This Dating Life: House Hunting Part The First

As alluded to previously, I moved to Portland, Maine at the end of February, 2014, which meant that in February, 2015, I was going to need to find a new apartment.  The one bedroom "bachelor pad" I had in the heart of Old Port, an area where EVERYONE turns 21 every night and pasty tourists flock from the cruise ships, was no longer cutting it for Ashley and I, and it was time to step up our game.

Finding a new apartment is much like online dating.  You wonder why certain apartments have been on the market so long.  "That place is 30 years old AND STILL SINGLE...err unoccupied?  WHAT IS WRONG WITH IT?"  You tend to focus on the really pretty apartments until you realize they're out of your (price) range and the only thing you have in common is you both think it's attractive.  Location is super important; let's face it, living in Jersey or Long Island* is a deal breaker, no matter how new those appliances and floor are.  The older you get, the more certain you are of what you're looking for, and the less willing you are to settle for less.  Two bedroom, heat included, backyard or patio, on the peninsula, and ability to have a dog, and NO, a 25 pound or less dog is not a dog, it's a large cat.  Still, at the end of the day, you have to visit a lot of apartments, because it doesn't matter what they look like in pictures, you're still not quite sure how the dimensions translate in real life or if the photo is from 10 years ago.

So we did.  We looked at many places.  7 or 8 I think, I lost count.  And we couldn't look until February, because nobody would show a place more than a month in advance of when we were going to rent.  And the pickings are slim in Portland in the winter, so we'd see the same 6 places over and over, plus about 40 ads for student housing each day.

Next time, on this house dating life:  Did we find a place?  Are we happy together?  Is our house turning into it's mother?


*Sorry, the Brooklyn / Queens is still strong in me