The Hunt

What a wild ride apartment hunting has been this year. We have seen upwards of 19 places in the last two weeks and nothing seemed quite perfect, but I suppose that is expected when you set a price limitation. We used two different apartment finder services, one which showed us two houses that weren't even close, and another that in the same time showed us 8, any of which we could have settled with. Then when we went off on our own, the tension started to build. I scheduled 9 apartments on one Friday afternoon, and the last of them fit every criteria. It was close to the train, offered a bigger living space, new kitchen, new bathroom, deck, basement storage, free laundry, off a quite street, and even had a free garage parking spot. All this for only one hundred dollars more than we are currently paying. The only catch was that one of the bedrooms was pretty small and I even offered to take the small one. I thought the place was great, but my roommate needed 'time to think.' In that time, which turned out to be over two days, I was trying to get the whole process going. As I called to ensure that our application was received, I was informed that someone took it out from under us during the thinking time. At this point I was done with the whole process. I had worked quite hard and was ready to just stay put. Then the very next day, my roommate took the initiative. He scheduled a couple of appointments, most in an area that I had no interest in living. But then something less than amazing happened. He found a place very similar to one I had liked. Except the small bedroom was smaller, the location was not as good, coin laundry in the basement, no deck, and the rent was $45 more. Somehow he got the first 'good feeling' since we went hunting. I like the place but I remain perplexed how he loved this place, which clearly had more drawbacks, and snubbed the other one. I think perhaps it was because he found it and we are more inclined to favor the results of our own work. Whatever the reason, I hope that we will not have to relive the hunting experience anytime soon. Now on to the moving. More blogs to come...