Back to our crisis.
Remember how we were homeless, oh, six months ago? And how a British angel by the name of Peppy took pity on us and allowed us to stay in her quintessential British home while we desperately searched for a place to live? And how there was nothing, NOTHING I tell you, available to rent in October, so we snatched up Flat #28 in Summertown House, courtesy of Oxford Graduate Housing?
Of course you do. How could you forget my trials and tribulations so quickly?
After the initial "hooray-we're-not-homeless-we-don't-even-mind-that-this-place-is-furnished-with-furniture-made-from-Lego-like-plastic" high wore off, we began to take a closer look at our abode. Not in the ungrateful kind of way, but in the weighing-our-options kind of way. We both agreed that we'd like to move come the end of our lease on July 31st and had hoped to find somewhere slightly closer to town, with slightly nicer furniture, a washer, and, if we were really lucky, a place with a smattering of English charm. I had casually begun exploring various letting agencies' websites for our future English flat when two weeks ago we received a notice from our landlord, aka the Oxford Graduate Housing Department, stating that we must give notice as to whether or not we'd be moving out by APRIL 11th! As in this coming Monday!!!
I have spent the last 2 weeks pouring over website after website, desperately hoping to find some charming yet cheap flat available in the summer and not way-the-heck out in the Oxford countryside. I have discovered some amazing (and some not so amazing) places to live but have been thwarted by price and move-in date: my two new arch nemeses. Places like these:
Feast your eyes upon this charming 2 bedroom flat located in Jericho (the cool part of Oxford)... which we will never inhabit as it is £1, 395 per month (excluding utilities and council tax, of course).
But wait! A charming 3 bedroom English cottage for only £775 a month? That is perfectly within price range... and only a mere 11.3 miles from Oxford. Next.
Could it be? Only 1.8 miles away from city centre, with beautiful floors, a washer/dryer, modern kitchen and bathroom at a very affordable £775 a month? So long, Summertown House and hello, new, beautiful... oh wait. Available now. And if we break our lease we have to continue to pay for our apartment until the end of July? Right. I'll just cry a little cry and move on then...
So here we are, on Thursday night--optionless, despondent (ok, maybe that's just me), and running out of time. Summertown House, you may be stuck with us for another year...
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI am moving to Oxford with my family this coming August. Reading your blog really makes me look forward to getting there.
We've just been offered a 2bed flat at Summertown House. Do you like it there? Should we think twice before accepting the offer?
Thanks!
Hi, and congrats on your upcoming move!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how much you know about Summertown House, so forgive me if I tell you too much and feel free to ask more questions if I didn't cover something!
The apartments are split up into different blocks: the couples/singles block and the family block. Families with children are only allowed to live over in the family block, while you may find some couples or singles residing there, too (it's cheaper because it's unrefurbished). The apartments are very very basic--no washer/dryer, no dishwasher, very cheap furnishings. We have friends that live in one of the family apartments with their 2 kids and I know they had problems keeping their apartment warm in the winter. However, they do live on the top floor and I hear that if you are on one of the lower levels it's not an issue.
The location itself is nice. Summertown is about 2.5 miles outside of City Centre, so we get around on our bikes or take the bus. The area of town is quite nice and calm, with parks and shops nearby. We don't have kids, so I couldn't tell you too much about the schools, but I'd be happy to ask our neighbors if you need more information.
To sum it all up... Summertown House isn't great... but it gets the job done. The University lost our housing application (twice) so when we moved over here we were homeless for 5 days until they found us a spot in Summertown House. We snatched it up--just grateful that we had a place to live--and it's been fine. We had hoped to find a slightly nicer apartment closer to town but housing here is so expensive. Grad student housing is probably the cheapest housing you will find in all of Oxford. If you have a car and don't mind commuting you could probably find something nice in one of the surrounding villages... but I would strongly recommend a trip to Oxford to check out the apartments in person.
Please feel free to email me (caitlin.brian@gmail.com) or continue posting here if you have any more questions.
Best of luck!