Monthly Archives: January 2022

How I Found Student Accommodation

accommodations, life in Canada, money, student life

Living in British Columbia is expensive. A recent report from CTV news says owning a home is basically a “distant dream”  in markets like this. Fact is, home ownership is a real issue in most Canadian cities, especially if you live in Vancouver (which I do).

Finding affordable apartments is no different.  In 2019, the government of BC took steps in an effort to help alleviate the issue, but it remains a fact that finding affordable rentals in BC (as well as other major Canadian cities) is increasingly difficult.

As a student, you need a place to live while you’re learning. Your choices for student accommodations can be varied, and as a UBC student, it’s important that you meet a variety of needs for those accommodations. Discovering the right place to live can completely change the way you’re able to interact with your college experience. Here are the steps I took to find the best form of housing at UBC, with some knowledge of my previous accommodation hunts.

1. Figured out a Monthly Budget

The first step is going to be figuring out your monthly budget. This will give you a better idea of the types of housing that you’ll want to pursue, whether you’re living on-campus, living by yourself off-campus, living off-campus with roommates, or even something completely different, like renting a short-term location.

Most experts suggest that you stick to no more than 30% of your monthly income dedicated to housing. However, depending on your other monthly costs, you may be able to get a bit higher to 40% or even potentially 50%. Working backwards can be helpful here; write down all your other monthly costs, like utilities, transportation, internet access, phone service, food, and other purchases you typically make, then see how much you have left. Here are a few easy  tips to save on unnecessary spending and save money:

Get a Roommate
This one is obvious, and it will save by far the most money. The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment is skyrocketing .  A roommate will also help with shared expenses like utilities, kitchen supplies, toiletries and groceries.

Negotiate When You Renew a Lease
Landlords want to keep good tenants. It costs them money to move you out and bring someone else in. That means you have some leverage.

Pay Upfront
Offer to pay the entire lease or at least a few months upfront for a discount if you can afford it. The landlord may cut a deal to have cash in hand, but it’s only an option if you have enough savings to cover and then some.

Save On Your Energy Usage
Your electrical bill is usually the next most important and relevant expense  after your rent. The good news is that you can control your electrical bill more than your rent!  Turn off the lights when not using them, unplug unused appliances (this phenomenon is commonly referred to as a “phantom load” or “vampire energy) and cut down on heating/cooling goes a long way.  Make sure to check out BCHydro’s article on saving on heating in the winter, and you can read more about the energy consumption of different ACs in this article I found on a premium-electric.ca.

Give Up Your Parking Space
If you don’t have a car, you don’t need a parking space. Offer to give it up in exchange for discounted rent. The landlord would be able to sell the space to another tenant, who might need extra parking, or find someone you can rent it to directly.

2. On-Campus vs. Off-Campus Housing

Before you really start looking for the right location, it’s a good idea to think about whether you want to live on-campus or off-campus. The options and benefits that come along with each can be beneficial for different students.

On-Campus Housing Options and Benefits

Most colleges will provide some kind of student housing on campus. UBC offers its own student residence options; the Vancouver campus alone has 15 residences with 13,000 students. Some of the benefits of living on-campus include:

  • Easier access to on-campus amenities
  • Less time spent commuting
  • More access to your student community
  • Rent often includes utilities and a meal plan
  • Access to residence services, often staffed by other students

On-campus housing can be a great option if you really want to maximize your on-campus time. However, it’s common for there to only be a certain amount of housing, so even all the people who want to house on-campus may not be able to.

Off-Campus Housing Options and Benefits

If you’re interested in renting your own apartment off-campus, whether because you prefer to or because there are no on-campus options, there are a number of options available. You’ll typically want to try and find a location within about 10-20 minutes from the university. Some of the benefits of living off-campus may include:

  • Sharing the cost of rent with multiple people
  • More choice of your roommates
  • Learning how to live on your own
  • More options in housing styles
  • Potential to save money

If you’re looking for a more free-roaming method of the college experience, off-campus housing is a great option. You have significantly more control over your college accommodations when you use off-campus housing as opposed to on-campus housing.

3. Average Cost of Rentals

So, how expensive should you expect your rental to be? The truth is that cost will vary dramatically. A good starting point for off-campus housing is around $700-$1,000 CAD per month for shared housing. Non-shared housing may run you higher, although your price will inevitably depend on the location where you live.

A good option is to utilize a website like Bwalk.com (Boardwalk Rentals) to get an idea of rental prices across the country for different sizes of homes. For example, you can find an Edmonton 1 bedroom apartment for around $900 per month, whereas some of the more expensive Calgary 1 bedroom apartments are closer to $1,300 per month. That being said, there are two options for cost that will change the end amount you pay.

Sharing an Apartment With Someone Else

If you want to reduce the cost of your apartment, you may want to share your apartment with someone else. That may mean you and a few of your friends all going in on a specific apartment, or it could mean getting an apartment with someone who’s advertising a sublease. Either way, it’s almost always going to work out to be cheaper.

Most of the time, an extra bedroom is about $200 more than the baseline for a 1 bedroom apartment. In the same location, you could find a 1 bedroom apartment for $1,300, but a 2 bedroom apartment for $1,500. If you and a friend go in on the 2 bedroom, each person’s individual rent price will go down dramatically.

Renting Your Own Apartment or Home

Although price is the main selling point for sharing an apartment, privacy and individuality is definitely the main selling point for having your own. When you have your own apartment, you simply don’t have to worry about anyone else in your apartment, meaning you can decorate and maintain it however you like.

To determine whether this is a possible option for you, it’s a good idea to go back to your original budget. Is your budget closer to $1,000+ for renting, or is your budget closer to $600-$700 per month? If it’s the former, you may be able to find an apartment, with your chances rising as your budget gets higher. If it’s the latter, you’re probably going to want to look to share an apartment.

4. Commuting to and From School

This goes back to location. The closer your apartment is to UBC, the less time and money you’ll have to spend on the commuting. This is especially pronounced if you’re choosing between an apartment that’s half an hour away versus an apartment that’s only about 10 minutes away – that’s 20 minutes per ride, which works out to almost three and a half hours over a five-day week.

This problem will likely get even worse if you don’t have access to a car on a regular basis. Having to rely on the bus system can be a huge pain, especially if you’re a significant amount of distance away. Remember to factor the commute time in when you’re trying to find a great apartment within your budget – if you can’t find anything close enough in your budget, consider teaming up with someone else to rent together.

5. Understanding Apartments vs. Homes

If you’re planning to rent off-campus, there are multiple options available. Most commonly, you’ll be choosing between an apartment, which is a single unit in a large building full of units, and a home, which is its own standalone building.

Apartments can have many community amenities, like pools and clubhouses, that every member of the community can use as part of the apartment. Additionally, some apartments pay for some or all of your utilities, which often isn’t rolled into the rent of homes. Lastly, apartments are typically cheaper than homes, as they can be much smaller and there are more of them in a single building.

On the other hand, individual homes can give you significantly more space and freedom. It’s also more common for homes to be in areas that are further away from main streets, giving you a little bit more privacy and shelter from noise pollution. Plus, if you don’t tend to be very social, you don’t have to deal with other people living so close nearby.

Conclusion

Student accommodation in Canada can seem very difficult, and it’s certainly more difficult than just finding an apartment. After all, there are many more things for you to think about. However, with just a little bit of knowledge, you can know exactly what you’re looking for. The most prominent elements to consider are the price, the choice between on-campus and off-campus housing, the choice between apartments and homes, and your commute time. If you can make sure you’re choosing the right option for all of these things, you can make sure your time at UBC is productive and enjoyable.

Building a Path to Becoming an Artist on Your Own Time

education, technology

Many people with artistic desires wonder how they can realize those artistic interests. If you’ve ever loved the way that a certain type of art looks, it’s natural to consider turning that enjoyment into a hobby, or even a job.

Becoming an artist can seem like a complex process, but in reality, you just need the blueprint so that you can do it. In 5 steps, you can turn your love of art into an artistic talent.

1. Choosing a Medium

Your first step needs to be choosing a medium for the art that you’re interested in. Remember, you’re not tied down to a specific medium. The skills you learn in any medium can transfer into other mediums, but you want to build a strong base in one specific medium before you move into another one. There are two main categories here:

Physical Mediums

A physical medium includes any process where you take a physical material and turn it into art. Some common forms of art using physical mediums include oil or acrylic painting, sculpting, whittling, knitting and crocheting, or even fashion design.

These physical mediums require that you have physical items that you then turn into a piece of art. People who love to work with their hands may find themselves drawn to physical mediums.

Digital Mediums

A digital medium includes any process where you create art using a computer or other digital tool. That means art using digital mediums includes general digital art, 3D modeling, CG modeling for film and TV, digital photography, digital collage, and algorithmic art.

If you already love using computers and digital tools, digital mediums may be a great option for you. It may also be a good idea to pursue digital art if you have little space for lots of tools, as your tool list will be much smaller with digital mediums.

2. Determining Your End Goal

Next, you need to decide what you want to do with your artistic endeavors. People will typically pursue either a hobbyist goal or a professional goal.

Hobbyist

Being a hobbyist is a great way to exercise your artistic desires without feeling the pressure to turn it into a career. If you want to work as a secretary by day, then come home and paint or sculpt for fun, that’s a completely justified desire.

Plus, some hobbyists can make a little bit of money from their artwork if they want to sell finished pieces or take commissions. Hobbyists can often learn on their own from a variety of resources.

Professional

If you want to make your specific art medium your full-time job, you’re looking to become a professional. If you’re starting to get into 3D modeling, for example, and you decide that you would love to design characters for video games and animated TV shows, you’re hoping to become a professional. Professionals will typically want to pursue more professional learning opportunities to add to their resume.

3. Deciding on the Most Important Supplies

When you’re a complete beginner, you only need the most important supplies to start practicing. For example, if you’re a beginner acrylic painter, you’ll likely invest in a few brushes, canvases, and basic blue, red, yellow, white, and black acrylic paints. You may see experts using dozens of different colors and brushes, but as a complete beginner, you don’t need to invest that much money.

The list of necessary supplies for a beginner will vary depending on the precise medium that you’re using. Your best bet will be to search online for “beginner supplies for [medium]” or “essential supplies for [medium].” A search for “Beginner supplies for painting” will bring up a great list, for example.

You’re not the first person to try out a new artistic medium, and these lists will direct you to the best tools for a beginner.

4. Practicing Regularly

This is one of the most important things to do when you’re trying to learn a new artistic medium. Practice is how you’ll improve your skills. Even if you don’t like the end result, you will have learned some new skills while you were going through the practicing process, and that’s important to remember.

Many people set aside a small amount of time every day to practice their new artistic medium. You may, for example, be able to set aside 30 minutes every day after you get home from work. Even just 15 minutes can make a big difference – over a year, 15 minutes a day ends up being over 91 hours! Opt for small amounts of practice over a long period of time rather than many hours of practice every so often.

5. Upgrading Your Tools Over Time

As you continue practicing and become better at your craft, you’re going to want to upgrade your tools over time. Create a list of priority upgrades – if you’re currently doing digital modeling with a mouse, for example, a budget tablet may be first on your list of upgrades, then a more expensive, high-end tablet. There are often three things that keep people from upgrading their tools.

Budget Restrictions

Of course, budget tends to come up first when it comes to issues regarding improving your artistry. Better tools are often more expensive. The best way to mitigate this problem is to space your improvements over time, purchasing just a single piece every few months or so. Again, a list can be massively helpful here – mapping out which purchases you want to make next will help you budget for them.

Knowledge Restrictions

This is another possible problem that artists can encounter when they want to upgrade. It can seem daunting moving from a simpler tool that you nonetheless understand well to a more complex tool that will be more beneficial for your artwork. Your best option will be to do research on the tool before you buy it, then make sure you keep your old tools around while you’re getting used to the new ones.

Space Restrictions

If you’re working in a physical medium, you may find that you run into some space restrictions when you try to move to better tools. These tools can end up requiring a significant amount of space, and especially if you live in an already-small area, restrictions may be pretty extreme. In this situation, the best option is typically to look for tools that you can put away when you’re not using them. That way, you don’t have to worry about running out of space.

6. Understanding When to Take Things to the Next Level

What is the “next level” for you? If you’re a CG modeler looking to become a professional, the “next level” may be a CG training program like the one from Think Tank Online. If you’re a hobbyist painter wanting to receive some recognition, the “next level” may be submitting your work to a local showcase. If you’re an aspiring fashion designer hoping to take commissions one day, the “next level” may be to take some fashion classes at a local community college.

No matter what the next level is for you, you should take the step when you feel like there’s something bigger waiting for you once you take it. A CG modeling program may not require much preexisting experience with CG modeling, whereas submitting your artwork to a local showcase will require significant talent. If you look at the next step and you think, “I want to do that!”, you should take the next step. You never know what’s waiting for you down the line.