Trevor and I had a fun-filled day of apartment hunting yesterday. While we saw three great places, we still have yet to make a decision, since there are a few issues with each of them. Apartment hunting is not for the weak, lemme tell ya. Let's go through each of them, we shall we?
THE DEETS:
LOCATION: We almost didn't even follow through with our appointment to see Apartment # 1. It's not exactly in our desired location (but not far from it). The area is slightly more "up and coming" than the area we were originally envisioning, but it's on the same block as a cute tapas restaurant, an old school movie theater, an actual theater, and several other cute little spots.
INSIDE: The apartment itself is pretty much perfect. It has TWO FULL BATHROOMS (a total fluke because they were originally making this a two bedroom until they realized it wouldn't be up to code), exposed brick walls, crazy high ceilings, all new eerything (while still maintaining some historic charm).
PRICE: It's also incredible reasonably priced (at the low end of our budget) and has awesome AC already installed (no need to buy pricy window units and putz around with installing them ourselves). I left this one super giddy and excited, but still a little hesitant thanks to the location.
THE DEETS:
LOCATION: Almost perfect. There's this one particular street that we'd love to be on (but finding something open in our budget there seems to be tricky) but this is a good alternative. It's right by a park, coffee shops, close to public transit, and generally very walkable.
INSIDE: We both were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the actual apartment. It's definitely not quite as "fancy" as the others that we saw, but it had a lot of light, space, and charm. Honestly, we both just really disliked the actual building the apartment was in. It's actually the priciest apartment of any that we saw, but the building wasn't well kept at all. The walls in the hallway were painted three different colors, light bulbs were out, dust was everywhere, etc. I know it may sound trivial, but it was just a big turn off compared to the others. I don't know why, I just can't quite envision us here.
PRICE: Within our budget, but the most expensive of the three that we saw yesterday. There are also no AC units and it's on the top floor, so we'd need to invest in those.
THE DEETS:
LOCATION: This guy is in a tree lined, historical, residential neighborhood that's a quick hop, skip and a jump from our desired location. That being said, it is a tad bit further from the hustle and bustle than we were hoping for, but it's hard to complain when the surroundings are as pretty as they are.
INSIDE: The space was definitely comparable, in a lot of ways, to the first one that we loved. Exposed brick, nice wood floors, high ceilings, etc. The downside? The bedroom was tiny. I mean like, tiny enough that I'm a little concerned about our full bed fitting in there. Oy.
PRICE: It was the least expensive of them all, trailing just a tad behind the first one, price-wise.
We're honestly still feeling really torn and have two more showings tonight. We know we are going to have to be flexible since the rental market here isn't exactly stellar, but figuring out what to sacrifice is definitely not easy.
Thoughts? What would you guys do?
lovelovelove.
-C
LOCATION: We almost didn't even follow through with our appointment to see Apartment # 1. It's not exactly in our desired location (but not far from it). The area is slightly more "up and coming" than the area we were originally envisioning, but it's on the same block as a cute tapas restaurant, an old school movie theater, an actual theater, and several other cute little spots.
INSIDE: The apartment itself is pretty much perfect. It has TWO FULL BATHROOMS (a total fluke because they were originally making this a two bedroom until they realized it wouldn't be up to code), exposed brick walls, crazy high ceilings, all new eerything (while still maintaining some historic charm).
PRICE: It's also incredible reasonably priced (at the low end of our budget) and has awesome AC already installed (no need to buy pricy window units and putz around with installing them ourselves). I left this one super giddy and excited, but still a little hesitant thanks to the location.
THE DEETS:
LOCATION: Almost perfect. There's this one particular street that we'd love to be on (but finding something open in our budget there seems to be tricky) but this is a good alternative. It's right by a park, coffee shops, close to public transit, and generally very walkable.
INSIDE: We both were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked the actual apartment. It's definitely not quite as "fancy" as the others that we saw, but it had a lot of light, space, and charm. Honestly, we both just really disliked the actual building the apartment was in. It's actually the priciest apartment of any that we saw, but the building wasn't well kept at all. The walls in the hallway were painted three different colors, light bulbs were out, dust was everywhere, etc. I know it may sound trivial, but it was just a big turn off compared to the others. I don't know why, I just can't quite envision us here.
PRICE: Within our budget, but the most expensive of the three that we saw yesterday. There are also no AC units and it's on the top floor, so we'd need to invest in those.
THE DEETS:
LOCATION: This guy is in a tree lined, historical, residential neighborhood that's a quick hop, skip and a jump from our desired location. That being said, it is a tad bit further from the hustle and bustle than we were hoping for, but it's hard to complain when the surroundings are as pretty as they are.
INSIDE: The space was definitely comparable, in a lot of ways, to the first one that we loved. Exposed brick, nice wood floors, high ceilings, etc. The downside? The bedroom was tiny. I mean like, tiny enough that I'm a little concerned about our full bed fitting in there. Oy.
PRICE: It was the least expensive of them all, trailing just a tad behind the first one, price-wise.
We're honestly still feeling really torn and have two more showings tonight. We know we are going to have to be flexible since the rental market here isn't exactly stellar, but figuring out what to sacrifice is definitely not easy.
Thoughts? What would you guys do?
lovelovelove.
-C
Apartment #3!! I love the windows and dark floors. Can't wait to see which one yall pick.
ReplyDeletexo
Juley
Not #2! If the landlord doesn't keep up the hallway, he'll NEVER help you if something goes wrong with the place...
ReplyDeletegood luck!
Going to have to echo Colette - if the property itself isn't maintained, good luck getting them to send maintenance when a pipe bursts, your oven breaks down, etc. My thoughts on the first apartment - if you can get to your ideal neighborhood quickly and you feel safe around your home, it sounds pretty perfect. The main pro I can see about option #3 is that those old neighborhoods are quieter than anything near a bar or restaurant. It can be nice to get away from that unless you're going out 3+ nights a week. But a tiny bedroom would give me anxiety.
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