Apartment Hunting from H-E-Double Hockysticks

The first place we saw? DREAM HOUSE! Bramblewood is close to campus (right next door to some dorm complexes) had two bedroom of good size, the little bedroom had a water heater and a walk in closet that was HUGE a good sized living room, nice full bath, had overhead lights (yeah that was a problem in some places) nice kitchen appliances AND a dishwasher, and the coup de grace......Had a balcony AND in the garage there was a space to lock up your bicycle.

*angels singing*

We loved it but didn't wanna decide on the first place. Water/Sewer/Garbage was included, electricity is cheap around here so no problems...It was a little walk from our classes cause it was right next to the dorms that are farthest away but no too bad....But she didn't mention a laundry room and the laundromate in town was on the other side of campus at least a mile away. That's a long walk for laundry >.< $649 a month with a $500 deposit but a Co-signer was required otherwise the deposit would be $1000 dollars. So we went through some rental agencies to find another place. The next place was on Jackson Street. Bout 5 blocks east from class, not too bad. The only problem with the distance was that it was across highway 99 and we were likely to get killed out there. That's a huge checkmark in it's disfavor. The way the realtor kept going over and over about how it had a courtyard with trees meant she was overcompensating for something for sure. Quiet place, had families and kids, no partiers. Second floor.....The carpet used to be white in the 60's, I am sure. And it was one of those odd shag rugs that had a million different lengths to it. All of the floor creaked which creeped me out. But also displayed a large chance of there being something wrong with it i.e. MOLD. Which is a large problem. It smelled damp. That immediately took it off my list. The windows (closed) felt like sieves for the wind. Not cool. It had poor lighting. As in, no overheads. They had these weird lamps that hung in the corner...Looked like antiques. Didn't light anything too well and didn't do much good in the corners of rooms or next to closets anyways. The bedroom were okay. The Bathroom was not worth talking about. The kitchen was...Strange. I'd have to say that it had space we wouldn't use, which seemed silly. It was like a large rectangle (mostly long rather than wide) with the door into in in the exact middle. To the left was the counters, shelves, fridge, and sink. To the right was....empty space. I'm assuming it was a kitchen nook. But we are college students. It would be a miracle if we got a dining table. So it was just space we would never ever use. Miki thought it was haunted. So we went down the street to another realty. The showed us a place on the same street as campus next to the ROTC, we were not impressed. (This was a couple of weeks ago, by the way. Before Thanksgiving.) The entire building was nice and well kept except for the last part and it was total crap. Of course that's where the apartment they wanted to show us was. It was an old Manager's apartment so it made no sense at all. Super small living space intersected by a tiny kitchen (with bar) tiny as in Miki and I could MAYBE stand side by side between the counters. The bathroom is between the bathrooms. Literally. The only way to get into it is to go through one or the other of the bathrooms. Miki doesn't like that lack of privacy, I can agree with that. The bigger bedroom has an....office attached to it. A fair sized room that has a door outside. No IDEA what we would do with that. And the frontroom has a long window...into a hallway where the laundry is >.<

So we said no.

That's the end of our first adventure before Thanksgiving! Wish us luck with the rest :)

Regards from Purgatory,
Monica