Our Guelph apartment was probably the grossest actual living space we ever had but the building and environs were relatively nice. We were within a very short walking distance of some really beautiful homes. When we moved to St. Catharines the actual apartment was somewhat nicer and a bit cheaper but otherwise it was not a move up.
We lived just off of Welland Avenue about two blocks from my office (very convenient). Right at the corner of our street and Welland was a Tarot card reader and palmist right on the corner. Classy.
Due to the work we were doing before our move we had to accept the place sight unseen. Amy’s folks toured it on our behalf and called us up. We had to make a pretty quick decision because we had few options and the landlord needed word right away. In retrospect, I think he was perhaps exaggerating the pressure he was under. I can’t imagine that he had a long line up of prospective tenants.
The unit itself was adequate. It was a one-bedroom with a small eat-in kitchen and a fridge that smelt inexplicably of beets. Not just a minor ‘hrm, that smells a bit like a beet’ but a full-bore stench of beety badness. We cleaned it out several times (no obvious stains or anything) and put quite a lot of baking soda in but all to no avail. Eventually we verbally arm-wrestled our landlord into bringing us a replacement. I don’t think stench is nearly strong enough of a word, looking back on it. It managed to make milk taste bad. Milk still in the sealed bag.
Our parking area was around back of the building down a very narrow aisle. Niagara is not known for the depth or frequency of snowfalls it receives but we got a really good one on a Saturday and our driveway became completely impassable. It wasn’t wide enough for a plough to clear it so I think we and the other tenants wound up shovelling it out by hand over the course of a couple of days. I was very glad that I could walk to work and Amy could walk to the bus.
One morning we came down to find a note taped to the door. I think it was before we got our camera and in any case we have no pictures of it but the text is seared into my mind, probably for all time. “PLEASE KEEP DOOR CLOED. THIS IS A SECURITY BUILDING.†Apparently people had been propping it open? I guess? I felt much less likely to be killed in my bed after that was posted.