Our rental home has served us very well as we settle into our life in the PNW. I’m so grateful for this little abode that has gotten me through a pandemic and pregnancy and the newborn phase. We’ve packed a lot of life into this house in our two short years here.
When I first found this rental on Zillow, there were certain things I knew I would want to change immediately. But overall, the house was really good. Below are the five things I made sure the home had before signing the lease.
1. The Layout
You can’t change walls or floor plans when you rent (obviously). So one of the first things I look for is how the space is laid out and that it’s very open. What I’m looking for is where the living room and kitchen are in relation to each other, where the bedrooms are, and how many closets and storage there is.
2. Flooring
In Salt Lake, the first place we lived had carpet in the entire apartment except the kitchen and bathroom. It was…a lot. And it sort of ruined the look of our furniture. It was all I could see. So now when I look at rentals the floors have to be in good shape or it’s a no for me. When looking for our home in Portland, I was only considering places that had hardwood or tile flooring. We have carpet in our upstairs bedrooms/hallway and I’m grateful our Landlord gets them cleaned once a year. I’d prefer hardwood but it wasn’t a dealbreaker for me since the carpet is new and is good for small children.
3. Natural Light
I’m once again going to reference our not-so-great Salt Lake apartment which had terrible natural light to accommodate the awful carpet. It was always dark! I’m grateful for the sun that blasts through our Portland home in the morning and evening. It’s really life-giving. If you’re currently searching for a rental, look for a home that faces the right direction to get maximum light. If that’s not an option, try to find a home that has lots of windows.
4. Location
I think this goes without saying, but obviously you want to like the neighborhood you live in. With our Portland rental, we signed the lease sight unseen. We sort of knew the area and liked the park that was nearby. Other than that, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Luckily the neighborhood is great.
5. Landlord Who Is Flexible
The Landlord we have now is by far the best one we’ve ever had. She was very flexible and fine with us painting and replacing light fixtures. The agreement was that we can paint and update fixtures, so long as we leave it as we found it when we move out. We will take all the light fixtures we purchased with us and will paint the walls back to their original color. This sound like a lot of work, but it was so worth it to me. When I move into a rental, I want to feel like I’ve actually moved in. When we were deciding how much to paint and update, I reminded C that we would be here for two if not three Christmases! And it’s turning out that it will in fact be three. That’s a long time! I’m so glad we made the updates we did and that we put the time and effort into making the home feel like ours.
The Updates We Made
We painted and replaced all of the light fixtures in the kitchen and dining room. The owner had some left over paint in the basement from when she gutted the house, so we used that to paint a wall in the living room that was a dark brown accent wall (shown in the first photo below). Essentially, we brightened up the space in a really easy and simple way. Below are some before and after photos.
You can see in the photos from the listing (below) that there is a good amount of natural light and the flooring is in good shape. I also loved how open the first floor is. After talking with the landlord on what we wanted to do and her giving us the okay, we felt good enough to sign a lease without even seeing it in person. There were many reasons for this that are boring and I won’t get into… if you can see a rental before signing a lease, I obviously recommend doing so.
