In my last post I told about my plans to continue apartment hunting in Austin long distance by email. Well, that did not quite work out. In the end we did find an apartment and a home for my new kitten, but it was more difficult than we expected.
The wedding and reception and the other events that went along, happened on schedule in June. It was an amazing few days, and I had family who flew in from all around the world. All very exciting. Then my mother got really sick, so the apartment was not on our minds for a while. By July, my husband W and I were finishing on our last summer classes and still had not found an apartment. Frantically, we began searching again. We found three suitable apartment complexes online, and drove to Austin again to see them. This time we knew not to look too close to the campus where I’ll be starting school because rents were way too high. We decided to sacrifice location for lower rent. The first place on our list was not available for touring, but we saw two other communities and fell in love with one I’ll call Blainesfield. It had everything we were looking for: good square footage, a lovely view, gated, and a good price. It was really close by to a place where W wanted to work, as well. There were so many plusses, like getting one wall painted any color for free, even delicious cookies in the lobby. Everything just felt right. We filled out the application right there, and drove back to Houston feeling pretty great. They told us they would get back to us within a few days. We were getting excited.
Back in Houston, we waited while our families were constantly asking if we had heard back. We hadn’t. Finally, a lady called and said there was a problem with one of our social security numbers. The agency that was contracted to do the background and credit checks had told the apartment managers that one of the numbers was wrong. We double checked the numbers, and nope, they were both 100% right. We even called the Social Security Administration to confirm. Meanwhile, the lady from Blainesfield apartments was no help as we kept calling them back, calling the agency, calling the SS Administration, and even when it seemed we had proven that there was nothing wrong with the number, no progress was made on our application. It was denied based on something totally ridiculous. This went on for a week and a half, and eventually we gave up and asked for our non-refundable application fee and deposit back, which they sheepishly gave. Needless to say, we were pretty unhappy.
We had a back -up apartment that we had seen on our last trip but W wasn’t too into it because it did not seem like a safe area. Nevertheless, the apartment manager there had promised us a pretty good deal and assured us we would get approved even though I didn’t have a credit history. We were close to calling them and W even took another trip down to Austin with his friend to see a few more apartments, including our back-up one.
Near the end of July, only two weeks before our planned moving day, we received a call from the first apartment we had gone to see at the beginning of the month. This place, which I will call Paradise Point, did not have any units to see when we last visited, but they now had a one bedroom apartment available. We rushed back to Austin to look at the apartment and even though the rent was something we wouldn’t have considered only a month ago, at this point we were much less picky. The apartment was pretty nice with a huge bedroom and an amazing walk-in closet. I was sold on the closet alone. We applied, gave the deposit, and left with our fingers crossed. Two anxious days later, we received a call from Paradise Point. We were approved! And good to move in within our time frame. At the same time we found out W got a job in Austin, not too far from Paradise Point. Everything seems to be falling into place.
So as of August, I have moved in, bought furniture with our wedding money, and best of all- gotten a little kitten! The apartment looks great, the rooms are really big, and as everything is getting delivered the apartment is filling up quite nicely. Except for one horrific week with bedbugs, which are now taken care off, we are finally settling in .
