Meerkat Manor

Meerkats wanted

What we're looking for

Friendly house of artists/geeks seeks a nifty-keen soul to join our household. You must be a good person and enjoy living with other benevolent folk. Creativity in any form, a streak of altruism, some smarts, and a grasp of sarcasm are all a bonus. Late 20's to early 40's are ideal ages. The household is queer friendly, hetero friendly, vegetarian and carnivore friendly. Pay bills on time. Be responsible. You're looking to be part of a home rather than just renting a room.

Non-smoking. No dogs.

ThIS Room IS for rent...

It's a large room on the first floor and the rent is ($650 + $80 for utilities) $730 including utilities.

Who you'd be living with:

Jackie, Julian, Allegra, and Kelly. And yourself.

To see more on the people you'd share the house with Click click click.

What's the place like?

House is in the Excelsior district in San Francisco.

The house is nice and a good size.

Kitchen (14' by 11') with nice sunlight and a dining table.
The kitchen has a gas stove, toaster oven, and microwave. We also have a hot water boiler and rice cooker that's usually full. We have occasionally used the ice cream maker and bread maker.
Living room (14' by 11') with couches and a TV, DVD, VCR, playstation 1 and 2 + games. We killed our cable, but we have a notable influx of DVDs into the home.
There's forced air gas heating / central gas.
Washer and dryer.
Big basement (23' by 39').
Fully stocked work bench. A table saw and a zillion other tools.
A pantry.
A linen closet.
Second toilet. Extra sink in basement area.
Shelves with lots of art supplies.
A decent back yard.
A small cellar we use for extra storage.
We have DSL and there's ethernet and wifi running to every room.
If you have/want websites, we have/make a bunch of em.

There's space in the basement and in the back yard for short term art projects of various types. Part of the basement sometimes has a white background studio set up.

The room for rent

Large room on first floor: Photos of room. Room is a very large 19.5' by 13'. There is a pergo floor, track lighting, and white walls. The room is $730 a month including utilities.

Utilities

Utilities are included, but in case you want to know, they run about $80 per month (electric, gas, water, DSL, netflix, and trash).

When are the room IS available

Now.

The Neighborhood

We are in the Excelsior, which is an up-and-coming family neighborhood south of Bernal Heights, just below Silver Avenue. The people are working class, highly diverse, somewhat conservative, but not oppressive. The neighbors can be seen coming to or from work at 8am and 6pm, and at all other times it is quiet. Like any neighborhood, we have occasional young kids with loud cars. The house is two blocks uphill from Mission street. We are walking distance from a Walgreens, Kragen, Radio Shack, a gas station, and lots of little tacquerias and family-run cheapie shops. We are served by the 52 excelsior, 44 bus, and the mission street buses. We are a 15 minute walk from the Glen Park BART. Parking is not bad, but competition is rough on Sunday and Tuesday nights because of the Monday and Wednesday cleaning.

Other stuff

The house is mostly in good shape. There's some linoleum kitchen flooring that's a bit dated. We had the house painted not long ago (all the outside and some of the inside). We try to take care of the place. When there are problems with the house, we tend to fix them.
We've been having house meetings once a month and that's been good.
Pets: We don't have any pets. We wouldn't want dogs. We had a cat before, but now a friend of the house is quite allergic, so that may be an issue. Molly had lizards that were rad before she moved out.
No smoking. For more on 420 and such go to the "bonus material" link.
People keep saying they want "Drama free". We qualify there. Lots of being good to each other. If there's ever tension, straight forward talk about everything is good.
Active art projects in the public space is fine. Inactive projects in the public space should be put away.
No, you're not required to be an artist. You don't need to have a website. The most important thing is that you be a warm good human who likes to live with others.

We've covered all the most vital stuff. At this point you have some idea of if you might be interested in the place and if it would be a good fit. But like a DVD with a track of directors comments, this household advertisement comes with bonus material.

Not your average household

Sandwichgirl says: "Living at Meerkat Manor changed my life! It's like being surrounded by your best friends at all times of the day! Privacy and alone time is respected, but fun is always there when you want it. With a comfy living room and ample space for all your creative and artistic activities, it is a nurturing environment with abundant amounts of comraderie, friendship, emotional and motivational support. As a five-year resident of the house, I can say that I love MM, and had I not had a boyfriend come in and sweep me off my feet and whisk me away, I would prolly live there for a Very Long Time."

Julian says: Just about everybody who's lived Meerkat Manor for a good while and has moved on, did so because they moved in with their sweetie who they typically met at Meerkat Manor. Either that, or they bought a house of their own.