Pros:
-Absolutely great area. Just a few blocks from Green Lake, PCC, lots of restaurants, and easy access to public transit.
-You can tell the apartment has had a facelift in recent years - marble shower, good water pressure. Large, comfy bed.
-Ideal for someone staying not much longer than a month, or someone who does not cook much.
Cons:
-The kitchen space is efficiency sized to the max. The things that affected me personally but may or may not matter to you I’ll list as an FYI: very limited counter space making it difficult to cook at times; the sink is about one foot cubed, and the stove is about 3/4 sized; there is only one outlet in the entire kitchen so I did have to jury rig an extension cord set up and keep a few things plugged in on top of the refrigerator to make things fit.
-This place is ideal for one person, in my opinion. The couch is a love seat so there is limited room for stretching out. You can really only sit facing forward.
-Somebody must have smoked in the apartment previously as it does kind of smell like stale smoke at times (Melissa did kindly include a few candles though)
-Just FYI the door of the apartment is at the exterior of the building and there is no peephole, if that matters to you.
-The apartment is situated across the street from the fire department so occasionally there is siren noise, but it didn’t bother me too much.
-Parking can be a bit of a struggle, but you can usually find a spot if you circle the block once or twice and are okay with walking a block or two.
-Ants became a problem this spring, despite constant cleaning. Related: there weren’t any cleaning supplies in the apartment so I purchased my own (including a broom, which I left in the unit for future tenants).
-The toilet seems to have a water saving feature, which only gives you half the power of a normal flush and takes about 20 minutes for the tank to fill up before you can flush again.
-The unit adjacent to this listing is completely gutted at the moment (it did wake me up unexpectedly one morning while it was happening), just a heads up as remodeling may continue this spring/summer. I believe the host Melissa may own the building and possibly lives on the premises as her husband was working on the internet one day and she knew about the remodeling when I asked her about it. On the plus side, she is pretty quick to respond, which was helpful.
All in all, the unit did personally feel a bit too crammed for a longer term stay (I booked 3 months), but I think it could be a nice stay for a singular person, a shorter term stay, or for someone who does not do much cooking.