1715-A Taylor Gaines in Austin, Texas.
Duplex (my side was at the front, on both sides of the carport shown here).
Paid $495 per month from February 1996 to August 1997.
765 sq ft. 1 bed, 1 bath, backyard, washer/dryer.
My situation: Just finished grad school at San Francisco State in December 1995, then moved back to Austin. Lived with my mother in San Antonio around Christmas, then with my brother in Austin for a month from January 1996 until February 1996; he then told my mother he didn't want me there any more, so she paid my deposit and first month's rent at this place. I found temp work at the University, but things were constantly tight during this time.
Why I Hated It:
Physical Reasons:
It was always hot. Only one small window-unit AC in the bedroom, and the cool air never spread into the living room.
Lizards. Constantly came in the duplex itself, but especially swarmed in the laundry room, so that I was afraid to go in there. And when I went out at night and left my porch light on, when I came home, there were literally HUNDREDS of lizards covering both the wall around the light AND my front door! (I've never seen such a creepy phenomenon, either before or since.)
Neighbor Reasons:
To the left of my duplex lived a single Hispanic mom with a teenaged son. When the mom was away (often at night), the son liked to have friends over and play loud music and run around on top of their roof---screaming. I called the police a couple of times, but they never showed up.
My duplex neighbor was a non-smiling late-30s white guy with a "Heritage Not Hate" Confederate sticker on his bumper. As a 31-year-old white woman, this was not personally threatening, but... I was then a liberal and had been used to living around other mild-mannered college students and liberals, so the sticker was a bit disturbing. This guy was, for the most part, ultimately not a problem, but he WAS a bit of a bitch. (See the "Crime Reasons" section below.) And then, finally: On the last day I lived at this place (8/14/97), my phone had already been turned off, but I had received a notice stuck to my door that I was responsible for cutting my backyard grass; the notice said that I would not receive my deposit if I did not cut the grass. As it turned out, my brother had actually cut my grass as a birthday gift just 3 days prior (8/11), so...why the notice? I asked to use my neighbor's phone so I could bitch at the management company about this potential lack of deposit return (which I needed desperately)... After listening to my conversation, the neighbor disdainfully asked me: "Where are you FROM?" (Insinuating that I was rude on the phone to the landord and "not Southern," I suppose. He didn't have anything to say about my "Azle, Texas" reply. But just an example of a generally shitty atmosphere.)
Crime Reasons:
Christmas 1996: Went to my mom's in San Antonio for a couple of days at Christmas. When I got home, found out my duplex neighbor's place had been burgled. The burglars broke in through a window that looked like it was on my side of the duplex but was actually the neighbor's place. The neighbor insinuated that it might have been my fault.
April 30, 1997: On the day that Ellen DeGeneres came out on TV, and on the day that I was sitting there reading my father's military psychological reports that my mother had recently given me, a car smashed into my duplex. Some drug-addled gay guy had run his car UP a steep driveway and bashed in my bedroom wall (and shaken me up while I was sitting there in my living room). When I went out to see what the hell had just happened, I saw the guy, but he then ran off and left his car sitting right there. I called the police, but they didn't show up for at least 3 hours despite numerous calls. When my neighbor came home, he thought I'd allowed a friend to park in his spot of the carport (heaven forbid!), so he, like a bitch, parked his car right behind the crashed car to "teach me a lesson."
Psychological Reasons:
While living here, I was still in love with my first girlfriend/lover (met in 1989, broken up in 1991, but still seeing each other afterwards). We'd seen each other out at clubs recently, and at one point, she asked for my new number. When she called, I was THRILLED. But, as it turned out, what she wanted was: Back in '90 or so, she'd given me her credit card, and I'd bought a new battery for my car. Something like $60 back then. But she now wanted me to pay off her entire credit card debt. I sat out on the bumper of my car and wept.
Before leaving for grad school in San Francisco in '94, I'd been seeing a married man that I'd met at work. We kept in touch while I was away, and then planned to meet once I was back in Austin. He stood me up while I lived here.
I had two random guys over to this place. One was a local musician that I'd met at a "Two Hoots and a Holler" show. He came over, and I listened to him play guitar, but there was no connection at all, and he left pleasantly. (Though later, I was chastised by Rick Broussard of Two Hoots himself: "You didn't know he was married?" Uh, no, he didn't mention that.) The second was a guy I met in the parking lot coming out of a Two Hoots show at 2am or thereabouts. He asked if I wanted to do some cocaine, and I, being sad and lonely, said "sure." We came back to this place and listened to music. At one point he put his hand on my thigh, and I inadvertently recoiled. His face changed and he said, "Don't do that." I apologized for being rude, and we went on talking until daybreak, when I called in sick to work. I got lucky: This guy could have killed me. The first guy was known in the local music community, but the second guy was a complete stranger, and a wired stranger at that. I wasn't raped this time, but I would be raped in 2000 under similar circumstances after inviting a seemingly friendly stranger to my place.
Maintenance and Landlord Reasons:
When I got cable installed, the cable guy left a huge gaping hole in my wall that was not covered by the cable plate. He was going to leave it looking like that until I refused to pay anything.
When some maintenance guys were over for repairs, somebody took a huge dump in my toilet, exploding shit everywhere---not just IN the toilet, but across the lid, etc. I didn't say anything, just meekly cleaned it all up.
Some Hispanic guys came to my door asking if I needed my lawn mowed for $10. I did, but all I had was a $20. They volunteered to go get change. (Ha! Stupid me.)
Near the end of my lease, my brother cut my grass on 8/11 (I'd asked for that as a birthday gift). But then, on 8/14, the landlord posted a message on my door saying that since my grass hadn't been cut, I would not get my deposit back. I protested this blatant fake attempt to deny me my deposit. I can't remember what my original deposit was---back in the '90s, Austin deposits were quite low, maybe half the rent. Whatever the deposit was, I was told that I'd get $20 back. Not half, as in $250, but $20. A couple of months later, I still had not even received the meager check for $20. When I called the management office to complain, the manager said to me on the phone: "You're THAT desperate for $20?"
That, in a nutshell, was my life during this time. Everything was shitty (sometimes literally).
