Wherever He Laid His Head Was His Home: Part II

The great apartment hunt continues. For the last week or two, I have been wracked with indecision--my thought process sounded a lot like this: "That one place! No the other! Just wait! But that one place! The downtown! The drive! The other place! Go see it again! Take pictures! It's still so small! That bathtub is disgusting! But it's cheap! It has big windows! I don't want to live there! But maybe I should!"

I retoured the second apartment and took pictures. And then looked at them and looked at them and looked at them some more. I finally sent pictures out to some friends and my mom. Pretty much everyone said "Yeah, it's fine. Typical. Standard. Livable." And that's exactly what I thought. My mom also added "You would have to throw away a lot of your stuff because there's no room for it in that apartment and you're not bringing it to our house." This morning I asked my dear friend Laura what she thought. She wisely said, "I think you just seriously need to ask yourself if you're going to dread coming home to that apartment every night or if you'd be happy to come home." She also said "Living in a crappy place just makes life crappy." Indeed the girl is a wise one. And honestly, that's something I hadn't really thought about (yes, I'm not smart). And when I really thought about it, it was clear that this wee little apartment wasn't the place for me. And it was definitely not a place where I would want to live for a few years (the ultimate goal in all of this apartment hunting is to find a place that is reasonable but also a place where I would be willing to live for more than a year.)

So the apartment hunt is back up and running. I've been looking at classifieds and Laura sent me listing from craigslist and here are the highlights thus far:

Last night, called a place in my current town of residence and had a lovely conversation that went something like this:
Me: Hi, I'm calling about the apartment for rent.
Lady: Where did you get this number? The local newspaper? Which newspaper? The Journal Sentinel?
Me: Ummmm. The number was on a "for rent" sign in the front yard...
Lady: Where was the house? Is it in *current town of residence*?
Me: *Soooo confused* Ummm, yes? Has it been rented?
Lady: I don't know. Because we don't have a place for rent. You have the wrong number and we've been receiving about 10 calls a day about that place. So where is it in *current town of residence*?
Me: it's about a block from downtown.
Lady: Okay, good, I'm going to drive down there and figure out what's going on. Thanks. *hangs up*

Verdict: It's probably not a good sign if you're future landlords can't even get the phone number on the sign correct... And besides, even if I'd like to call them, I can't!

This afternoon, I called about a one bedroom for $470.
Me: Hi, I'm calling in regard to the one bedroom apartment.
Dude: Where did you see the listing?
Me: In the Journal Sentinel.
Dude: Do you know where the apartment is?
Me: Yes, I do.
Dude: Okay, well, our apartment complex is right off the highway (proceeds to give directions) When would you want to move in?
Me: Probably May 1st or June 1st.
Dude: And where do you live now?
Me: *Current place of residence*
Dude: What do you do there?
Me: Ummm, I'm a children's librarian? (question mark as in why are you asking this?)
Dude: And why are you leaving?
Me: *thinks why are you asking me this?*I'm looking for a smaller place. I have a two bedroom right now.
Dude: Ahh, so, you kicked him out?
Me: Him?? What? No, that's certainly not the case.
Dude: Hahahhahahahaha. Well, why don't you give the building manager a call. His name is Leonard and he works the 3rd shift. So, give him a call and you can go tour the building at 3pm.

Verdict: I think you would be right in assuming that I did not give Leonard a call. And all of those questions? To quote Salt-n-Pepa, "It's none of your business."

So, the start of the second part of the great apartment hunt (woah confusing) is not going well. I will report back with more news. In the meantime, please send all of your good apartment hunting karma this way.