Having my cake and living in it too

October 13, 2019 6:06 PM

I’ve lived in dense cities for my entire adult life and really like most aspects of it. However, I have some hobbies that are noisy and messy (think woodworking, light metalworking) that I have found can be at odds with “polite” apartment living. How/where do I look for living spaces/arrangements where such activities (not every day; more like one weekend a month) are welcome, or at least more tolerated, without having to move out of an urban environment? Is it possible to bring this up with landlords without setting off “POTENTIAL NUISANCE TENANT” alarms in their heads?

I know about the existence of makerspaces and the like. This is a question about being able to tinker with stuff at home, in a yard or workshop or balcony or similar space. Assume, for the sake of this question, I am not able to buy nor rent a detached house anywhere I would want to live.

posted by btfreek to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Look for co-ops that house artists, makers, and/or "alternative" lifestyle groups (vegans, environmentally conscious activists, etc). I've toured houses like this in both Philadelphia and Boston when I was looking for affordable shared housing. These coops were usually housed in big older homes (think old creaky but charming Victorian mansion with ~5+ bedrooms) with a yard and a basement. Interestingly, these communities all seemed to *prefer* people who had an artistic or "building" bent, and many of them even had workshop-type space in the house itself or in a yard.
posted by shaademaan at 6:26 PM on October 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

If you're in an environment where apartments have balconies, one thing I'd do would be to find a vantage point and see what people have out there. Here in Hawaii, at least, you can tell a lot about the character of a building and its rules by seeing what kinds of things are being tolerated on the lanai, and what people are using that space for. Also, while it won't help if you're working on the balcony, good solid concrete walls between apartments are important for indoor noise. We used to live in a medium-rise building where our landlord and neighbors repeatedly thanked us for being quiet, _despite the fact that my husband periodically sawed wood in the living room_, because the walls were good. (It probably helped that the block in general had a lot of traffic noise, so people's expectations of quiet were lower.)
posted by LadyOscar at 7:32 PM on October 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

You could have a landlord that tells you when you complain to take it up with the police. Here that sorta boils down to 9 am when the leafblowers come around and 11 pm when the parties next door stop. One weekend a month is less than the people having a party at the pool every weekend. I'd just wait until you get a complaint and explain that you keep it as quiet as possible and save the noisy stuff for the daytime on a weekend and then amend your plans as necessary.

Second the art-house sort of thing.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:55 PM on October 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

It looks like you live in the Bay Area- I've had a couple of apartments that were in-law units above a garage, where the garage was part of the deal. Both were in Berkeley (and both were very cheap by Bay Area standards, at the time). I've seen similar arrangements in other parts of the Bay Area.
posted by pinochiette at 8:23 PM on October 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster:

save the noisy stuff for the daytime on a weekend

Just wanted to add that this is generally how I do things to try and be considerate, and this question was sparked by me getting a noise complaint at 2pm on a Sunday! An upstairs neighbor (don't know which, but not directly adjoining) came down and cited a (non-existent) noise ordinance and told me he'd already called the landlord, who then called me and told me I was violating my lease by "doing work" in my unit. The whole episode caught me so off-guard I've been wondering if all my neighbors, ever, have just quietly seethed and hated me this entire time. This is the most bougie building I've lived in, though I note that, at 9:30am, the leafblowers have already been running for an hour...
posted by btfreek at 9:30 AM on October 14, 2019

Do you do enough work like this that you could qualify for a live-work building made for artists?
posted by pinochiette at 9:53 AM on October 14, 2019

Response by poster: Do you do enough work like this that you could qualify for a live-work building made for artists?

I suspect not - and as a Bay Area techie I try to be mindful of the fact that there are almost certainly others in more pressing need of such spaces than me, someone who just wants to build a coffee table or weird metal sculpture once in a while.
posted by btfreek at 10:15 AM on October 14, 2019

as a Bay Area techie

There are definitely Bay Area neighborhoods where this would be tolerated. West Oakland for example, especially where it edges up against industrial areas.

Not all homes would be appropriate for it, but if it's something you really want to do, I'd raise it with the landlord in the middle of the process. As a landlord, here are my concerns: are you going to set anything on fire (welding, with oil soaked rags piled under the porch), are you going to injure your co-tenants, are you going to create a mess, are you going to do anything toxic that creates a cleanup situation (stripping old furniture that has lead paint using harsh chemicals). And yes, noise. If you have any professional experience or safety certifications, I'd mention that.

Hope you find a good place for all this cool stuff you want to do.
posted by slidell at 11:31 AM on October 14, 2019

A former neighbor had hobbies which required noisy tools and machinery, and he timed his use of them with the complex's landscaping-maintenance schedule.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:21 PM on October 14, 2019