th and 8th Ave. 1979. I shared a three bedroom with a college friend, and a third guy that I hardly knew and didn't like. It was in a 2 story walkup building, and we had the top floor. My bedroom was the smallest (can't remember if we drew straws). It was the size of a small walk-in closet. I hired a guy who advertised in the Village Voice to construct a loft bed in the space, so that I'd have room for a dresser underneath. It's advantage as a bedroom was that it had its own door, and at age 21, I was ready to sample the nightlife of New York without too many embarrassing questions from my straight roommates. I think the total rent was something like $850/month. Maybe I got a little break because of the tiny room. The central area was sort of combination living room/kitchen area. Like all NYC apartments, it was overheated in winter except on the very coldest days, when, mysteriously, the "furnace" would have problems and there would be no heat.

A two bedroom on the edge of Austin’s oldest-money neighborhood from 1987-1989. Gorgeous. Paid $200. Accidentally hit Lukas Haas’s dog with my car on my way to work, which was ironic because one of my coworkers was his mom’s assistant and was always complaining about the dog. Big family party, everyone was outside running around, dog was was fine, Lukas was darling and kept patting my back saying, “it's OK, ma’am - it wasn’t your fault.”.

Second apartment is more interesting: $575/month for an adorable studio that looked up into Outpost Estates in Hollywood. One block north of Franklin, a block or so from the Magic Castle. If I had a south-facing window, I would see the Chinese Theatre and The Roosevelt Hotel. Lived there from 1989 to 1991. It was slightly damaged during the Northridge earthquake of 1994, according to a friend who drove by. We were evacuated one night due to a kiln explosion in the next building - yes, just like in Animal House. I still have pictures of myself posing with a few LA firefighters. One of my neighbors was a stuntman who drunkenly tried to push his way into my apartment one night and wanted to create a game show for deaf people.

[QUOTE] Like all NYC apartments, it was overheated in winter

Haha! I had totally forgotten about that. I now recall opening windows in January and February because my apartment would be 90 degrees.

[quote] A "garden apartment" that looked up to and out to the sidewalk.

I've never lived in one of those all my time up North, but I can't help but thinking those windows would be a vacuum sucking in street dirt and dust as well as being easy entry for bugs and rodents (more so than a higher floor). I think I'd also find it depressing looking at people's feet all day. Was that the case?

R38 My garden apartment got lots of light and not a lot of bugs, never rodents. The building was well maintained, though.

I had sort of a bay window that made it easy to look out and vice versa.....I liked that at the time, but obviously others might hate that.

I got my first apartment at age 22 in the heart of Capitol Hill, which was Denver's gay haven.

It was a spacious corner unit studio with great views and a pullout Murphy bed, which I loved. And the best part is that it was literally across the street from a gay bar.

It cost me $225 per month, and I still have wonderful, fond memories of that place.

I didn’t want roommates so first apt. was crapp- bad part of town (SF) but it was all mine!!!

R39 - I suppose I'm thinking of the subterranean apartment on Laverne & Shirley.

^ Trying this again for the attached photo

I assume that in the U.S. a garden apartment is something similar to this: usually a low building of two or three stories arranged around some green space, often with sliding glass doors onto balconies or small patios; they date from the 20th Century and can be found in cities. You could make an argument that the emblematic small 2 and 3 story apartment buildings in Chicago that have a garden/lawn in front and often behind, often with a recessed sort of forecourt entry and a series of open porches at the rear are a variant on garden apartments., But the typical use of the term is a more suburban looking thing with lots of sliding glass doors and landscaping but not much architecture.

I moved off campus at Brown to a typical dumpy apt for poor students, but we had a good time. And it was cheap. Then I got a tip on an old lady who had a quite large Queen Anne - 3 stories with basement, too. On a big lot with once elegant landscaping. The roses mostly remained. Anyhoo. I lived in the 2nd floor apartment which was cavernous, then my roommate moved out and my resident landlady didn't push me to find another renter and didn't up my half of the rent, either. She was a dear. She watched TV in the evenings in her recliner. Yes, she had folding TV tables. Sometimes I would watch a procedural with her and drink a Fresca and make chic chat. I asked her about the 3rd floor and she said she'd rather not talk about it but she never rented it out. So I went up the back stairwell one evening and it was an entire floor through apartment, also cavernous, but completely tattered. The wall paper was peeling, the windows hadn't been cleaned in decades. But it was dry and not moody, and the plumbing and electricity was fine. I worked up my nerve and asked her if I could use it as a studio for some large paintings and drawings and she hesitated a loooooong time and said, well, I suppose so. I guess it was 6 rooms like my apartment. So I had 12 rooms for a pittance.

not "mouldy"

Thanks everyone for posting. This has turned into quite a delightful thread. First apartments really hold a special place in your heart.

1979 Van Nuys CA Furnished Studio on beautiful Sepulveda Blvd. Right next door to an hourly motel and across the street from Alpha Beta! Furniture and decorations circa 1962, but I loved my little sanctuary. $230 a month and parking included. No AC though. Bed was a pull out couch but I had an actual dressing room!

1982, Dallas. Tiny 1 bedroom ,$350 all bills paid in an iffy neighborhood. No furniture except a found chair and a mattress on the floor. One pot , one pan , plastic utensils from fast food. But I was so happy to be on my own. Now , 40+ years later, retired and downsizing from 2000 sq ft home. Getting rid of almost everything I accumulated since then.

[quote] I didn’t want roommates so first apt. was crapp- bad part of town (SF) but it was all mine!!!

What part of SF? Tenderloin? Western Addition?

R44 -- In the suburban US you are correct. In older US cities -- NYC, Philly, etc "Garden Apartment" is most often a real estate euphemism for "Basement Apartment" where some, or most of the apartment is underground and the windows can be small and high.

The term of art comes from the fact that many older townhouses have back yards at a lower grade than the sidewalk, so what was a half basement in the front of the building opens fully onto a back yard -- this was often called "the Garden Level" and with an entrance under the stoop was usually home to the Kitchen and other servant work areas. Below the Garden Level many large townhouses also have a truly subterranean basement.

Second floor of a Victorian house in Shadyslde, Pittsburgh. It was furnished, as student apartments were those days, with furniture we would someday come to think of as Midcentury Modern.

But back then is was just thought of as old and ugly - right R52?

Worcester, MA, early 70s, public housing (Plumley Village: college = low-income), lots of Caribbean neighbors so great weed, $180/mo including heat and hot water. Five or six colleges, lotsa local talent, too.

It used to be the armpit of New England. Now not so much. The building is still public housing but looks a lot better today.

Yes, r53. I liked the sofa and the coffee table made of slats, though overall, there was too much brown and beige.

[quote]In older US cities -- NYC, Philly, etc "Garden Apartment" is most often a real estate euphemism for "Basement Apartment" where some, or most of the apartment is underground and the windows can be small and high

R51: And 'English basement' in Washington DC, which, ever full of itself, seems to think it bypassed Georgian England, for example, to invent the concept.

We did jerk off alot together. Fun times!

I lived in a studio apartment in a very narrow building on the upper east side in the 1970s that had a famous button shop on the first floor. "Tender Buttons" The place was tiny but had a big redwood deck built on the back and great (famous) neighbors. $220/mo.

On Calhoun Street in CIncinnati across from the School of Law at the University of Cincinnati. Second floor apartment which was my introduction to giant flying cockroaches. Learned to sleep through non-stop traffic noise. Floor above was inhabited by a young Greek guy with a beautiful ass. I later lived with him for a few months and got to see that ass in tighty whities - glorious!

Given the rapidly changing climate, and crazy rain events where 10-20 inches of rain fall in a day, I'd never live in a basement apartment anywhere east of Denver. There have now been numerous instances of people drowning in their own apartments when water rushed in and they were unable to escape. Sad, because in the past, such apartments were usually much quieter and more comfortable in mid-summer and mid-winter than upper-floor apartments.

It was a crappy one bedroom apt ,but it was newly painted and had new carpet and I'd been buying new things for it. I was so excited to be on my own. It was just south of Cicago. The same day I moved in was the same day I started a new job. My best friends MIL got me the job. She'd known me since I was a kid and knew I'd been trying to take care of my dad and brothers. She also knew I'd need to make more money so she helped get me in there. I loved coming home to that apt every night. It was great.

R58 I was a customer at Tender Buttons. I still have many of the fabulous buttons I bought there.

Tender Buttons sounds like a booth at Michfest!

A third floor attic of a house turned into flats in the Annex area of Toronto. I was 20 and working as a waiter at the Islington Golf Club as well as doing my first year of my MA in psychology at U of T. $350 a month including parking and heating & electricity. A year of banging my head on sloped ceilings but it was a cute little place. One big room with a tiny kitchen. It had a washing machine!

I decided to move back to Montreal and was luckily able to transfer my university program to U de M in French and took what was available, a nearby 2 1/2 on the 4th floor of a 1950s, yellow brick, elevator building. Indoor parking, heating & electricity included, elevator, big balcony. $320. Stayed there for six years. Loved that place. Everything I needed was within a ten minute walk. I barely used my little Honda Civic. They were tiny back then.

I could have moved back to my parents' big five bedroom place but just no.

The basement in a 2 family house. I loved it. Nice and cool in the summer. Never needed a fan or AC. It was very big and I had access to the backyard. I stayed for 2 years.

R62, Tender Buttons finally closed about five years ago. For such a small place, it was super popular, limos pulling up, fashion designers and movie people looking through the bins. The apt was the smallest place I ever lived in but a great starter apartment, esp with the big outdoor space. Across the backyard was the Barbizon Hotel for Women on 63rd St. Dustin Hoffman lived across the street and Neil Simon was next door. I remember wondering if I could afford $220 a month.

Very nice apartment in Alexandria in Northern Virginia. Two bedroom, two baths, kitchen with washer/dryer and dinette, large living room/dining room, and an in-building balcony running the length of the apartment. It came with a parking space, which my roommate/best friend had. I rented one for not so much. The complex had an indoor pool, space for parties, and an okay gym/sauna. The metro did not extend that far (late80s/early 90s) but does now. Loved it.

The rent was nothing.

Converted attic in the heart of Park Slope. Smelled like cat piss. Cold. Hot. What a dump. Great location.

R63 - Or like a strip joint near the airport.

[quote] Dustin Hoffman lived across the street and Neil Simon was next door. I remember wondering if I could afford $220 a month.

Wow, was that in the early 1960s? I would've thought Simon (as a TV writer in the 40s-50s) would've been able to afford better by then. He got his first Tony in 1963.

[quote]Wow, was that in the early 1960s? I would've thought Simon (as a TV writer in the 40s-50s) would've been able to afford better by then. He got his first Tony in 1963.

Mid-70s. Simon had a townhouse. He was doing fine.

Great location…between 8th and 12th in a now-gentrified neighborhood in Nashville. It wasn’t so fancy in the late 90s. Loved my neighbors. My landlord, not so much. I rented her home’s upstairs apartment. She was a follower of Benny Hinn and would chant and carry on at odd times of day. I had a problem with mice and maybe she tried to pray them away. Dunno, but she never did a thing. Her part of the house must have had them too. I ended up setting traps and stored my bread and potato chips in the fridge. I was so glad to leave.

1977 - Culver City, small 1 bedroom cottage in a courtyard of 4 cottages, with 2 additional apartments in the back. Off Washington Blvd near La Cienega. Freshly painted, hard wood floors, $150 a month. Nice Friends-like vibe among the tenants. When I left in 1982 it had risen to $245, but I had scored a 2 bedroom townhouse on the Venice/Marina Del Rey border (by the canals) for $550 a month. That lasted for 9 years, and the rent had risen to $745. Have owned a house ever since.

R73. Are you still on the Westside?

1990, Newton/Watertown line outside Boston. 4 roommates, 2 gay 2 straight. Old-lady landord lived downstairs. She kept the rent low but didn't want to fix anything. She cried when I went and told her our roof was leaking. My share of rent was $280/mo including utilities.