Monday, December 8, 2008

Misadventures in Apartment Hunting, part 1

This is my first real foray into the grand adventure that is apartment hunting, and I have come to this conclusion.

the ads lie.


"cozy"= small. "cute"= small. "quaint" = small. "spacious" = only sort of small. "great deal"= no utilities included. "eat-in kitchen" = countertops large enough to rest a small plate on. "convenient" = train tracks on your front step. "lovely" or "newly renovated" = old lady wallpaper.


Jake and I are currently 1 for 4 on possible places to live. that includes 1 cancellation, 1 kitchen the size of my left foot, and one no-show.

The first apartment we visited was adorable. beautiful neighborhood, gorgeous house, really nice owner.... 2 square feet of floor space in the kitchen. and low ceilings that made even me feel like an amazon. so, no.

On Sunday we had two appointments lined up. an apartment and a house. i got a call on Saturday telling me that the apartment had been rented. great. one down. then I got a call about another apartment, so i set that up for the cancelled slot. It was a lot more promising than the first one, but still not really as much space as we are hoping for. It's not off the list, it's just not at the top.


Then we got stood up. yeah. stood up.

It's embarrasing, really. we stood outside this rehabbed garage for a half an hour in whipping wind, knocking on the doors of both the potential 'house' and the house next door (where the owner lived), only to return home and check my email that evening to see that he had emailed me an hour before our appointed time to give me his phone number and tell me to call him when we were on our way.

i responded a little angrily.... to the basic tune of 'thanks, but no thanks'. jerk.

the last thing i want is a landlord who thinks that sort of communication is ok. At the other apartments we have looked at so far, the owner was there ready for us - even when we were early!

I have definitely one, and possibly two more places lined up to look at this week, so hopefully we will have better luck.