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There are key pad locks for the front door and for each room. When I rented the rooms separately I just put the last 4 digits of each guests phone number as their room and front door codes, and the upstairs hallway door at the top of the stairs was removed.
I have rehung that door. I removed the deadbolt from it, but it would take 5 minutes to replace it. I don’t want to be rushing upstairs to deal with a water leak or some other emergency, and discover that it’s locked and I don’t have my keys in my pocket (I can open all locks in the house with my master key). About 3/4 of tenants never locked that door when it was a long term rental.
I could be persuaded to reinstall the deadbolt. Please discuss.
If I rented an entire apartment I would expect a lock on the door into that space and not on the individual bedroom doors. In an entire apartment I might be in the hall or kitchen in my skivvies and not want you to come in unannounced so I’d like a lock. If a parent is bringing their kids they might not want their kids to be able to lock themselves into a room so all the locks might need the same code given to the parent.
I don’t know about these 20th century stereotypes about the decor needing a lady or a gay man’s input. But this gay lady agrees that the lighting and pictures don’t show off this property in any way. I look forward to seeing the real listing when it’s ready.
Also make clear that while it’s listed as an entire apartment it doesn’t have any lounge space. A family might be looking to play games or watch movies in the evening and that doesn’t seem to be an option there. Is there room for an a entire family to sit down and eat?
I too noticed the lack of gathering space. Longer term if the “whole place” arrangement finds its market and is successful, maybe make one of the BRs a lounge with sofabed or daybed.
If you have a key to the deadbolt for emergencies, so the police or firefighters don’t take an axe to the door, I’d add it back on the apartment “front” door. Any lesser emergency you would pound on the door to alert the guests or you would make sure they were out before rushing in anyway, right?
People were confused about configuration of my rental space. This floor was originally 4 bedrooms + 1 bath, but Grandpa knew his kids would be grown and gone within 10 years. He framed the back window in one room as a door so the back stairway could be added and it could be a legal apartment. He wisely put the kitchen there so it would share the bathroom’s sink plumbing.
The plan is to convert 4 of the closets shown here into bathrooms for Rooms 1 and 2, and remodel the existing bath with an entrance through Room 3.
I think that having this drawing in the listing might be helpful. What do you folks think?
I’ll be staging for pix in the next few hours and will have some new bedroom pix for critique. I hope to have new kitchen and bath pix tomorrow. I gotta go live and get bookings before I talk to the bank this week!
The drawing is very nice and clear now. Personally I would make that larger Room 1 into a lounge space or open through to the kitchen, with a convertible couch and the plan to rent the whole thing for 4-6 people, priced accordingly as a spacious, upstairs, private, 1bath apartment is great! (As you probably realize, building bathrooms can get pricey really quickly! I’d consider an added 1/2 bath toilet and sink only, not attached to any bedroom). Or could you remove the closets near the center entry area and have that be a lounge space/ open to kitchen?
Just my 2c!!! Good luck with your project, guests and photography!!
I agree with Gypsy that a nice apartment would have a lounge space. I know you have a lot of experience with LTR and perhaps you never want to do that again but it’s a must for LTR. Also adding bathrooms that are away from the plumbing will be very expensive. I’m guessing you’re looking to do STR where neither your nor guests have to share any spaces with one another.
So I see you still haven’t gone live? Or you aren’t opening until Sept?
The largest bedroom was the living room when it was LTR. The reason it’s now a bedroom is because I have noticed I high demand for 3BR places this summer, and the third room adds $100 per night. People don’t come here to stay indoors in the summer. My guests are out hiking, boating, kayaking, and taking excursions like whale watching, glacier helicopter trips, or glacial fjord boat trips.
Although I offer a bread-cereal-dairy self-catered breakfast and will furnish guests with sourdough pancake batter if they tell me the night before, about 2/3 of guests prefer to go out for breakfasts, and there are 2 great breakfast places within a 6 minute walk. I think folks don’t like to to wash dishes on holiday!
The ultimate plan is to add 2 more bathrooms so I have 3 separate rooms with private baths, which will maximize revenue. I’m almost 75, and want to get this mortgage paid off quickly!
There really is no STR season except May-September here in SE Alaska unless there’s no snow in Colorado and California, when we get a few skiers burning their AK Air miles.
In my first 2 years I had 2 guests who came to Alaska to see the winter, one from South Africa and one a Carnival crew member on her month off who wanted to see Alaska in the winter.
Just finished new pix, which is why I haven’t gone live, but I will within the next hour. Just working on text edits now.
As an architecture school dropout, I prefer simple, clean and uncluttered, and IKEA furniture has worked well. Linens, including duvet covers, are all the same to keep laundry simple, and so I need fewer extra sets of them. The art in each room is different, and I’m trying to acquire more art to so I can have a different art theme in each room.
I detest and eschew tschotchkes, “decor” clutter, extra pillows, shams, and anything extra that has to be dusted, cleaned, or washed.
And please don’t stereotype my gay friends. One of them has horrible taste in both clothing and decor, but he’s a great auto mechanic, and another has no visual art talent at all.
Hi from Australia. Found a typo;
” Hangars “are normally found in airports.
I struggled to understand how the door part works downstairs but maybe that’s just me. Also are the rooms upstairs rented out separately then people share the bathrooms ?
The listing says 3 BEDROOM APARTMENT. That’s what it is. I don’t understand how that’s not clear?
There is an outer storm porch, where there is a bench where guests can remove shoes, and a shoe rack. It’s unlocked. There is a locked front door, which opens to the first floor (in the US, that’s the main floor) hallway, which has doors to the left and right (my living room and kitchen), and a stairway in the middle that goes up to the door to the apartment on the second floor.
It will be more clear now that the revised listing is live. It will be better to comment on the thread I started for that at
