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We just applied for an apartment today. We poked our heads into three places on Monday before his doctor's appointments at the cancer institute, and we spent all day today asking about rental prices and looking at apartments. About halfway through, we ate lunch at IHOP because that's what we had a coupon for. About halfway through, we both had a rough idea of which apartment we liked, and after lunch, those likes and lists just became more and more concrete.
We both have different lists, but our tip-top picks are the same. So we applied. We find out tomorrow if we qualify. We wrote down our other top picks just in case we have to apply to another complex.
It's interesting to see what's important to us in apartments. We like lots of light and lots of storage space-- doesn't everyone? We have a budget and were surprised to see that most of the places we visited were quite a bit above our budget. We don't really care if there's an outdoor pool or tennis courts or basketball courts; we care more about where to keep our books. We don't really care much for patios, even though lots of these apartments have them, including some at the tops of our lists. We don't need the inside or outside space for entertaining, since we really don't throw too many parties. We do have people over, but it's usually an intimate gathering, like a dinner date or a church gathering.
We care about the pets policy and the smoking policy-- we might get a cat and a baby with brand-new lungs. Having an indoor pool is more important than I thought, as is having room for Just'In to store a bike. I care about my husband's exercise techniques, and he knows what he loves to do, even if it includes swimming laps and biking to work. I also care significantly about how many trees there are around me. Even if there's a huge, green lawn with an awesome playground in the middle for a toddler to explore, "there's something vital in me that needs trees", as Emily says through L.M. Montgomery. I also care about the lighting inside. My eyes don't like florescent lighting unless it's recessed.
I watched my body shut down two hours after our meal. I didn't stuff myself significantly, but it was the afternoon and I'm not used to so much action all day. I'm really proud of myself; I worked through it. I wanted a half-an-hour nap, but instead, I kept walking up stairs and through apartments and kept talking to people. I did the little things that helped too: drink some water, use two different bathrooms in two different leasing offices. Munch on a cookie. I was awake again after an hour and a half or so.
By then, we figured out that we both wanted one particular apartment. But we also had four or five complexes left to check out. He gave me the option: keep going or just zero in on the one we want? I knew there would be that possibility that someone would snatch it up while we looked at other stuff, but I also knew that if we didn't check out everything on the list, I'd always wonder if there might have been some hidden gem we just didn't look at.
The gem that was still there is the one we wanted since the middle of the day. Ironically, it's one of the three we looked at on Monday. I'm sure you'll hear whether it suits us and whether we get it.
We both have different lists, but our tip-top picks are the same. So we applied. We find out tomorrow if we qualify. We wrote down our other top picks just in case we have to apply to another complex.
It's interesting to see what's important to us in apartments. We like lots of light and lots of storage space-- doesn't everyone? We have a budget and were surprised to see that most of the places we visited were quite a bit above our budget. We don't really care if there's an outdoor pool or tennis courts or basketball courts; we care more about where to keep our books. We don't really care much for patios, even though lots of these apartments have them, including some at the tops of our lists. We don't need the inside or outside space for entertaining, since we really don't throw too many parties. We do have people over, but it's usually an intimate gathering, like a dinner date or a church gathering.
We care about the pets policy and the smoking policy-- we might get a cat and a baby with brand-new lungs. Having an indoor pool is more important than I thought, as is having room for Just'In to store a bike. I care about my husband's exercise techniques, and he knows what he loves to do, even if it includes swimming laps and biking to work. I also care significantly about how many trees there are around me. Even if there's a huge, green lawn with an awesome playground in the middle for a toddler to explore, "there's something vital in me that needs trees", as Emily says through L.M. Montgomery. I also care about the lighting inside. My eyes don't like florescent lighting unless it's recessed.
I watched my body shut down two hours after our meal. I didn't stuff myself significantly, but it was the afternoon and I'm not used to so much action all day. I'm really proud of myself; I worked through it. I wanted a half-an-hour nap, but instead, I kept walking up stairs and through apartments and kept talking to people. I did the little things that helped too: drink some water, use two different bathrooms in two different leasing offices. Munch on a cookie. I was awake again after an hour and a half or so.
By then, we figured out that we both wanted one particular apartment. But we also had four or five complexes left to check out. He gave me the option: keep going or just zero in on the one we want? I knew there would be that possibility that someone would snatch it up while we looked at other stuff, but I also knew that if we didn't check out everything on the list, I'd always wonder if there might have been some hidden gem we just didn't look at.
The gem that was still there is the one we wanted since the middle of the day. Ironically, it's one of the three we looked at on Monday. I'm sure you'll hear whether it suits us and whether we get it.