Apartment Hunting

Now that I've decided that we are staying Washington for awhile longer, the bear has made it clear that we aren't staying here in these ghetto apartments, and the huge push for us was that they were upping our rent AGAIN. Granted it's only $36; however the principle is that they call themselves affordable housing but $813 isn't that affordable for what little we receive and since we can afford something better, it's time to vacate Courtside. Across the street is Woodland Apartments, very modern and wouldn't you know it spacious. We started out by talking with one of the office reps and told him our situation on how we just wanted out of the slums, which turns out that Courtside has a reputation and he and the other reps knew all to well. He jotted down a few things and asked great questions and was very professional, which is more than I can say for the Courtside peeps. After the initial meet and greet was over it was time for the tour. We started off in the clubhouse which has so much. The building is huge and so modern. They have a 24hr fitness area, 24hr quiet time (which is a blessing in the bear's eyes), a billiards table, a resort size pool, gas grills for the tenants, and even an espresso maker in the little kitchen area. They even use the same FOB system as we do at the lodge to grant access to all these areas. So impressed, and the tour continued to the first apartment, a studio. It was very nice, however I wanted more. So they showed us a one bedroom near Courtside and it was very nice as well and really something that I was looking for, but we needed a view that wasn't constantly reminding us of where we used to live, so the bear got his wish and we were shown a one bedroom in the back of the complex. I jumped up and down with excitement inside as they showed us around and I thought to myself, this is more like it. We are losing a bedroom but gaining 150 some sq ft. They then showed us the one that was actually available and told us what we needed to do to not only lock in all the specials that are going on right now, but to actually hold the apartment. Seriously, they would hold the apartment for 2 more months with the same move in specials? YES!!! All it cost was $80 for the application fee and $300 for the hold deposit. Total rent for a month is $1025. That is not bad at all and I was very happy to learn that we could actually afford this. Although there are plenty of places that may cost less, this is a great way to prove to ourselves that we could in fact afford to live down in Cali on what we make right now. So we did it, we paid the hold fee and application fee to lock down this spacious apartment, and now all we have to do is wait to hear if we are approved. If not, we do receive our $300 back, and we are back to the drawing board, but I have great hope that we will indeed be approved. Fingers crossed and hopes high, we will see.