Welcome to the Hotel Anasazi
Sep. 7th, 2007 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saavedra77I've lived at two addresses in Seattle, about a block apart from one another, both handsome old former residential hotels built during the 1920s.
The first one was an ivy-covered building on a cobblestoned side street. The landlady kept vases of fresh flowers on every landing, and each floor's common spaces were painted in a different color theme. On the minus side, the apartments were small and outrageously expensive.
My current building has many attractive qualities, including cutesy '20s and Northwest-themed murals on every floor: the Kalakala plying the Sound, a propeller plane banking by Mt. Rainier, bathers at Alki, etc. The rent's not even all that bad, as Seattle goes.
But it looks like I'm about ready for another move.
A lot of factors have gone into this decision: I'm tired of living in a studio (even a large-ish one). The building's management changes too often. My apartment is poorly insulated and not really warm enough for me in the winter (even given how mild that season is, here).
But the last straw has been the wiring. We've been having a rash of power outages, recently, the most serious of which lasted from the past Wednesday afternoon until just after sunset on Thursday.
I arrived home on Wednesday to find the electricians throwing up their hands and Seattle City Light arriving on the scene. As tenants arrived home, we tended to mill around in the lobby as if it were a fire alarm, kvetching, hoping that this would blow over in a hurry. When it became clear that it wouldn't, I decided to go out for dinner, and then hit the supermarket to stock up on batteries and candles.
Arriving back right about dusk, I thought that building's row on row of unlit windows looked like some abandoned Anasazi cliff dwelling. I trudged upstairs, felt my way through the darkened apartment to the drawer with the flashlight, lit a candle, read for a little while. At some point, I got bored and broke out the digital camera, snapping goofy photos like these:
Yes, clearly losing my marbles from the boredom.
Every so often, I looked outside to see the City Light guys still doing their thing. They were still at it when I went to bed, and things were no better when my cell phone alarm woke me the next morning. I opted not to try shaving by candlelight in the windowless bathroom.
That afternoon, I was relieved to find the electricity back on when I got home. I switched on the radio, took off my jacket, started thinking about dinner. And then the radio shut off. A quick look around the apartment determined that power had failed once again. Stepping out into the hallway, I quickly found that all of my neighbors were in the same situation. I called the building manager, then took advantage of the failing daylight to shave (the stubble-itch was crazymaking by this point). I was just about to settle into reading by candlelight once again when the power finally came back.
But I'd pretty much made up my mind, by then. I'm done here.
You can gauge my affection for this neighborhood by the fact that I'm now considering a move to a third address about five blocks away. And thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jmargethe, who's just about to move out of the apartment in question, I know that the place would be a step up from my current digs in pretty much every way.
The first one was an ivy-covered building on a cobblestoned side street. The landlady kept vases of fresh flowers on every landing, and each floor's common spaces were painted in a different color theme. On the minus side, the apartments were small and outrageously expensive.
My current building has many attractive qualities, including cutesy '20s and Northwest-themed murals on every floor: the Kalakala plying the Sound, a propeller plane banking by Mt. Rainier, bathers at Alki, etc. The rent's not even all that bad, as Seattle goes.
But it looks like I'm about ready for another move.
A lot of factors have gone into this decision: I'm tired of living in a studio (even a large-ish one). The building's management changes too often. My apartment is poorly insulated and not really warm enough for me in the winter (even given how mild that season is, here).
But the last straw has been the wiring. We've been having a rash of power outages, recently, the most serious of which lasted from the past Wednesday afternoon until just after sunset on Thursday.
I arrived home on Wednesday to find the electricians throwing up their hands and Seattle City Light arriving on the scene. As tenants arrived home, we tended to mill around in the lobby as if it were a fire alarm, kvetching, hoping that this would blow over in a hurry. When it became clear that it wouldn't, I decided to go out for dinner, and then hit the supermarket to stock up on batteries and candles.
Arriving back right about dusk, I thought that building's row on row of unlit windows looked like some abandoned Anasazi cliff dwelling. I trudged upstairs, felt my way through the darkened apartment to the drawer with the flashlight, lit a candle, read for a little while. At some point, I got bored and broke out the digital camera, snapping goofy photos like these:
Yes, clearly losing my marbles from the boredom.
Every so often, I looked outside to see the City Light guys still doing their thing. They were still at it when I went to bed, and things were no better when my cell phone alarm woke me the next morning. I opted not to try shaving by candlelight in the windowless bathroom.
That afternoon, I was relieved to find the electricity back on when I got home. I switched on the radio, took off my jacket, started thinking about dinner. And then the radio shut off. A quick look around the apartment determined that power had failed once again. Stepping out into the hallway, I quickly found that all of my neighbors were in the same situation. I called the building manager, then took advantage of the failing daylight to shave (the stubble-itch was crazymaking by this point). I was just about to settle into reading by candlelight once again when the power finally came back.
But I'd pretty much made up my mind, by then. I'm done here.
You can gauge my affection for this neighborhood by the fact that I'm now considering a move to a third address about five blocks away. And thanks to
jmargethe, who's just about to move out of the apartment in question, I know that the place would be a step up from my current digs in pretty much every way.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 04:46 am (UTC)i still can't imagine living anywhere other than the hill. downtown walkability is *ridiculously* important to me.
I wanna see
Date: 2007-09-08 07:42 am (UTC)Re: I wanna see
Date: 2007-09-10 04:59 pm (UTC)