Apartment Hunting {Day 19}

First of all - we have officially been in Denver for one month! Happy one month-iversary to us! Hurray! 

So - we are in Denver, staying in a hotel, and the first thing on our docket was to find a place to live! Cuz, you know, we're demanding like that. We had emailed lots of apartment complexes (so very many) and heard back from only a few, and only three had availability that would work for us (i.e. not staying in a hotel for two months until their next apartment opened up.) SO. We started out Thursday with 3 appointments and that was it. Those were our options.

Here is where I would like to launch into a sweet story about how I totally was just trusting God to lead us to the right place, and how I knew He would provide and it was all amazing. HOWEVER. The reality was that once we got to Denver, and that long trip was over, and I sat down in the hotel room, I was more like "Oh my gosh, we do not have a home! All of our stuff is in the van and we will be living out of our van forever and we will never find an affordable place! Panic!"

PAINT COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS

Anyways, so we headed out to our first appointment. I won't mention actual names here, but the first place sounded like it had a great view and other awesome things. I'll call it Paint Covers a Multitude of Sins for the blog's purposes. We arrived, were promptly ignored for fifteen minutes while the leasing agent chatted with maintenance, then gushed to us about how we would LOVE this place and sent a minion with us to show the apt.



Totally misleading photo, btw. So the very nice minion took us to the available apartment. We got into the elevator and it heaved its way up to the fourth floor, creaked, groaned and freaked me out, and then reluctantly opened the doors. VNMinion assured us that the elevator had been checked several times and everything was fine. OF COURSE IT WAS. We entered the apartment and I don't know how to describe it other than to say that Paint Covers a Multitude of Sins. Everything looked fine, but you could just tell that things were lurking beneath the surface, waiting to pop through the freshly painted veneer. It kinda just gave me the heebie jeebies, and the fact that the staff had already ignored us told me how they would be if we had any issues there. So - NO.



ARTISTE PROFESH

Next up? A trendy, lovely little complex shown to us by a super pretty lady in a killer leather dress. Seriously, this girl was hot. We'll call this one Artiste Profesh. Gorgeous clubhouse/leasing office. Impeccable design. The apartment was very nice, and the complex was pet friendly. I have learned, after much apartment searching, that "pet friendly" in an upscale complex means "people here have pets instead of kids. Honestly, there was nothing wrong with this very nice, very clean, very modern gated facility except for the price. Oh, and the fact that I knew neighbors would be complaining up a storm about my kids' noise, mess, exuberance and joy for life. :) So - NO.



LOVED BY ME

Last up for the morning appointments was a beautiful complex that we'll call Loved By Me. Everything about this place was great, the leasing agent was friendly and professional. The apartments were flooded with light with lovely kitchens and spacious bedrooms. Amenities included, wait for it, pool, spa, 24 hour fitness center, a movie theater you could rent out, garbage pickup service at your door, full washer and dryer in your unit, a TANNING BOOTH and I think a playground. The bummer? Far (very far) from where Lover would be working and very, very expensive. Like $500 more a month than we were hoping to pay. so - Maybe? But probably not.

So we left to grab lunch and put the kids down for naps, a little discouraged. We spent naptime perusing craigslist for options and set three more appointments for that evening. They were much more abbreviated appointments since by now we were more sure of what we wanted. I'll give you the brief version.



BRAND BRAND BRAND NEW

This complex was literally being built while we toured the apartment. In fact I think this picture is of the only finished building on the property we toured. Our conversation with the leasing agent went something like - Do you have a pool? Well, yes, they just put one in yesterday! Oh, and look the crew is rolling out sod as we speak! I'm not sure whether we have that amenity yet, it will probably be available tomorrow though! Garbage pickup? Well, we are negotiations for that right now." The agent was very nice, and helpful, and the complex seemed like it would be nice, but living inside a construction zone didn't seem like a ton of fun. Plus it was very, very, VERY far from work. So - NO.

1953 BUNGALOW

This was the only freestanding house that we looked at. And we looked quickly and then tried not to run away. Things of note - tenants were present and EATING DINNER while we toured for the open house. Can you say awkward? The place was tiny, only qualifying as a 3BD because there was a "finished" space in the basement. Which smelled musty. A roofing crew was there while we toured, redoing the roof. Which, yay for no leaks, but didn't help the appeal at all. Anyways, tiny, yucky kitchen, musty basement - NO.



GINGERBREAD TOWNHOUSE

Honestly? I wanted to love this one. The design of the exterior of this townhouse community was adorable. This picture doesn't do it justice but each townhouse was like a little gingerbread house. I loved it. I was hoping against hope that the inside of the place was just as adorable. Nope. Nothing too bad, but the layout wasted a lot of space, there were some maintenance problems already and the kitchen was dismal. So - NO.

So that's where we were on Thursday. Sad, tired and infinitely discouraged at the prospect of finding an affordable place in Denver available before the New Year. But - Friday was much, much better!! Stay tuned,