8
Thursday, May 3, 1973
University Daily Kansan
"SH-H-H! THOSE NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS ARE UP TO SOMETHING,AGAIN!"
By ANNE SAXON
Kansan Staff Writer
Students who live in apartment complexes are often faced with the challenge of reflecting their own personalities in a standard, white-walled apartment. If they are resourceful, their apartments become uniquely their own.
BILL HIRMACOME, Kansas City, Mo.
senior, built his bar using parts of a wooden table and cabinet and then putting a dark wood on them. He also built a large wooden table.
"I used the top of one of those big spools and then stained it and attached the legs." Brimacombe said. "I really enjoy building things like that."
Building an antique-looking bar is another way to help transform a standard apartment into a quirky, eye-catching place.
Although Brinacrombe lives in a standard apartment in Gatehouse Apartments, he has added many objects, such as a bear skin vest and his apartment indication of his personality.
Constructing a couch from an old iron bathtub, as Steve Craver, Overland Park junior, did, is one way of making an ornamental piece of furniture that he got the bathtub from a junkyard sale, cut the front out of it and then added big pillows to the tub. He also cut down on expenses by making his own waterbed and constructing tables out of large wooden spoils.
Bathtub Used for Couch
Apartment Complex Guide Ready
BY CHRIS STEVENS
Kansan Staff Writer
The guide, which was published last week, is available in the CPA office. The guide lists 57 complexes, indicating what each apartment has to offer and at what price. All the complexes are defined as having 10 or more units, according to Linda Biles, director of the CPA.
The guide indicates whether the apartment offers carpeting, air conditioning, a dishwasher, a fireplace, laundry facilities, a swimming pool, a club room or a covered parking area. Security deposits, furnishings and utilities are required by law and responsible for payment or extra charge.
Next year students may find that choosing an apartment that is right for them is an easier project because of a new apartment guide.
HAZARDS OF APARTMENT renting are briefly outlined in the guide. Electrical wiring and outlets should be checked to see whether all electrical equipment is edition, the guide says. Cupboards and dark corners of the kitchen, basement and bathrooms should be examined for evidence of cockroaches and bugs. Drains should be checked. Flow freely and be hot, the guide suggests.
"The Lawrence Apartment Complex Guide," joint project of the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) and the Student Senate Unorganized Housing Committee, surveys apartments, town houses, low-rise cooperative housing and condominiums.
The guide advises examining the heating system. It recommends that heat controls be inside the apartment. If the renter will be heating, he should find out the average cost.
The guide suggests that the renter check
into the procedure for the return of a security deposit if one is required. Any improvements the landlord promises should be reviewed and guard warns against verbal agreements.
A MAP OF LAWRENCE featuring locations of the apartment is included in the map.
Greta Bron, assistant instructor of business, said the survey was a student project for Business 76, Introduction to Marketing.
Biles said that the information for the guide came from a semester project for a course offered by her.
"The students defined a problem; there was no good listing of apartments in Lawrence. So to solve the problem they went to management or to manage and tenancies." Brien said.
"Pat Weiss (researcher for the CPA) had talked to me at the beginning of the semester and said the CPA was looking for information on apartments," Bron said.
Weiss updated the information for the spring semester. Biles said.
BRON SAID she suggested the topic and the students said it from there.
"The CPA thought about selling it (the guide) but decided that it wouldn't work. Rich Lauer (Evanston, Ill.), senior and manager of the Environmental Committee) contacted us, and we found out that the Student Senate Committee had funds for a housing guide. J. W. Wilson of the University Housing Office had old books through the housing office." Biles said.
Lauter said the housing committee had had intention of compiling an apartment for a housing project.
Dave Dillon, Hutchinson senior and 1972
complexes lease furniture by the piece according to the renter's needs. Special summer rates offered by some complexes are noted in the table.
Park-25 Apartments and Crescent
Apartments, which include the Acorn,
Crescent Creek, Gaslight and Oakes
Creeks, refine their rates to their
Kansas for publication.
Rental Rates
Apartment complexes in Lawrence offer a wide variety of rental plans. Listed in the table below are approximate rental rates at several complexes in Lawrence. In most instances, the lower figure of a pair is the higher figure; the higher figure is for a furnished apartment or a larger apartment. Many of the figures are approximations because several
Apartment Complex 1-bedroom 2-bedroom 3-bedroom Studio
Alvamar Quail Creek $160-185 $185-225 From $195 x
Argo Apts.
summer $100 $125 x x
winter $129-149 $169-189 x x
Avalon Apts.
summer $115 $130 x x
winter $129-159 $169-189 x x
Cedarwood Apts. $110-130 $130-150 x x
College Hill Manor. $129-145 $157-180 x x
Gatehouse Apts. $140-170 $165-210 $220-255 x
Harvard Square
summer x $125 x x
winter x $169-189 x x
Jaywalker Towers
summer x $170-200 x x
winter x $190-292 x x
Mails Ode English Village $150-180 $170-205 $210-275 x
Meadowbrook Apts. $155-180 From $200 x x $145-160
Old Mill Apts.
summer $90-100 $115-125 x x
winter $125-145 $135-175 x x
Park Plaza South
summer $100 $125 x x
winter $100-110 $125-135 x x
Plaza Manor Apts. $110-130 $130-150 x x $100
Ridglea Apts. $115-135 $135-155 x x $100-115
Ronnie's Apts. $100-120 $130-150 x x
Santee Apts.
summer $100-125 $110-140 x x
winter $105-135 $135-175 x x
Southridge Plaza $110-125 $129-149 x x
Swiss Villa Apts. $135-165 $140-200 x x $95-125
Spanish Crest Apts. x $140-200 x x
Trailridge Apts. $155-210 $185-250 x x
University Terrace
summer $80-90 $105-115 x x
winter $115-135 $125-175 x x
Village Square Apts. x $139-159 x x
West Hills Apts.
summer $115 $130 x x
winter $139-159 $69-189 x x
Hope Plaza Apts. $113 $126 $138 x x
"NEXT YEAR'S enlarged guide will be a project of the Senate Housing Committee and an of the Lauter chair." A subcommittee of the committee has been formed to handle the book."
Plans for an expanded off-campus housing guide are being made for next year. Biles said they hoped to include in the guide a list of affordable complex, houses and possibly a rating system.
"The Student Senate Housing Committee thinks it should go out," said Bales. "We still have to talk to the dean of men and the dean of women about it."
Biles said she thought a rating system would be helpful if we could figure out aFAST way to use it.
they wanted to mail the guides to students and prospective students by next fall.
student body president, included plans for it in his campaign platform, Lauter said.
"We worked out some details and distributed a survey to apartment complexes," Lauter said. "Then I read an article in the Kansas about the CPA preparing information from a marketing research class project. This was in late February."
"I TALKED TO PAT WEISS and Linda Biles at the CPA. We worked together to set up the format and included the information on the back and a map of Lawrence.
"Pat did the preliminary work, Linda complied the information and I worked on her."
The CPA plans to distribute the guides on campus and around Lawrence. Biles said
and NANCY GILLILAND Kansan Staff Writers
By LARRY FISH
With a $200 budget, we were to attempt to furnish one room, a living room and a dining area—a typical unfurnished student apartment. We quickly eliminated rental furniture because the total rent for the year slightly exceeded $200.
We began our search in used furniture stores in the Lawrence area. Several store owners told us that the best time to shop for used furniture was in early July. Departing from the office, they sold their furniture by this time and incarnate customers will have not yet bought the stock.
Darrel Kizer, Salma senior, and his wife Krista are in the process of painting and reappearing their five-room apartment to give it a new image.
"WE RENT the apartment from the people next door, and they pay for any painting or redecorating we want to do," Krista said.
Can two students furnish a one-bedroom apartment on a budget of $200?
Editor's note: The Kansan gave these two reporters a hypothetical $200 and asked them to spend it furnishing an apartment. This is what they found in the Lawrence
The Kizers found most of their furniture in what Krista called "junk stores" in Salina. The living room furniture includes an old-fashioned wooden wheel chair and a wooden Zentih radio box now used as a table. A cast iron bathtub decorates the kitchen and the papered their nursery in brightly colored jungle paper for their six-month-old baby.
However, even in May there is an adequate supply of used or inexpensive new
antique breakfast front, dresser and desk all help to make one old house more interesting. Laurie Hughes, Western Springs, III, senior, her sister and brother-in-law have purchased such furniture to put in the room. In addition, they own a potable water supply in their living room. Hughes said it really came in handy when the heat didn't work.
A shiny brass bed, modern plexiglas
topped tables with chrome trim and an
Storage did not present too big a problem for most people. Hughes said they had no problem because there was more than enough room and a huge basement.
Used Furniture Buys Good in Early July
The Kizers have a small attic above their apartment used for storage. The stairway leading up to the attic doubles as storage room, so each step has a large drawer underneath it. Kizer said the building was probably built around the turn of the century.
Apartment Life Is Flexible at KU
But apartments do not have some of the advantages found in organized living units. Fraterities and sorceries offer their members more opportunities for meeting
BY LAUREN FISH
Kansan Staff Writer
A large number of University of Kansas students are already living off campus, and the trend towards such apartment living will probably continue as students seek greater flexibility and economy in their living arrangements.
Apartment dwellers have outnumbered the combined total of students in residence halls and members of fraternities and sororites since the fall of 1971, and the gap steadily widened, according to information from the University Housing Office.
THE GREATEST APPEAL of apartment living is the high degree of flexibility. An apartment can meet many different needs for different people. It can be much cheaper than buying an apartment in a four-room expensive. It can be one or two rooms on Ohio Street or five rooms in one of the apartment complexes. It can house one family or a couple, easily arranged to personal schedules.
Bv LARRY FISH
Many students now in apartments are veterans of the residence halls or the fraternity system or both, and most have no desire to return to organized living groups.
They cite such factors as greater privacy and convenience and a greater sense of freedom than they experienced in organized housing.
Those living in apartments, by contrast, are the most susceptible to inflation, particularly in food prices. Many students need to choose apartments they can easily afford to keep from starving to death by the end of the year.
The residence halls are probably the most maligned living units at KU. Still, many students spend at least a semester in one, generally in their freshman year, and often the friends they make there are the ones they live with later.
new people. Parties and other social functions are frequent.
THE RESIDENCE HALLS also offer one advantage most other arrangements do not—fix costs. One payment, either in a lump sum or in installments, covers room, meals, utilities, social activities and use of the hall's facilities.
Apartments can be put in two categories—those that require a lease and those that do not. A lease can be a double-occupancy, working for and against the student.
Apartments have built-in difficulties since they do require management: Groceries must be bought; bills must be paid; meals must be cooked.
LEASES LEGALLY BIND the landlord to perform the services in the contract. They spell out what his obligations are and what he pays' payments and responsibilities will be.
But nearly all leases say that the tenants are "jointly and severally" responsible for the rent. If one of the leases is expelled, killed, arrested, deported or otherwise
Students Need Little Cash To Decorate Hall Rooms
University residence hall rooms are generally dismal, austere cubicles, but with initiative and imagination they can be improved.
By JACQULYN GIBSON Konson Staff Writer
Parachutes can be bought for about $8 and hung on the ceiling to add color to a room. Bookshelves are useful and can act as dividers for only about $10 worth of wood.
The University supplies bookshelves, an extra large bulletin board and a lounge chair free of charge. There is an additional bench with storage for books and a chest of drawers can be rented for $5.
Rugs range from $15 to $20. The cheapest rug can be made out of scraps or carpet samples and glued together to form a patchwork whole.
Most students assume they will live in a hall room for only one year, so they think it is not worth the effort or money to improve their living conditions. They relatively simple ways to do this, however.
Tables and book cases can be made from wood creates, which cost $1 each. Bricks and cinder blocks with planks of wood are sturdy and easy to assemble.
There is no charge for University paint. If the student wants an unusual color, the University paint can be toned for 75 cents. If the walls are painted with colors other than the University approved colors, they must be repainted at the end of the year.
One student painted a ring of green around the base of his walls and trees growing out of the base of all four walls, causing his room to look more like a graffiti
Wooden barrels cost about $4 and make excellent bed tables. Large wood spoils for telephone wires make inexpensive and unusual study tables.
removed, the remaining signers of the lease must pay the full amount of the rent.
Living in organized housing is somewhat easier and can be every bit as rewarding. Proponents of the fraternity system cite the charity of a house as one of its main features.
Many students have all the furniture removed from their rooms and add their own furniture. A water bed with the frame and supports to raise it can cost $60.
Rocking chairs at $20 and other inexpensive furniture can be bought at Quaint's Plain Market and other area stores. Rocking chairs money by bringing furniture from home.
Anything can be attached to the walls as long as it does not permanently mar the walls. Many students buy printed bedspreads and then on the walls to live up the rooms.
If the student really wants to go wild,
pillows, a bean bag chair, wall-to-wall shag
carpeting, curtains, tables and bookcases
will run between $350 and $400.
Those apartments without leases are generally run on a more informal basis. However, the landlord often has very little control over what happens. If the renters don't like it, they can move.
furnishings. Lawrence has a wide selection of used furniture and discount stores.
THE FRATERNITY SYSTEM at KU seems to have stopped its decline. During the last year fraternities reported a modest increase in membership. They may be down from their all-time high, but they are certainly not out.
The bedroom furnishings we found cost us a total of $5. We "bought" our furniture at Uptown Furniture, 1024 Center and Anderson Furniture Moving and Storage Co. We bought a floor level double bed, that is a box spring and mattress, for our budget and a dresser cost another $30.
The desk, incidentally, was the hardest piece of furniture to fund for the entire family.
A throw rug from Gibson Discount Center and a reading lamp from Montgomery Ward each cost $7.50. These were all the rugs we deemed necessary for the bedroom.
That left $105 for the living room and dining area. Couches and divans were easy to find; we selected a big, heavy couch and lounge chair at Freeman's for $15.
End tables are usually easy to locate. too.
We picked a two little bench at Haas
Nursery for $139 each.
A dinette can be found in almost any of the used furniture stores. $20 seems to be enough for a two-person table.
Buying second-hand furniture has an obvious advantage over renting. Several persons we talked to reported selling used furniture for up to two-thirds of what they paid for it. If you are willing to put up with the difficulties of buying and selling used furniture, apartment furnishing can be very inexpensive.
We cheated on the carpeting for the living room. A friend who works in a warehouse for a Kansas City department store told us about a slightly damaged shag carpet, 10 by 14, that was available for $16. Similar bargains are often available if you know the right people.
To finish furnishing the living room, we chose some attractive cotton drapes from Gibson Discount Center for $4, and a three-foot pole lamp from Montgomery Ward for $7.
This left us $3 to spend on decorations. Admittedly that's not much, but one or two attractive posters can brighten up almost any room.
The object of the game, we discovered,
was to be persevering and not expect to
turnish an apartment at one store or at one
building. We have a chance to find are
hard to find and tend to be higher prices.
Jamill Williams, 1311 New Hamphisle SL,
and her son George hunt for plants in a
forest. (Ana M. Smith)
Geraniums
that a few green plants and floor pillows will help fill a bare apartment without the major expenses of heavy furniture. Although greenhouses and garden centers sell their furniture in plants, many Lawrence grocery stores stock incexpensive and hardy greenery.