Home Sweet Home

Our apartment hunt began less than a week ago and today we will (hopefully) sign a contract. We have seen some interesting places, but only one of them was anything close to what we were looking for. Last Wednesday we called on several listings and set up times to see four places that same day.

The first apartment was a two bedroom one bath with lots of storage space, a small living room and no washer/dryer or dishwasher. It looked like a typical just-married starter apartment. For the price it could work, that is until we found out after we looked at it that it was basically sold to another couple... wish we would have known before we went over there.

Next on our list was a basement apartment. If the stained carpet, hole in the bathroom wall that extended up into part of the ceiling, and drafty widows weren't enough to peak our interest, the guy showing it to us sealed the no-deal by informing us that the walls were thin and if we raised our voices he and his wife would hear it and vice versa, so we would quickly become "best friends". Oh, let's not forget that he can see our bathroom light through the vent if we turn it on at night and they have a little boy and a newborn that aren't necessarily quiet. Well, so much for a good deal. Andrew and I agreed that they were asking the right price and some broke couple would have to come along and rent it because we sure weren't.

The door to apartment number three on our scheduled walk-throughs was answered by a gigantic man. Ok, he's probably about 6' 10", but to a five foot person that seems gigantic. His wife was definitely not lacking in height either! When they told us their bedroom looked smaller because their bed is a California king, I was not surprised. What other size bed could they fit on? They had lived in the three bedroom apartment for two years and were glad for the extra space when baby gigantic came along. Um, no plans on kids right away, so that wasn't a huge seller, but the place was nice. The kitchen would be described as a grown up version of the sesame street one I "cooked" in when I was a kindergartener. It really was a joke. The living room and bedrooms on the other hand were spacious, a little too spacious. They were moving in a week and didn't understand that we did not want to move in and pay rent before we get married. So, too much too soon...

Country Corner Condo's looked to be a nice place when we drove up. It's exterior was well lit with underground parking and a small porch. When we walked into the one bedroom, one bathroom condo we were greeted by an 80" big screen and a friendly young couple. They are graduating in December and moving to Idaho, but they love the place and have lived in it for the past two years. The appliances looked new, the bedroom was large with lots of closet space, there was a washer/dryer, dishwasher and AC. In the words of Goldilocks "It was JUST right", well almost. The lease is for longer than we would like to be locked into, the price is more than we were hoping to pay and it was the smallest of all the places we had looked at. But heck, we'll take it!