Oscar and I found a place to live. We visited 5 places.
Place 1 was our favorite going in. A two bedroom townhouse, tons of storage space. $500/month. Places 2 & 3 I threw in because they were owned by the same company, and were equally as cheap, but they just didn't seem like they'd be as cool as a townhouse. Places 4 & 5 were owned by a different company, and almost count as just one place to visit because all their properties were on one giant sprawl of land. They looked the nicest online, but they were at the very top of our budget. A side note: all the places have pools.
So, now to tell you what each place actually was like....
Place 1: Projecty as fuck. The buildings were just long strips of town houses with a few feet of grass between. There was a funny smell when we got there at 8:30 am. Their "Bark Park," which is of no use to me and Oscar, unless Oscar really wants to run on a see-saw and jump through hoops, was an old tennis court with a doggy obstacle course. Cute, but no big draw. Their leasing reps were nice, but I mean that in as generic a way as possible. Neither really knew what to say beyond "Look at all this storage." This place was a disappointment.
Place 2: Not a disappointment. An older complex, built in the 70s. All brick, very established landscaping. It was nice and shady. A nice thing they do, is only allow dogs in certain buildings, so if you don't have a dog, you don't have to hear one barking all the time. Their leasing rep was super friendly and could chat like it was his job. They had a car washing area with a super cool industrial vacuum. They also had these cool built in bookcases. It's also on a good bus line.
Place 3: Also not a disappointment. Pretty much like place 2, except the surroundings. It was as if a parking lot sprouted apartments. The inside was nice. They had built in shelving. Not exactly a bookcase. It was an entire wall in the living room that had bracket slots so you could move two shelve around, you know if you had a big painting or something, it could go there. The lease rep was nice, but not as dynamic as Place 2. She also had too much lotion on her hands. This place was not on a good bus line.
Places 4 & 5: Not a disappointment because I was afraid I'd really like them, and just have to live there, but I didn't. They weren't that great. They were newer than the previous three, but felt cheaper, the way most new construction feels to me. They drove us around in an Expedition, which kinda pissed me off. We weren't going far. They should have had a smaller, less consuming vehicle...like a golf cart. Their big secret weapon (or so they thought) was their clubhouse. It had an indoor pool, a well stocked gym, a locker room, and ta-da! a tanning bed. Fuck the tanning bed. This place actually kinda pissed me off. It was just a status symbol apartment complex. Of course, that's not true of everyone who lives there, but it just seemed so fake to me.
And now, in case you're still wondering, we went with Place 2. Another perk I forgot to mention, is it's closer to stuff than the others. There's all the standard shopping anyone could need less than 3 miles away.
