Through the Floor

living downtown can often mean living above something; we talked to a handful of residents about their experiences being the upstairs neighbor

V1 Staff

Living Above A Bar

PROS
“Me and one of my roommates got to know one of the bartenders at the bar because he would be outside smoking at the same times as us and he would hook us up with cheap drinks.” –Brandon

“When the front door was closed I couldn’t hear anything, but if I opened it up I could clearly hear if there was a band playing or if the bar was busy. It made the decision of whether or not to go out a lot easier.” –Daniel

CON
“The noise from the bar got pretty bad, especially on weeknights when some of us had to get up early in the morning. Thursdays and Sundays were especially bad because there was karaoke night at the bar, and most people can’t sing for crap. ... There was a time when we were coming back after bar close with pizza and a bunch of the customers were out back hanging out after bar close. They saw our pizza and chased us into the apartment trying to get some. We had to have three people pull the door shut behind us.” –Brandon

Living Above A Law Office

PRO
“Because the office closed at 5pm every day and was never open on weekends, we didn’t have to worry about noise much after those times. Being a musician, that made practices really easy.” –Carolyn

CON
“There wasn’t anything cool or easy about it. Unlike a restaurant or coffee shop or something, it’s not like I could stop down quick and grab something ... from the lawyers.” –Carolyn

Living Above A Coffee Shop

PRO
“Easiest morning boost with no effort except to throw some slippers on and walk downstairs. Also, we could snag Internet when it wasn’t really busy.” –Tyler

CON
“Really, the only downside is that I definitely spent too much money on coffee that year instead of just making it myself. That ease of access is dangerous.” –Tyler