As you know, we get together on the third Wednesday of every month.  However, in March, the third Wednesday happens to also be St. Patty’s Day.  The consensus seemed to be that there’s no point having a tweetup on the biggest drinking day of the year, since we’ll all probably run into each other anyway.

So March’s Harrisburg Tweetup will be on Wednesday, 3/24 at 7pm.  The Abbey Bar is located on the second floor of Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg.  They’ve been great about accommodating us over the years (yes, it’s been years) and have free wifi with a smoke-free environment.  There’s also some beer there, I think.

If you’re going to tweet about the event, use the #hbgtweetup tag so we can get a feel for who’s coming.  See you there!

Central Dauphin East is insisting that last week’s epic fight was not a riot.  That assertion by itself is at least arguable.  But the “reasoning” — and I’m using that term generously — used is laughably bad.  They insist it wasn’t a riot simply because of the lack of tear gas, bombs, and helicopters.

I am not kidding:

(District spokeswoman Shannon Leib) says the incident happened during a change of periods in a heavily trafficked area of the school.  “When you hear a riot, one thinks of tear gas and bombs and smoke and helicopters landing. It was nowhere near that,” Leid (sic) said.

Presumably, the district is operating in a mid-1990s PR mode over this.  Back then, an organization could trot out any talking point and, no matter how ridiculous, if they stuck to it and said nothing else, it would stick.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t work very well in this Internet-enabled, social-media-toting era.

There were no bombs or helicopters.  And everyone knows that when you see a prison riot on TV, there are always bombs and helicopters.  Therefore, technically this was not a riot.  QED.  *crosses arms and stares smugly at the camera*

In other news, Linda Thompson did not issue a gag order because — hello — did you see any city workers walking around with duct tape over their mouths?  Please.

Also, the incinerator is not dragging the city into the toilet.  Everybody knows that whenever you see a ruined city on TV it’s Detroit.  Harrisburg is not Detroit.  So there.

One: don’t be disappointed in the people who wrote negative comments about this story. You, as a PN employee, should take this issue up with the higher ups because the “Comment” sections of this site and the forums are CHRONICALLY littered with negativity. If there are ten items posted in a day, you can bet your bottom dollar that nine of them will have diatribes from armchair quarterbacks who know all of the answers but have no other outlet than an unmoderated and anonymity-encouraging site to express themselves on.

This has been a MAJOR issue with the Advance Media sites for some time now. So, essentially, if you’re going to take the comments about Mayor Twelve Percent’s son to heart, you must view all of the other comments equally the same.

If you’ve ever been to PennLive, you know that any given story — no matter how innocuous — will generate an avalanch of trolling.

For those not familiar with the term (which I’m assuming is a fairly high number, given how effective it is in this area), “trolling” refers to posting content that is deliberately false, defamatory, offensive, or otherwise defective in the hopes of invoking an emotional or spirited response from others.

It’s an epidemic on the Advance sites (Advance is the for-profit corporation that oversees PennLive and a slew of other identical newspaper sites).  Read through any given story with more than a dozen comments, and you’ll see it.

Someone blaming Obama for a traffic accident?  That’s trolling.

Someone posting a false dichotomy of either ignoring the homeless or handing tax dollars to crackheads?  That’s trolling.

Someone using barely-veiled racism like “that’s what you get for electing one of THEM”?  That’s trolling.

In no case does a troll actually believe what s/he’s saying.  Nor do they care about your well-crafted response in which you dismantle their position point-by-point.  They just want you to post, and ideally, to post furiously.

Why?  Who knows.  Trolls have been around since long before the days of the web, when Usenet dominated online social circles.  Most of us learn to ignore them.  And most websites maintain active moderators to shut them down.

Sites like Digg, Fark, Slashdot, and The Awful Forums — all of which see more posts in 60 seconds than PennLive sees in a day — all maintain fleets of unpaid, volunteer moderators.  For the sake of making the community better, they patrol the threads, deleting comments with no redeeming value.  The important distinction here is that posters can disagree with each other all they like, but the moment the comments become uncivil, unintelligent, or blatantly trolltastic, the post gets axed and the user gets a probation (posting privileges suspended for xx hours).

To negate the users who create accounts just to argue with themselves (yes, trolls really do this), some sites ban new accounts from posting for the first 24-48 hours after signing up.

So why doesn’t Advance media do any of this on their sites?  I have a few theories.

• It’s profitable not to.  When you come back to the site to argue with that guy who just called Bush the antichrist with indisputable theological evidence that this is not the case, PennLive’s traffic goes up a notch, which in turn allows them to charge higher advertising rates.  Arguing with trolls is just good for business.
• They can’t afford to.  Even though most moderators are unpaid volunteers, Advance might be in such dire financial straits that losing the spike described above may kill them.
• They (Advance employees) are doing it.  It wouldn’t be the first time that a content provider shilled itself for the sake of traffic.  And, see the above two points.
• They don’t want to.  Really, why should they care?  As long as they’re under contract with the Patriot-News (and other newspapers), what motivation do they have to care about the quality of their content?
• They’re misinformed.  There’s a long-standing misconception that editing a poster’s comment makes the hosting party (in this case, Advance and/or the Patriot) responsible for the content of that comment.  Over the last few years, numerous court cases have established solid precedent that this is not the case.  Editing or deleting comments falls under “fair use” and does not alter the protections afforded under Section 230 of the CDA.

Nothing infuriates a troll like a lack of responses.  And nothing’s funnier than a troll having a meltdown because nobody’s listening to him.  Oh sure, there will be a few posts where the troll smugly believes that he’s “won” agreement because nobody bothered to argue his post that Linda Thompson’s son is secretly responsible for the sinking of the Titanic.  But after a few ignored posts, he will cry.  And he will leave.

I’m all for heated debate and spirited conversations.  Conflicting viewpoints mixed with passionate discourse can make fascinated reading.  And from time to time, they can even inspire a reader to see things in a different light by exposing him or her to ideas they haven’t seen before.

But when a user responds to a story about a kidnapping with “how’s that hope & change working out for u liberals” and gets five dozen responses, that’s just mighty successful trolling.

And you know what?  I was right.

In 2007, Clear Channel was voluntarily delisted from the NYSE.  They are traded over-the-counter and have fallen from their opening high of $20 to their current $3.10.  Cumulus shares have plummeted from $14.81 to $2.52 over the last five years.  Citadel is currently bankrupt, probably because they’ve spent the last nine months trading mostly under ten cents per share (although to be fair, they have gained in value by two cents — approximately 50%).

There are a lot of reasons why this is happening.  Rampant consolidation in the late 90s and early 2000s, for starters.  Eliminating local on-air personalities in favor of (much cheaper) national syndication didn’t help.  Neither did skyrocketing advertising rates.  And as if greedily selling advertising for every available on-air element wasn’t a direct contributor, speeding up songs by 3% – 6% in order to fit in more commercials certainly was.

While their industry was collapsing around them, what did station owners do?  They launched an all-out war against satellite radio, burning uncountable millions in lobbying and attack ads.  While making fun of satellite radio for lacking local content (which it doesn’t), they were furiously lobbying the federal government to prevent Sirius or XM from broadcasting any local content whatsoever.  And with their own ad revenue slipping (or due to burning greediness, I can’t tell which), they cut back even more content and jammed in even more commercials.

About the only thing they didn’t do was compete.

While Sirius XM (then two separate companies) offered bigger playlists, better station variety, better sound quality, reduced or eliminated commercial breaks, and near-constant signal from coast to coast, terrestrial radio stagnated.  A few stations tried charging for online listening, but that didn’t work at all.  More national syndication was brought in, advertising standards were relaxed, more music was cut … and more listeners departed.

And just when terrestrial broadcasters had satellite radio in a choke hold — Sirius XM barely staved off bankruptcy last year — along came the iPhone.  Say what you will about the product itself, but the iPhone helped usher in a new era of consumer awareness of what cellular data networks can do.  Apps like iTunes and WunderRadio enabled users to listen to music on their own terms, either by way of transferring them to the device or streaming customized playlists ala last.fm.  Soon, users of other PDAs realized that they, too, could manage their media from their devices.  And of course, none of this even begins to account for people who have turned off radio entirely in favor of their favorite MP3 player.

Radio’s response?

More commercials, less music, more syndication, less variety.

The same issues that have plagued radio over the last twenty years — the same issues that are right now causing the industry’s demise — are seen by radio stations as salvation.  Instead of cutting back on the obnoxious ads that drive away listeners, they increase them.  Instead of dropping the corporate-sanitized playlists and vanilla no-frills nationally syndicated DJs, they replace another shift.  Instead of giving listeners any reason to come back, they flush tens of millions into lobbying and accuse satellite radio of not playing fair.

And in the meantime, cellular carriers have quietly snuck in and stolen the show.

It takes me 20 minutes to drive to work.  If I’m willing to constantly flip through the local stations, I might get a traffic update somewhere halfway through my drive — when it’s too late to change.  I get my weather from my phone and my news from the Internet.  And despite what the morning show thinks, I don’t give two craps what Lady Gaga said on that interview last night.

While radio figures out how to fight off the wireless carriers (who have far deeper pockets), satellite radio has gotten back on its feet.  Sirius XM came through the last few years leaner, meaner, and with a score to settle.  Their stock is up a whopping 567.5% from this time a year ago, with 24% of that happening just this year alone.  They’ve shredded their debt and wound up with a $100 million free cash flow for 2009 — the first in their history.  And even after a rate hike, subscriber growth remains positive and continues to grow.  Those of us who bought shares this past March are swimming in triple-digit gains and loving every second of radio’s demise.

I don’t see this kind of investor frenzy happening over Clear Channel.  Or Cumulus.  Or Citadel.

Traditional radio’s response has always been “nobody will pay for radio when they can have it for free”.

It seems that the public begs to differ.

Any thoughts?  Ideas?  I can’t make #hbgugh due to my work schedule, but I could make a breakfast gathering or two.  And the idea of a bar crawl is just great with no further explanation required.

So I sold it.

I tried to sell this place once before using one of the better-known local real estate companies.  I was flexible on pricing, willing to offer closing assistance, and made sure the place was presentable.  But after six months on the market and only a few bites, I gave up.  For the next few years I put up with a house that offered little more than shelter and equity.  A house that I was ultimately unhappy with in a location I was ultimately unhappy with.

About a month ago, I decided to try again, but without the hassle and expense of a realtor.  Within a week of putting my house on the market at an absurdly fair price, I had a buyer.  We closed in record time.  As you read this, I am packing boxes and discovering exactly how gigantic the cargo space of a Honda Fit really is.

I’ve spent the last week picking through the apartment offerings in downtown / midtown Harrisburg.  Here’s a quick recap:

• The Grayco is easily the classiest building of the bunch.  Art-deco fixtures and trim, very-well-kept hardwood floors, and extremely attentive management make it a top contender in my book.  I have known and heard from numerous residents who have nothing but praise for the place.  Unfortunately the building lacks dishwashers, parking, and air conditioning (sorta).
• Pennsylvania Place refused to disclose their rent, show an apartment, or even try to hide how much they loathed talking to a lowly potential tenant like myself.  Needless to say, this laughably-bad behavior knocked them out of the running.
• Towne House had an amazing corner apartment on the 18th floor.  The roomy, pass-through kitchen and semi-sheltered balcony are perfect for company, and the location isn’t bad at all.  Unfortunately, their rent doesn’t include electric and indoor parking is not available.
• Executive House has everything I want: location, square footage, tile bathroom, dishwashers, air conditioning, balconies, indoor parking, and extremely attentive staff.  The fact that my only qualms are cosmetic (the lobby and hallways could use — but do not urgently need — a refresh) ties this place with Grayco.
• Old City Hall is far and away the most unique building — and the most expensive.  For the character and location, I could live with higher rent and even uncovered parking, but two important factors made me turn the place down:  having to heat huge spaces with heat pumps & baseboards, and not having electric included in the rent.

Pennsylvania Place was ruled out off the bat.  Old City Hall, while worth every penny, was ultimately too far out of my budget.  Towne House had a very attractive deal, but due to electric not being included in the rent, was ruled out as third place.  So that leaves The Grayco vs Executive House.

The Grayco drips character.  You can not walk into that building without feeling it.  It’s just not possible.  The present owners have worked miracles to turn that building around and make it a highly desirable place to live.  They could have easily gutted the place, thrown up some drywall and recessed lighting, and rented for a sky-high premium.  Instead, they did things the hard way by choosing to preserve as much of the building’s character as possible, replacing only the mandatory (fuseboxes) and obvious (the elevator from hell is long-gone).

Pointing out that Executive House doesn’t have the same character is ridiculous.  Executive House is 30 years younger than The Grayco and as such is considerably more modern.  Executive House has this 1960s jet-set thing going for it (again, you’ll have to excuse the lobby).  The building must have been pretty damn impressive when it was built in 1966, and if you look at it with just the right kind of eyes, it still is.

If “character” is the one word that describes The Grayco, then “awesome” would be the one word that describes Executive House.  The floorplans are built to accomodate social gatherings, the apartments are loaded with outlets for us tech-savvy crowd, and their layouts present a huge living space.  And having spent five years living there previously, I can attest to the building’s thick walls (quiet neighbors) and demographic (mostly single 20/30-something professionals).

Where The Grayco has flawless parquet floors, Executive House has fresh carpeting.  The Grayco has built-in bookshelves, Executive House has an obscene amount of closet space.  The Grayco has steam heat, but so does Executive House.  Executive House has air conditioning, while The Grayco sort of does.  Both buildings have management that is proud of their respective buildings, that have been in the building for over ten years, and — this is critically important — bent over backwards to accommodate my schedule and relentless questioning.

That last part is important.  I don’t know why some landlords can’t be bothered to return calls or even quote rates, especially now.

In a side-by-side comparison, it’s hard to imagine going wrong with either Executive House or The Grayco.  Both buildings have strong points, and each building’s strong points are extremely strong.  But there are a few issues that I can’t get over.  Executive House has dishwashers; The Grayco does not.  Executive House has much more counter space in the kitchens.  Executive House has attached, reserved, indoor parking.  And … air conditioning.

If it weren’t for those last four factors, it would have been a coin toss.  And even with those factors, the decision was difficult.  Both buildings are, put simply, great.  But I’m moving this weekend, and — let’s face it — those four factors are important.

So today I signed a lease at Executive House.  My new mattress and sectional are on the way, I’ve got a carload of stuff ready to roll, and I’m going to do my best to make it to the tweetup in one piece.

Old City Hall is unique in that it is one of only two Harrisburg apartment buildings to be dominated by split-level loft apartments (the other being Simon Cameron School on Green).  Schoolhouse Apartments in Mechanicsburg has the same overall feel, but only has a handful of split-level units.  This is currently a niche market that Harrisburg desperately needs more of.  I’ll take a hardwood floor, exposed brickwork and structure, and an otherwise well-hidden exterior over any of the apartments I’ve looked at so far.  The Grayco may be the current frontrunner in class and character, but nothing screams living history like a 30′ ceiling 12-foot windows.

I can not remember the leasing agent’s name, but she was happy to give me a tour of the available apartments.  I looked at three one-bedroom units that fell within my price range, all of which had an elevated bedroom and bathroom.

Old City Hall’s lobby is, without qualification, the best out of everything I’ve looked at so far.  I would move into it if I could.  It’s easily the best part of the building.  And it’s a small part of the ambiance that is the reason for Old City Hall’s prices.  The building is definitely premium-priced.  And without any similar competition, it’s easy to see why.  The first midtown or downtown developer to axe up an old run-down warehouse and carve it into split-level lofts will make an effing fortune overnight on rent.

The apartments are, of course, unique.  They’re starting to look a little dated, but that’s hard to notice when you look up and see your bedroom … then keep looking up and see the ceiling 25 or 30 feet above you.

One-bedroom rent at Old City Hall starts just shy of $900 / month, which includes water, sewer, and trash.  Tenants pay electric.  By itself this is a downer, but considering that each apartment has an electric heat pump with additional electric baseboards, heating two stories’ worth of ceiling space will only compound the issue.  In other words, Old City Hall ain’t cheap.

But you already knew that.

The smallest apartment I viewed was also the best.  It would comfortably hold a sectional and a wall-mounted TV, and the bedroom looked like you could just barely squeeze a king size mattress inside.  Since the pass-through kitchen had a breakfast bar on the living room side, the only walls you really have are exterior.  Coupled with the massive windows flooding the room with sunlight and a second-story view, this has the effect of making the apartment feel massive.

Uncovered parking is available on-site for $80 / month, which is starting to get awfully close to just paying to park in a city garage.

I ran the numbers and figured it would cost me about $1040 / month (plus whatever heating adds to my electric bill) to live there.  This is slightly over my maximum upper limit of $1000 / month.

Old City Hall is unconditionally a nice place.  And until Harrisburg gets some real competition in loft living, it will remain an expensive place.  Although I’m sure it’s worth the cost, Old City Hall has become the only building that I am ruling out right off the bat based on cost.

Tomorrow I get to make my decision and sign a lease.  I’m moving this weekend and I must unconditionally have everything out by the first.  My schedule is tight, but honestly … this is fun.

Executive House is a 14-story hi-rise located at the corner of Second & Chestnut in downtown Harrisburg.  It was built in 1966 by Berger & Company out of Philadelphia.  Initially, the first nine floors were office space and floors 10 through 14 were residential apartments.  When the Rachael Carlson building opened, Executive House was heavily renovated.  The first three floors remain in use as commercial space, but floors four through 14 are residential studio & one-bedroom apartments.  Up until 2000, the building was decked out in 1960s institutional-white brick cladding.  In 2000 the building received an exterior “facelift”, during which they mercifully painted over that.

Executive House is a well-hidden gem of downtown living.  Honestly, from the outside, it’s not much to look at.  I blame the brushed-aluminum railings on the balconies (brushed aluminum doesn’t age well).  You’ve probably driven past it thousands of times and never noticed, or tuned it out as just another anonymous downtown hi-rise.  The lobby and hallways — with their dark carpeting, dark-stained birch trim, and brass fixtures — make it clear that the common areas were last renovated in 1980-something.  They aren’t exactly ugly, just somewhat dated.  I suspect this makes a lot of people ignore the building, which makes it all that more of a secret.

I met with Ann-Marie, Executive House’s building manager, and got a tour of the available apartments.  She knew the entire building and its history forwards and backwards, and made a point of making sure all my questions were answered.  I’m really big on customer service, so seeing attentive building management goes a long way towards compensating for any shortcomings a building may have.

Once you get past the hallways, the apartments are bright and open with tile bathrooms and a near-obscene quantity of electric outlets (this is a major deal in apartment living).  Like Towne House, Executive House has multiple floorplans for each style of apartment.  And also like Towne House, some of the apartments are pretty impressive when you first open the door.  Again, layout is everything.

The building shares a lot of characteristics with the other downtown / midtown properties I looked at.  Like The Grayco and Pennsylvania Place, Executive House is within easy walking distance of everything downtown and barely a half mile from midtown.  It’s two blocks from Privado, the Gingerbread Man, and Molly’s, and ABC is practically right around the corner.  Like The Grayco, Executive House includes all utilities — including electric — with their rent.  And like every other building I’ve toured, the view can range from great (watching fireworks over the river) to meh (looking at the boarded-up windows atop Crowne Plaza).

It does not, however, have the rooftop decks of The Grayco or Towne House.  Nor does it have The Grayco’s “Log Cabin” room (you just have to see that thing).

But that’s where the similarities end.  The building also has an attached four-level garage, with indoor reserved parking available for $60 / month.  All of the units have air conditioning by way of a closed-loop pressurized liquid (glycol?) system from a boiler / chiller the adjacent building.  It’s a unique but highly energy-efficient system.  And every apartment has its own semi-private balcony (as private as a balcony can be).

While I was touring the building, I didn’t hear any sound from the neighboring apartments on any floor.  This is a huge deal; the bane of apartment buildings is paper-thin walls.  I’m not sure, but either the interior walls at Executive House are insulated or the residents are just quiet.

What makes Executive House especially appealing, aside from the location and design, is the rent.  Executive House is currently the least-expensive hi-rise in Harrisburg, especially after adding in parking costs.

It’s hard to find anything to complain about.  I wouldn’t mind seeing the lobby redone or washer/dryer combos in every apartment, but then again, I wouldn’t really want to see the rent go up to cover the associated costs.  The best I can do is gripe about how the building looks from the outside (the aforementioned railings).  Short of replacing them all, I really can’t imagine what could be done to improve the look.  But if I had to find something to gripe about, that would be it.

My last remaining apartment building to check out is Old City Hall, which I will do tomorrow.  Then it’s crunch time – I need to make a decision, sign a lease, order new furniture, and be moved in by the 25th.

I spent the day dismantling the proceeds from my home sale.  Those of you who saw my home know that it was never anything special, so it should be no surprise that we’re not exactly talking about a seven-figure sale here.  Today I dumped most of the proceeds from the sale into paying off old debt.  I have a tiny sliver of student loans left over from my degree, and a whole lot of my flight training loan left over.  I would love to put a little into the stock market, but even earning a 15% return isn’t that great when I’ve got student loans at 6.9%.

Whatever is left over is going to more immediate needs, like a bed.  I’m not kidding when I say I’ve donated or thrown out just about everything I own.  Clothes on my back, baby — that’s the deal.

Oh, and a laptop.  I kept that.  It’s grown on me.  In fact, it’s very likely that my new apartment will be completely desktop-free.

Thanks to everyone who has sent in commentary via comments, email, and Twitter about the apartment hunting.  I’ve heard from people with similar experiences at PA Place as well as Grayco.  What I’d really like to hear is any feedback on Towne House.  That’s the only building that nobody I know seems to have signed a lease in.  Anyone have anything to share?

The plan so far is to sign a lease early this week and begin moving ASAP.  I expect to be 99% moved by the end of the day next Monday (the 25th), so this Monday is going to be a final whirlwind of touring and contemplating over many cups of coffee.  With one exception, every place I’ve visited so far has been a viable option, so I’m really not sure how I’m going to choose.

There are two points I want to make about the “Harrisburg Apartments” series:

First, I’m really big on customer service.  A nice view or a bargain-basement rent is helpful, but I’m a lot more concerned about having a building management team that’s engaged with the tenants.  A noisy elevator or so-so view can be made up for by a leasing agent or building manager who actually gives a damn about the property.  Harrisburg renters have a plethora of choices of available living space right now, and with similar buildings charging similar rent, how knowledgeable and attentive the leasing agent is can go a long, long way.  I’m not saying I’d rent just because she had a big smile and friendly personality; rather, if she can’t get excited about the building, how can I?

Second, this is an excellent start to the new year!  More on this later, but suffice to say I’m excited to be moving back into the city.  Whether I’m downtown or midtown remains to be seen, of course.  As long as I’m no longer out in East Nowhere Township, I’m happy.

Happy Saturday.

• Anywhere downtown or midtown, within a half mile of Restaurant Row, Riverfront Park, and the train station
• Mid-rise, hi-rise, or townhome
• Less than $1,000 / month after parking, utilities, and rent

So far I’ve looked at The Grayco and Pennsylvania Place.  Today I’m heading to the opposite side of downtown to visit Towne House.

At 20 stories, Towne House is the second-tallest residential hirise in Harrisburg.  It was built in 1961 and was formerly a mixture of hotel rooms and apartments.  Today the hotel rooms have been converted into studios and the building is entirely residential.

Towne House is located at Sixth and Boas.  If you’ve ever been to Jackson House and looked across the street at those god-awful yellow balconies, you’ve seen Towne House.  It’s in a weird flux of being somewhere between midtown and uptown, without really being in either.  But being only .4 mile from Restaurant Row, a quick stroll across the capitol complex from the train station, and a few blocks from everything in midtown, it’s still within my target geographic area.

One of the interesting things about Towne House is that they have multiple floorplans for each type of apartment.  I’m not just talking about moving the closet across the hallway or flipping the layout; there are no less than three studio layouts, four one-bedroom layouts, and three two-bedroom layouts.  And their odd “T” shape means that there are plenty of corner apartments to be had.

I met with Marsha, their leasing agent, after work.  Her day was supposed to be finished at 5:45, but she was happy to stick around well past 6 helping me out.  Although she wasn’t as well-versed on the building’s history as Ann from Grayco, she was able to answer all of the important questions and most of the dumb ones.

The first thing that struck me about Towne House was the number of people loitering in the lobby.  I don’t know if they were waiting for rides or had nowhere else to go, but it struck me as unusual.

Our first stop was a corner unit up on the 18th floor.  I was floored the second I walked through the door — THIS is the apartment I’m getting!  Being a corner unit, the apartment had double exposure with one set of windows facing north and the balcony facing east.  A modest kitchen had a pass-through / breakfast bar to the living room, making the already-big room look even bigger and more open.  The bedroom was adequate, with enough room for my king bed and some very basic shelving.  The bathroom was an odd shade of 1960s pale blue tile.

As if the dramatically-large room wasn’t enough on its own, the balcony seemed almost perfect.  Because of the odd shape of the building, it was sheltered on three sides, permitting usage on windy or rainy days.  For added bonus points, there had to be at least 200 square feet of closet space in there.

I took a cursory look at a smaller one-bedroom, but the layout and square footage seemed too small for what I was after.  Surprisingly, even their two-bedroom units — at over 1100 square feet — felt smaller than the 850-square-foot corner unit.

Layout is everything.

The hallways of the building looked hit or miss.  On one hand, they were relatively bright compared to the other residential hi-rises, thanks to plenty of window exposure near the elevator landings.  On the other hand, I noticed a significant amount of damage to the walls.  Nothing structural, but it looks like the drywall had been repeatedly broken by dollies and moving carts over the years, and that they had just given up on trying to fix them.

No building is perfect, of course.  But being the most expensive unit I’ve visited thus far, I was hoping for a little more polish.

Outdoor on-site parking is available for $40 / month.

The corner unit goes for $795 / month and includes everything but electric.  Although very few complexes include electricity with your rent, it’s a convenience I’d like to have.  Taking an educated guess about my electric usage, I’m estimating that my total cost with parking and electric would be around $915 / month.  Still within my budget, but fast approaching the absolute upper limit.

I’m taking a break over the weekend, but Monday I’ll try and catch both Executive House and Old City Hall in one swoop.  I’m signing a lease this coming week and moving in by the 25th, so it’s going to be a rush.  Unfortunately for decision-making purposes, both Grayco and Towne House have their strong points.  If Grayco had a dishwasher the issue would be done … but they don’t … and it isn’t.

(INTERESTING FACTOID:  Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am an obsessive perfectionist when it comes to writing.  As such these posts are several days behind reality.  I wanted to point this out because Towne House’s leasing office closes at sundown on Friday.  Since sundown on Friday was after 6, I didn’t want to get the leasing agent in any trouble.  I actually viewed Towne House earlier this week.)