Moving On Up

For a guy that moves as much as I do, I'm not very good at shopping for apartments. The whole process of looking up ads, calling for appointments, driving around the city, and so on -- it's just a huge hassle. I don't mind the actual moving, because I'm pretty good at boxing up my possessions. But finding a new place to live is so much work.

So what I usually do is take the path of least resistance. When I moved to the Seattle area, I lived on a friend's couch briefly, before I found an apartment in the same complex. Then I lived in an apartment in Seattle itself, which I settled on because the roommate liked it. And when I went looking for a solo place, I came back to the same place I started in. There are lots of places in King County, you know. It's not like I couldn't find a place if I looked. I just don't like looking.

And yet, that's what I did all day Sunday. I no longer like the place I live, and that requires some amount of other-place-finding. I'm getting a roommate, which will mean I'll have less room. On the other hand, it also means there was someone else to do the legwork involved in finding likely places. It's a tradeoff.

I'm afraid I was a little annoying, because I really do shop for apartments like I shop for clothes. If it looks like it might fit, I'm willing to throw down some money and be done with the whole thing. We looked at apartments that were way too small, and I said I'd be happy to take them. We looked at apartments that were significantly too expensive, and I would have signed the lease on the spot. There was one place that may have had dog poop in the middle of the living room. But that wouldn't stop me!

Well, that last one made me slow down a bit. But mostly I was willing to sign on any dotted line anyone would have cared to present. But sanity was injected by the prospective roommate, so the place we ended up liking is, I think both large enough and inexpensive enough to minimize the prospective apartment-hate. Plus, there's no lease: it's month-to-month. So there's a limit to how bad it can end up being, right?

I am sad to report that we did not settle on Rivendell Apartments. That's in the University District. Yeah. "Rivendell". As in "the place where the elves live in Lord of the Rings". It was a pretty nice apartment, but it would have been hard to keep a straight face when telling people I live in a place that claims to offer "enchanted luxury." Seriously, it's right there on the sign. On the other side of the scale, there was "The Bismarck". I'm not sure whether it was named after the battleship or the chancellor, but either way, it's kind of forbidding.

With any luck, the search is over. There's still a credit check going on, but I think that's just a technicality. With any luck, the fact that there are hundreds of Vacancy signs out there means that they won't turn people away. And then the part I hate will be over! And all I'll have to do . . . is . . . box up everything I own . . . and move it up the freeway. Oh boy! I guess.