Okay, first of all, please re-read the Union's rules, as all the lodging houses adhere to those, first and foremost.
Secondly, try to keep your character/locations/dress, historically accurate. If you need help with that, you can check out these historical resources.
Okay, so rules specific for Grand Street:
1. Two (2) characters per person, with an overall limit of 20. However, if you need a third character (say, triplets come in, and you don't want someone else playing one of them) talk to me, and I may let you have a third— most likely not though.
2. In your application, please do not say that your character knows/is dating/is related to another character. This is, of course, unless you play that other character or you've gotten permission from the person who plays that character.
3. You can write in accents if that's what you like to do. I, personally, am not a huge fan of them, but it's not like I won't accept your application if you have gratuitous accents. Just, look over it, and make sure that the accent is understandable to a layman.
4. As this is a primarily Italian neighborhood, I have no qualms about you using bits of Italian in your application/story/RP chats. In fact, I encourage it; different languages can be super fun and lead to getting the reader more engrossed into the story.
5. I will not be starting RP chats until we have a few members of the lodging house and at least some of them have written stories. With applications, sometimes it's hard to see what a character is like, but when people read your story, it's much easier, therefore easier to RP and whatnot.
6. If you have any problems/ideas with/for anything (your character/not knowing what to do/another player or character/whatever have you) I encourage you to come and speak with me. I am always open for helping people out and taking their ideas.
Looks like that's it for now. Now, you may come in and fill out an application, if you like.