Your living arrangements/accommodation (INTP houseshare such a terrible idea?)

[Publius]

Hi all. I have a question for you. Well, a few, actually. I am curious:

1. What are your living arrangements?
2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?
3. How would you prefer to live?
4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?

I am speaking in terms of your dwelling, abode, accommodation, etc.

I currently live in a flat (apartment) which I rent at a reasonable sum for what it is. I have just split up with my girlfriend, who I shared it with. I can probably afford to live here on my own, just about, but I think it's time for a change and to go somewhere else. This is proving difficult!

I've been looking at other flats this week and have so far been very disappointed. The few I've seen have cost almost as much as my current one yet are absolutely horrible. One I saw today had shutters, as in industrial grade shop shutters, instead of blinds or curtains (shades or drapes). What the hell? It's on the second floor, it's not like anyone can smash a window and climb in! And the kitchen physically repulsed me, it was like looking at an old photograph, and not in a good way. And this only cost £25 a month less than my current place. Crazy. I still have to worry about bills.

So, other INTPs. How do you live? With a partner? I've done that for 2 years and while it can be very nice at times, it often left me feeling bothered and unable to concentrate on what I wanted to do.

My ideal place is somewhere maybe above a shop, where I can make a little bit of noise in the evenings (I'm a musician), with its own private entrance, a separate bedroom (considering I technically have six rooms including hallways, I was utterly appalled at the amount of studio flats - one room plus en suite bathroom - going for the same amount of money I pay) with clean, neutral decor.

However, a few minutes ago I found myself considering a houseshare. Slightly cheaper, with bills included in rent, but shared with another person. Do INTPs find this idea loathsome? Sharing a house with a stranger(s)?

Give me your thoughts!

 

[Lot]

1. What are your living arrangements?
I live in a studio apartment. (Kitchen, bed room, and living room are all one room, for those of you that don't know what a studio is.) I live with my two cats.

2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?
Very much so. I like the freedom of having my own place. I even like paying my own bills.

3. How would you prefer to live?
With a woman.

4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?
Living with a person that thinks they know better than you and expresses it often.

 

[r4ch3l]

1. What are your living arrangements?
2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?
3. How would you prefer to live?
4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?

1. I currently live back with my family for the first time since I was 18 (I left on bad terms with them, we patched it up while I was away). I moved back in last fall when I was 25 and unexpectedly broke up with my boyfriend, subsequently losing my apartment in a very expensive place and not wanting to find a new one because I had just quit my job and was all shaken up.
2. It was really bad all winter because I was already fairly mentally unstable and they contributed to it without even trying. Now I do not mind as much because I see that I will be able to move out soon due to changing circumstances, my mental health has improved, and being able to work on software project with my dad is actually really convenient and kind of awesome. But it would be nice to work here occasionally and have my own place.
3. I would prefer to have a spacious apartment of my own with hardware floors, a library, a stripper pole, ergonomic chairs, and a balcony with an awesome view. Realistically I think I would like living with roommates again, as long as they had common interests/ways of seeing the world, were not too codependent or naggy, and the apartment/house was not too claustrophobic.
4. I don't like my current situation, but I've discussed that. I don't like living with a boyfriend either because there's never any space. You can close the door and say leave me alone, but...I don't know how to describe it. I never felt alone and it was distracting.

My ideal place is somewhere maybe above a shop, where I can make a little bit of noise in the evenings (I'm a musician), with its own private entrance, a separate bedroom (considering I technically have six rooms including hallways, I was utterly appalled at the amount of studio flats - one room plus en suite bathroom - going for the same amount of money I pay) with clean, neutral decor.

One of my best living situations and the only time I enjoyed living alone(ish) was when I spent almost a year in a converted warehouse live/work spot. It was really cheap, I could make all the noise I wanted and build crazy stuff in my place (dance studio, slide), I had tons of space to work on things and Art Out. If I felt like being social I could go chill on the loading dock where everyone seemed to congregate and one of my neighbors would invite me to hang out. I don't think we were supposed to live there, but everyone did. Some guy even build a sauna.

However, a few minutes ago I found myself considering a houseshare. Slightly cheaper, with bills included in rent, but shared with another person. Do INTPs find this idea loathsome? Sharing a house with a stranger(s)?

I've had success with going in on houses with friends, but I have never just moved in with a random group of strangers. In San Francisco this is common because it's so expensive. Most people are fairly clear in what they're looking for in ads so I think it could work and maybe even be a good way to expand your social circle. I like living with other people a lot as long as I can close the door to my room and have my own space. It helps me not get too lost inside my own head and makes me a happier person when I'm in an antisocial loop.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

1. What are your living arrangements?
I live in a studio apartment. (Kitchen, bed room, and living room are all one room, for those of you that don't know what a studio is.) I live with my two cats.

2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?
Very much so. I like the freedom of having my own place. I even like paying my own bills.

3. How would you prefer to live?
With a woman.

4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?
Living with a person that thinks they know better than you and expresses it often.

Wow! I could have written that almost word for word. Studio, 2 cats, my own place, wouldn't mind having a woman around (maybe 3 days a week ).

I live on the same property as my business (B&B) but my place is my own. Very convenient but I'm always "on call" I suppoese. I'm not often disturbed except by phone calls at all hours. Lots of work but no commute! Summer sunsets over the water that are to be envied. Still, I'm just ok with it. I'd like a bigger place but business comes first. When it's further established and profits are stable, there is a space 20 yards from my current one that will suffice for a nice house. I had my own regular house once, I liked it best.

 

[Agent Intellect]

1. What are your living arrangements?

I lived in an apartment with my brother and sister for a while, but when I went back to school I had to move back home.

2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?

Not particularly. Being an adult living with my parents obviously gives me the social stigma of being a loser, even if I can give the reasonable explanation that I'm going to school full time. The loss of independence sucks a lot, too.

3. How would you prefer to live?

In a small house with great internet connection and a fruit/vegetable garden instead of a lawn. Grass is such a useless waste of land.

4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?

Any place that doesn't let me do what I want. I hope I never have to rent again.

 

[Cavallier]

Wow! I could have written that almost word for word. Studio, 2 cats, my own place, wouldn't mind having a woman around (maybe 3 days a week ).

I live on the same property as my business (B&B) but my place is my own. Very convenient but I'm always "on call" I suppoese. I'm not often disturbed except by phone calls at all hours. Lots of work but no commute! Summer sunsets over the water that are to be envied. Still, I'm just ok with it. I'd like a bigger place but business comes first. When it's further established and profits are stable, there is a space 20 yards from my current one that will suffice for a nice house. I had my own regular house once, I liked it best.

You run a B&B? I'm trying to wrap my head around that. I see you in cute little house slippers and an apron.

Anyway:

1. What are your living arrangements?

Top floor 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment. It is shaped like a horseshoe with a fair sized porch in the middle. The porch is accessable from the master bedroom as well as the living room. The apartment has one of those rare floor plans where the bedroom wall doesn't share a wall with the living room of my appartment or the appartment next door.

I live there with my two cats and another person.

2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?

Yes. Quite. I prefer the privacy of a top floor apartment. The layout is nice. The kitchen is serviceable. It is small but very livable.

3. How would you prefer to live?

I would prefer a house or really anyplace that was in the middle of nowhere with the closest neighbors being at least a mile away and allowed for an outdoor garden space. I want somewhere I can grow things that aren't just in pots. I want the quiet of no humans living near. I want to have chickens and goats and a hammock.

4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?

In a communal house with a bunch of people I don't know or don't care about. Constantly hearing them and having to interact with them would be horrible.

 

[ShameFace]

Hi all. I have a question for you. Well, a few, actually. I am curious:

1. What are your living arrangements?
2. Are you happy with these living arrangements?
3. How would you prefer to live?
4. What is the least appealing way to live for you?

i currently live in my camper van. I don't pay any rent and just move it around town (I live in Los Angeles). I've never been happier since leaving my studio apartment in March. I would prefer to have my own small self sustaining farm in the mountains. Thats my ultimate goal. I would hate to have a mortgage and live in the sleepy suburbs with neighbors closeby.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

You run a B&B? I'm trying to wrap my head around that. I see you in cute little house slippers and an apron.

Well I don't live in the house. I don't wear an apron either and as you can see in my avatar I just wipe all the blood on my shirt.

I do have slippers though.

 

[Solitaire U.]

1. Live with my wife and two (preteen) kids in a 5 bedroom rented house in Southern Mexico. The house has an attached 1 bedroom apartment with private entrance, and also a new, large detached 1 bedroom bungalow (that we constructed) in the back.

The main house is adobe. Our walls are 12" thick. Upstairs apartment was added later and is concrete/cinder block. The bungalow is also crete/cinder block, but with a wood slat, clay shingled roof.

The owners are wonderful people. We have carte blanche to do whatever we wish with the place, short of destroying it, of course. We've made a lot of improvements on our own dime (the bungalow in back for ex), and in the last year the owners have paid to upgrade the water, gas and most recently electrical systems, which were all sub-standard when we moved in, even by Mexican standards. We made the arrangements and had our own workers perform the upgrades though, which took considerable amounts of time.

We rent the entire property for the equiv of $950 US per month. The attached apartment is exceptionally nice. We rent that long term to a retired expat for 7500 pesos a month, all utilities paid. My mother, also retired, lives in the rear bungalow, and pays 4,000 pesos a month. Wife also runs a daycare out of our house, which brings in 4-6,000 pesos a month, so we're essentially living rent/utility free in a very comfortable environment.

2. Very happy with the living arrangements. Long term plans are to either buy this property or buy a lot and build a new house/apartment combo to similar specs; something that generates income as well as being functional for our needs. Since land and construction costs are substantially cheaper than the asking price for this property, we'll most likely go with the 'buy and build to suit' option. The idea of designing and building exactly what we want is very appealing to us. If/when that comes to pass, we'll live here and build little by little as we can afford it, which would be impossible in the US but is the norm in this country.

3. See above.

4. Throwing away money on rent with nothing in return. Owning a house we paid too much for. Buying an older house and having to upgrade shit. Settling for a house that isn't of our preferred configuration.

SU

 

[Montresor]

Until recently I have been staying in a crappy cat piss motel 5 days a week 2.5h away from my real home, which is a small house that I rent with my old lady on the very edge of the city I live in, down by the river.

My front yard is actually a municipal park, specifically, Hole # whatever on a Frisbee Golf course. (My front yard is actually a front yard, then you cross the street, and it's the park).

The grass is unkempt, there are occasionally huge piles of crushed cans and old tires in the front yard, there are always p.o.s. vehicles parked in my gravel driveway that I mistakenly bought thinking I could fix them.

My neighbors hate me because of my laissez-faire attitude and my roaming cats. My one neighbor actually shovels the snow off his portion of the street in the winter. You want SJ? He=SJ.

Sometimes my roommate (oh yea I have roommate too my best friend from High school he is INTJ) and I sit out front on the porch with slingshots and shoot paint balls at the people playing Frisbee Golf. They pretend to ignore us.


If I could change one thing I would be an owner not a renter because I definitely get urges to build and construct (as in SU post above), and part of that involves dreaming of future reno's in our future house where we can put a massive permanent marine aquarium right into the living room wall and then plumb it to a sump room in the basement.

We are decently close to home-ownership. I pay all the rent and bills while my old lady is tasked with saving money. She makes more than me (she is a RN), and she will definitely get the credit to buy when it's time.

 

[TimeAsylums]

My neighbors hate me because of my laissez-faire attitude and my roaming cats.

roflmao.

 

[Publius]

Thanks for your replies! Interesting that quite a few of you don't like renting. I don't mind it at all. I have this thing about always needing an exit and not being tied down so I don't think I could ever buy a house, not for a long time anyway. I think I'm going to quite like living alone though I'm still toying with the idea of a houseshare. It would be unusual for me as I tend to swan around my place with no clothes on and do absolutely nothing on the weekends.

Since my girlfriend moved out (and took the bedframe) I am sleeping on a mattress on the floor and I think it's pretty sweet, I might continue this in my new set up. Unfortunately before I find a new place I'm moving back in with my mother and sister for a couple of months to save some money. My sister has taken my old room, which was quite large, and I've got her old room which was tiny. It's going to be strange but not entirely unwelcome. They have cats!

One of my main concerns is burglary. I get paranoid about burglaries all the time. Last December my mother's house got burgled and loads of stuff got taken. I think that would mentally break me if all my stuff got stolen.