Five Lessons from My Search

September 11, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

When I first moved to California, I wasn’t sure what city I wanted to stay in. I lived like a nomad for months, camping on friends’ couches in a few different cities and assessing the territory before deciding where I finally wanted to settle. I eventually decided to stay in Los Angeles, partially because I…

A Few More Internet Resources

September 9, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

Below, as promised, are a few resources to help you navigate rental real estate in your region. Apartmentratings.com allows you to search and provide ratings of specific buildings, in the area code or region that you’d like to live in. People dish about where they’ve lived and looked, filling you in on both fabulous and…

NYC at last

September 8, 2006 | By Kelly AuthorMy First Apartment

Well, it’s been an interesting summer. In my last entry, I believe I had been rejoicing about finally finding a place that I could afford and everything was looking up. Unfortunately, the Morningside Heights/Upper West Side place fell through 24 hours before I was supposed to drive up there, so I spent my summer lamenting,…

Five Six Things to Do Before You Move In

September 6, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

1. Document any problems with the apartment with photographs and detailed descriptions so that you have no problem getting your security deposit back when you move out. Give a copy of this list to your landlord (this may even prompt him or her to make a few more repairs!) 2. Turn on your utilities. Nobody…

Moving Tips

July 6, 2006 | By Jessica AuthorMy First Apartment

Well, I’m all settled into my new apartment in Chicago. I’ve been here for about a week and a half, and I’m finally catching my breath long enough to report here on how the move went. I had hoped to post some photos of my apartment, but I seem to have misplaced my digital camera’s…

The Apartment

May 15, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

The apartment is good and we have everything squared away. It took a little bit of craiglist searching to find the random stuff we needed. We budgeted around $200 to get a kitchen counter top table, a love seat, a couple TV’s, and a couple lamps. Now the first apartment is awesome. So far there…

I think it’s time that I stop searching basements….

April 17, 2006 | By Heather AuthorMy First Apartment

I went to visit a place on Thursday that appeared to be perfect, on paper. The place was posted on Craigslist, my main resource for finding apartments. The apartment was listed as $950 which includes utilities AND parking–heck yes for parking in D.C.! It’s a basement apartment, so once again I had the whole natural…

Ikea equals awesome

April 16, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

Ikea makes every budget look too high. Besides being a madhouse of shoppers and lacking enough employees, Ikea works for every first apartment budget. I planned on paying around $800 to furnish my room. I needed a bed frame, a night stand, a dresser, a bookshelf, a desk, a chair for the desk, and some…

Basement apartments….

April 12, 2006 | By Heather AuthorMy First Apartment

I went to visit a friend this weekend who has her own place and it really encouraged me to start looking harder for a place of my own. I’m really ready to have my own place and stop just renting a room. And last night, a TWO INCH LONG CENTIPEDE was in my bathroom sink.…

Chicago Rocks

April 10, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

Living in the city is going to be indescribably cool. There are no fancy metaphors or analogies I can give: Chicago is awesome. My photography will pick up; my writing will get a culture boost. I cannot wait for those warm summer days when I can just walk around the neighborhood and look around. There’s…