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Wasn't sure whether to put this here or in regular A/T. I currently live in house with a roommate and am renting out a room. The roommate and I get along fine, and the house itself is great. The problem is, though, that the room I have is far too small and I'm overpaying for it. I’m a small person myself and don’t need much space, but I’m starting a business and need a work desk, filing cabinets, shelf space and at least one desk drawer for all of the paperwork this new business entails. This new business thing is also why I don’t have the money to have an entire house of my own yet. A relative who lives close by has a house with a spare bedroom. It has its own private entrance and personal bathroom with a shower. It’s also very long, large enough to have my bed, furniture, TV, computer/desk, and still with plenty leftover for in-home office space. I'd get over 3 times the amount of space for far cheaper of a price, and can even help the owner out by buying them a new dishwasher and other utilities. However, the spare bedroom has a lot of problems at the moment. -It’s a converted garage. This means its air circulation is pretty crappy. We live in a warm state and in the summer this room gets hot…like, easily 80+ degrees even if the rest of the house is 10 degrees cooler. I can barely breathe in that, let alone sleep. -The owner smokes. Their room is on the opposite side of the house, but I’m still highly allergic to cigarettes. Someone else lives in the house who has asthma so they’ve gotten a lot better about only smoking in their room/outside, but once again this is where the spare room’s poor circulation becomes an issue. If enough smoke creeps under the door, I will have an allergy attack. -It has an American cockroach (waterbug/palmetto bug) problem despite the room being devoid of food or filth. The reason for this is the bathroom sewage system is a little wonky and this is an outdoor species of roach that doesn’t need food so much as it does warmth and water. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m absolutely terrified of them and would rather deal with rats, spiders or lizards than those loving things. -The carpet, the furniture, all has layers of stale cat piss in it. This is because the owner used to own a tom cat who even after being neutered never let go of his “habits”. The furnishing is no big deal since I’d bring my own and the door leading to the rest of the house would be locked to prevent the other pets from coming in (and the ones left don’t mark anyway). However, that stale loving smell still lingers in the place and would drive me nuts if I had to live in it. Those are the room's biggest problems, and are the reasons I haven't taken the owner up on their offer sooner. Since are no pressures like an ending lease, I have time to clean and prepare the room. What can be done to make this a good room? How expensive will it probably get? So far I have accepted some things: Cat hair and cigarette smoke travel, and even if I keep it clean and the owner doesn’t smoke anywhere near it there will always be faint traces of both in my room. That’s the inevitability of living with a smoker/pet owner. My action plan to make the place go from glorified garage to serviceable bedroom is: 1.Exterminate the room, clean out the surrounding yard so that the bugs have no nesting piles in leaves and wood, and caulk up the windows/second entrance/bathroom so they have no way to wander back in. I’ll also have the plumbing looked at. Thankfully waterbugs are much easier to get rid of then German cockroaches and similar pests. 2. Throw out all furniture and get the carpet steam cleaned. It would be nice to rip it up altogether, but I don’t want to throw too much money into this place as it’s a temporary living situation and even the owner will be getting rid of it somewhere down the line. 3. Get a mobile AC unit for summer nights and a good air filter to keep floating dander and trace smoke to a minimum. Is there anything else that can be done to ventilate the room? I don’t want to jack up the electricity too much with the use of a mobile AC unit, but don’t see any alternative since the central air literally doesn't do poo poo there. Also, how much would the estimated cost of all of this be? Is there anything else I can do, or any cheaper solutions to make the place better?
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| # ? Mar 10, 2013 23:48 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 02:37 |
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Your plan seems fairly solid. 1. After extermination, it never hurts to leave some traps/poison around as long as the pet(s) will be kept out of the room. 2. In most municipalities, you can rent a Rug Doctor or equivalent steam cleaner at the grocery or hardware store. It's like fifty bucks for twenty four hours, and they do a decent job. Alternatively, since the space used to be a garage, there's probably concrete underneath the carpet. If this is indeed the case, you can always just pull the carpet up and paint the floor if you want, especially since you're in a warmer climate. It'll also help keep the room cooler. 3. You pretty much will have to get a portable or window AC unit, since it sounds like the central air doesn't extend into the space. You might also consider a big fan or two if the white noise won't bother you (or you can just wear headphones or earplugs). Powering a fan is always cheaper than AC, and if you point a fan in the general direction of the door to the rest of the house, it'll help keep the cigarette smoke and cat dander out. It might also be worthwhile to investigate the insulation situation, particularly if there's an attic space above the room. Sometimes contractors do not insulate garage spaces during new home construction in order to cut costs, particularly if there is no heated living space above the garage. Basic fiberglass insulation is pretty cheap and goes a long way towards keeping the electricity bills down. 4. Paint is cheap and goes a long way towards making a space livable.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 10:12 |
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There is no attic. Thanks for the insulation suggestion, though! I can definitely look into that. What do you mean by the paint making a space more liveable? Is it just aesthetics, or would a fresh coat somehow help the room out in other ways? I can see it getting rid of any lingering cat piss smells on the walls at least.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 13:24 |
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For the cat piss you're going to want to use an enzymatic cleaner, like Nature's Miracle. It's designed to break piss down to the point where even animals can't smell it, and if they can't, you certainly won't! Is the carpet sitting on the concrete floor or is there a pad in between? You may have to toss the pad and put in a new one since that stuff just loooooooves to soak up stains/odors and it would be cheaper to replace than to buy the gallons and gallons of Nature's Miracle you'd have to use to fully eliminate the odor. Concrete is porous, too - make sure you scrub the poo poo out of that, let it dry, then seal it. As far as the cooling goes, are you in a dry area? Have you considered a swamp cooler? They work differently than your standard air conditioning units, but they have the added benefit of being a humidifier. They're also cheaper, and you could even build one yourself. Coasterphreak has it right about insulation. Not only will it keep you warmer when it's cold, but it'll keep you cooler when it's hot, too. If you can't/don't want to afford insulating the entire room you should consider at least the portion that faces the greatest amount of sun during the day. Is the room entirely cut off from the main house's central air? If so, it shouldn't be very difficult to prevent cigarette odors from entering the room. Just make sure the connecting door is well sealed and maybe use the outside door to access the rest of the house unless necessary.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 16:43 |
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Cuckoo posted:I can see it getting rid of any lingering cat piss smells on the walls at least. This, pretty much. It would also help cover any nicotine residue or stains from the previous occupants.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 18:29 |
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I also think it would be a good idea to plan on ripping up the carpet and pad. Get rid of the furniture, rip up the carpet/pad, wash the walls/windows, wash/etch/seal the floor, caulk as needed, paint the walls. Do not get a portable ac unit, stick with a window unit. If you use a box/window fan have it blowing in to your room, it may be more of a pain but you wont pull smells from the rest of the house into your space. Weatherstrip your inside door if possible.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 19:21 |
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It is so much easier to keep a room clean and insect free if you get rid of the carpet. Carpets are festering grounds for all sorts of vermin. Get a rug or two that you can easily wash.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 19:58 |
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Surely this place isn't your only option... Living in a cat piss filled, insect infested, smokey, poorly insulated, and poorly ventilated garage sounds like a fuckall bad idea. No matter how much you polish it, a turd is still a turd, and you will be putting way more effort than it is worth for a temporary living situation. If it was permanent, it would be worth fixing up, but not as a temporary place. I could see moving in there if you were going to otherwise be homeless, but just do the best you can to get by in your current apartment until you find a REAL place to live that meets your needs. You obviously don't have the cash to do it right, so it is still going to be a lovely, smelly, bug infested garage once your budget is exhausted.
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| # ? Mar 11, 2013 20:41 |
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I'm gonna backup iForge here. This is obviously an outsider view having read only your OP, but to me the tradeoffs don't seem worthwhile.
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| # ? Mar 13, 2013 13:18 |
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If you rent this garage it will become your own personal nightmare for the next 12 months plus, and you will never be free of the cigarette smell. Don't be seduced by the extra space into paying money for a gigantic unredeemable shithole.
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| # ? Mar 13, 2013 18:50 |
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| # ? May 19, 2013 02:37 |
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What is the difference in price between the two spaces?
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| # ? Mar 13, 2013 21:05 |
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