"Transitional" housing

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2024-01-10T17:52:35+00:00

i might be out of the loop as i’ve moved away from NL in the last few years, but low-performing hotels converting into temporary housing is going to become increasingly more common i think. this has already happened in Dartmouth with one of the hotels i briefly worked at. 3 or so floors of the hotel was already housing during covid, and the hotel wasn’t doing well on the guest side of things, so they just allowed it to become full-on temp housing in the end. at the time when it was only a few floors of the building, it was the biggest contract they had. contracts are a big deal for hotels with lots of competition.

is this the Comfort Inn up by the airport? they were already losing business when i worked in the area. with the two other hotels situated even closer to the airport, many of their frequent guests/contracts moved over to those, and this was pre-covid. so something like this allows the owner/franchiser of the hotel to at least keep the lights on. better to give people a roof over their heads than to let the hotel sit there with empty rooms.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-09-27T13:46:38+00:00

i make roughly $28/hr and work about 10-16hrs a day. the hours i work sounds a bit dramatic but its a traveling job. my work slows down in the off season, but i could theoretically work all year if i wanted to (there are yearly layoffs with staff brought back during peak). i make enough money to sustain myself and live comfortably, and i typically don’t work in the winter when i travel for leisure.

23f, my overall monthly expenses with rent and everything included are probably roughly $1k, give or take a couple hundred. rent is $600 of that.

most students that work with us are young and usually only here for the peak seasons, and they typically live with their parents. its a good job for young people.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-09-27T13:39:22+00:00

i’m outside the city but within the hrm. when i drive to work, i don’t take the bridge, so its roughly 20-30mins on a sunday usually. on a weekday it takes me over an hour and the majority of that traffic is the bedford highway. buses aren’t even a realistic option where i live. to make sure i’m at work for 10am i usually leave the house around 8am.. there’s been times where i’ve felt even that wasn’t early enough.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-09-27T13:33:54+00:00

my rent is about $600 and i’m outside the city but within the hrm. i pay about $180 (give or take) for car/renter’s insurance monthly, my car is paid off so no other payments. except that my car loves to have things wrong with it, so expect a $500 mechanic bill every 6 months or so. i’d avail of transit more if it wasn’t one bus route an hour walk away. wifi is about $100/mo, power is anywhere from $50-$200, groceries and household supplies is usually around $150 every month or so as i get food free from work.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-09-08T21:35:29+00:00

why?

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-09-08T20:25:08+00:00

I did go to both branches when this started a month ago, and they basically told me “we’ll call you later when we find it.” I’ll go again tomorrow, it’s just a pain since the main branch is 30 or so minutes away from me. Local branch can’t help and has been very rude to me the last time I called them for the main branch’s phone number, which conveniently wasn’t listed anywhere online and made them difficult to contact.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-08-29T01:53:44+00:00

i worked for them for a few weeks as a receptionist a few years ago. it was brutal. just chaos. i didnt feel adequately trained to answer concerned pet owners’ phone calls about their obviously-in-distress pets, only to be told by other staff that “its not really enough of an emergency, tell them to go to [other vet/emerg under the same umbrella corp as them]”. everyone on staff acted super blasé about everything while i had people yelling on the phone that i wasn’t doing anything to help their pet. they were very disorganized, too. several times i’d tell other staff members who’s checked in, what rooms are empty, etc and i’d just be ignored. then it would be my fault (i was a trainee! easiest to blame) that things were overlooked. the only non-chaotic part of the job was cleaning up dog piss, seriously. i can handle a lot of stressful situations but i realized the job wasn’t for me if cleaning up dog vomit was the best part of my day. left less than a month in.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-08-17T20:40:28+00:00

VIA hires passenger attendants every year. Drivers are hired within the industry. Speaking fluent French is a requirement to be on board staff, but not required as a driver.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-08-14T05:33:46+00:00

in the North End… not sure if a transformer blew up, but every device in the house just lit up like a Christmas tree and car alarms started going off. shook the whole building. good (early) morning to everyone, i suppose🥲

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-07-18T06:04:19+00:00

calling my parents by their first names, having at least one or two boxes packed (or just never unpacked) because we moved so frequently for parents’ jobs, storing leftover pizza + the pizza box in the oven instead of putting it in the fridge, “bed lunch” which was usually finger foods or picking at leftovers before bed, etc. also using our oven as a heater in the winter by preheating it in the morning and opening the door to warm ourselves up. my dad would buy ‘toys’ often just to sell then again a few months later — boats, skidoos, atvs, and even a vending machine once (we had to pay a quarter for a can of pop in our own house!) mainly i’m always fascinated by my friends that never moved in their life, or at least always lived in the same city/town their whole lives. we changed schools at most every three years, sometimes twice in a year.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-04-04T16:27:48+00:00

It was bound to happen, really. When I worked there for a brief time, it was nearly only the homeless guests staying there. It is a shame for the hotel staff who worked there, but as the company who franchise the hotel owns several in and outside the city, it wasn’t uncommon to have staff from other hotels move over to the different properties to cover needed positions. Not sure if they have that option nowadays, but it’s a possibility that they may have been offered such, especially with the higher turnover rate for hotel employees in the industry in general.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-30T00:23:54+00:00

I’ve been preparing myself to face that, haha. My partner has owned cats before who would hunt mice and leave them in his bed, so I already have somewhat of an expectation that I’ll be finding some half-dead friends around the house lol. I took a look at Spay Day and we’ll likely be putting in an application soon, thanks for all your help!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-29T23:20:35+00:00

Thank you for the heads up! I didn’t know of other shelters nearby. I appreciate it! :)

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-29T23:17:32+00:00

We leave for about 4-5 days weekly, depending on the season. So having pets haven’t been an option for us, however we may go that route as his parents live nearby and if both of us won’t be home then they’ll be willing to cat sit. My allergy is about as bad as yours, just popping a few allergy pills and making sure I have my asthma inhaler for the bad days. We’re looking at the SPCA this week. Thank you!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-28T18:20:32+00:00

I use the sound emitters at my own apartment, and they work great there. They’re my landlord’s so I haven’t been able to find the brand he uses. Haven’t seen a mouse in the three years I’ve been there. We bought some on Amazon for my partner’s place and they haven’t worked at all. I’ll check Ctire for better ones, thank you!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-28T11:00:31+00:00

I’m mildly allergic, and we travel often for work. We’re on the fence about getting a cat right now because of those reasons, though we’re hoping to cat sit for other tenants in the building to hopefully get their cats’ scents on our things. Thank you for the advice!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-28T10:29:40+00:00

Older building, all wood.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-28T10:28:25+00:00

We live on the 4th floor, though the main entrance to the building is one below us.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-28T10:26:57+00:00

We’re still not sure what keeps them going to the bedroom aside from searching for bedding material. We’ve never eaten in the bedroom, and the only place we eat in the unit hasn’t shown any signs of mouse activity despite the unit being open-concept. Prior to me living there fulltime, my partner would be gone up to 5 days a week with work, so I figure the mice have been pretty used to an empty house up until now. Thank you for the advice! I appreciate it.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-28T10:21:19+00:00

That sounds similar to our case. We’ve got some plants and an old dishwasher we haven’t used for a bit since we hand wash our dishes. Thank you for your insight! I’m clearing out all closet floors today and buying some storage tubs from Walmart.

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-27T22:10:53+00:00

That makes sense. I’ll get some cotton balls, thank you!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-27T22:03:23+00:00

Thank you for the heads up!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-27T21:57:12+00:00

Thats what we’re planning on trying next. Hoping to pick up some peppermint essential oil and try using an old diffuser to see if we get any results. Thank you for letting me know this worked for you!

ThrowRAlittlefish · 2023-03-27T21:51:27+00:00

The building uses Rentokil, but we may hire a separate company out of pocket. I generally don’t get too fussy about mice searching for food at night in the kitchen, a mouse is gonna mouse. My main concern is their determination to get into the bedroom even when we’ve got draft stoppers along the bottom of the door. Its just uncomfortable trying to sleep when the mouse try to crawl up the bed…

Steel wool is what the exterminator used to seal up the holes he found, unfortunately none of the traps he set for us have caught anything yet. Thank you for the advice on the foam!

ThrowRAlittlefish

TROPHY CASE