Aaron and I live in a nice new condo in downtown, its been home for 2 years. While the annoyance of downtown living gets to me sometimes, its been a great place to live. However, it isn't the best place to have a baby. Our condo is the industrial loft style, with no walls around the bedroom and cement floors. Aaron and I have lived together for 3 years, this being our 3rd apartment and we have never had walls around any of our bedrooms. I'm ready for some damn walls and doors. Especially with a baby on the way, Penelope needs her own space and we need ours.
But! Finding a new place to live is proving to be quite the challenge. We haven't had to apartment/house search in 2 years and in that time Austin's rental market has really inflated. I thought we could get a nice 2 bedroom duplex in North Austin for a little cheaper than what we pay now. Suburbs here we come. But we cant! Rentals have gone up at least $200 since we last looked, not to mention we are now looking for a 2 or more bedroom.
I don't know what the deal is but all the duplex/house rentals are so nasty and depressing. The carpets look like we would get hepatitis just from taking off our shoes. The appliances literally are from the 1970's and probably cost a fortune to use. We would probably spend just as much on utilities as we would on rent, that's how energy efficient these dumps are. Ive never bought appliances but the average-level appliance cant be that much money! I would be so embarrassed if I was a landlord who was leasing these dumps to people. Talk about not owning something your proud of.
I thought a few visualizations of the lovely rental market would really let you all know what we and hundreds of other families are up against. These pictures are of all different rentals! Let me warn you it is not pretty:
Carpeting in all bedrooms! What a plus! We 'promise' to get them professionally cleaned before move-in, just not before the advertising pictures, that would just be silly.
Here is our shitty ass cabinetry and counter tops. Just in case you forgot your 20 year old broom head we left one for you!
My favorite room in the house, doesn't this picture just make you want to curl up with a good book and relax?
This house just screams "Welcome Home!" What a safe and inviting entrance.
Your new home includes a walk out patio!! What a deal!! Perfect place for kids to play with giant pieces of cement, watch your step! And even though this picture was taken 3 years ago I'm sure the patio situation hasn't gotten worse at all.
I thought a few visualizations of the lovely rental market would really let you all know what we and hundreds of other families are up against. These pictures are of all different rentals! Let me warn you it is not pretty:
What a lovely spacious bedroom with tons of natural light. Not that you can see any of it because its a picture of a corner with a giant TV positioned right in the middle of the window.
Rent our duplex, we cant even fix the door for the advertising photos but your sure to love it here.
We offer tons of cabinetry, some that even float in the middle of the wall. We realize none of the cabinet doors match up but that's nothing a little duct tape cant fix, am I right? Comes with dishwasher and stove, circa 1985.
So the search continues, updates are sure to follow.
Hey, you should look at Balcones Club Apartments. They are older but they are updated. And I am pretty sure that our floor plan is on the market(1 Bed/1 Bath/Study). Good luck!
ReplyDeleteWe are working on something right now, if it falls through we will definitely look into your place.
DeleteOh my God you are hilarious!!! There are some real dumps out there. You should probably move back here :) its a sign!!
ReplyDeleteI keep wishing my mom still had her house and we could live in the apartment again. I miss that place, it was perfect. Minus the peeper, of course, but he got caught :)
DeleteAh, the romance of youth! You should have seen the dumps we lived in when I was little. Mon and Dad's first place was a converted garage in Georgetown. They had to walk across the yard to the owner's porch to use the bathroom. Nonetheless, I think that was probably better than the ones you're looking at.
ReplyDeleteA bathroom outside of the actual apartment sounds like a nightmare. And waaay to old school for my taste. I prefer indoor plumbing only. The duplexs here are hazardous to one's health, if not physical health definitely mental health. Who would want to cook healthy delicious food in a kitchen like that? It makes me want to eat McDonalds and slowly rott toward obesity.
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