Tuesday, September 2, 2014

My Dream Apartment

Guys!! I did it. I found my dream apartment! And I really do mean dream apartment. I dreamed it up a few months ago!! Here is the story, and sorry, this blog post may be a bit long...

This weekend was absolutely nuts. I had no idea this weekend would turn out the way it did.

It started off with a tour of Art Space housing. I mentioned on here how much I wanted to live at Art Space. I was told by several people it was extremely hard to get into. Some of them are income based, and some of them aren't. They are beautiful apartments with exposed pipes, cement floors, and a very "arty" feel. Some of them require a portfolio too. I was pretty excited we found an opening!

Art Space allowed pets and had an art studio. We liked it, but for some reason it just didn't feel right.. Like, I can't explain it... that apartment was perfectly in my price range, allowed pets, and was art space!! But, we were right across the street from a homeless shelter, the dogs and I would also have to walk pretty far for them to find grass. It was right in the middle of downtown.. Plus they had a 2 pet only policy.. and I really don't feel comfortable "sneaking" a pet in... 
 I loved the apartment, but still felt unsure about how some things would work. 
We decided to not put the deposit down until we knew. 

We drove around and scoped out the area, got some phone numbers an searched for "For Rent" signs.. It was disappointing. We just couldn't find anything! We later met with Sterling's sister. We talked to her about our fears.. figured we could make things work at art space. She mentioned her place might have openings, but she wasn't sure of the policy with pets. The office hours were closed, but we took note of the complexes number. 

That's when we got a plot twist. The car wouldn't start! The car had been giving us problems.. not starting, not staying charged, certain things would go out. We tried to work with it. Jump it with a little battery starter or get it jump started by other people. Anyways, as we left Sterling sister's house the car wouldn't start at all! Nothing would get it to work.. So we decided to de-stress by taking a walk around the block. 

We talked about how hard it is being adults. The car not starting.. things being hard with moving. It's been really difficult finding a new place to live! I have checked craigslist daily, and haven't found anything. As we walked we stopped in front of this building. 
I stopped in awe and took pictures. I dreamed about this place! I recognized it from a dream! We then got back to the car, where someone helped us jump it and we were on our way.. distraught that we still didn't have a place.

The next day the car wouldn't start at all. After walking to an auto store 3 times, getting it tested, and buying a new battery we finally got it working.  It was stressful, we didn't know if it was the alternator, the battery or the starter. We hoped it would be the battery, as that would be cheapest. As we walked to the auto shop I mentioned maybe we needed to put our money and energy into a new car... maybe moving wouldn't work yet and we would have to stay a few more months, maybe move in the spring. We couldn't find a place, our car wasn't working.. life was stressful and expensive. 
Once we figured out it was just the battery we started driving to charge things up. 

It was Saturday so I figured no one was open, but I was still decided to call some of the numbers we took down the day before. On a whim, I looked up Jenica's (Sterling's sister) apartment management. They have tons of complexes so I hoped they had an opening. Since it was Saturday I thought I would just leave a message. Turns out they were open,  I told them we were on our way. 

It was totally unexpected, but they had an opening. A HUGE one bedroom, with an extra "mud" room.. Pet friendly, with a very low deposit and a month free. 
Best part? 
The apartment was in the exact same building I dreamed about! 

We walked in, and I was in love. 
The Mud room. 



The kitchen. look at that sink!! And those details... The hinges.. 
The door knobs are all original. 

The living room is huge! 



The bedroom's back door.





















The apartments were built in 1910 in one of the first neighborhoods here. We are about one block from the city, on a hill... so when we take the dogs on a walk we will see the view! We are right next to a few cathedrals who chime on the hour.  Everything seemed to fit into place. The apartment has a lot of the old antique features, like the original knobs and hinges. It has some exposed pipes like the Art Space had, but is much bigger. There is soooo much storage too! The living space in the new place is twice as big as where I am here! We can paint, and do what we want as long as we don't ruin anything. It's amazing. I thought about using the mud room for the art studio, but since it will be one of the main entrances we decided to incorporate the studio into the entire house! Meaning the living room space will be the studio, but with living space in there too. That might not make sense.. but I'll post pictures. We have a little back yard space that is shared with other tenants as well as a beautiful court yard. 

There are a few down sides, but I really think we can make it work. It's a bit more expensive than I hoped.. but I think we can make it work. Like a gold fish grows as big as his bowl... we are entering a new bowl, and with it, we will grow. 
We are also situated very very near the mail box for our unit. This means several tenants will be checking their mail outside our door.. every single day as well as the mail man coming. We are near the entrance so there will be so much traffic near our place! The dogs are going to have a very hard time adjusting. They bark at everything already! So, I've got some training to do.. I'm pretty nervous about their transition.. so any tips would be great. They can be very barky dogs.. and I would hate to get complaints about them! I am thinking about posting a little note by the mailbox explaining my dogs are new to city life. 

We get to move in in two weeks! So much sooner than I thought.. So I have been scrambling around packing, cleaning, changing addresses, and getting things figured out. Two weeks! 

I absolutely can't wait to move in. It's beautiful. We had such a good feeling in there. It has all the things I loved about the art space, but so much more. Plus it's in such a safer neighborhood. 
It's such a charming apartment that feels like a home. Once you walk out it suddenly feels like a city!
 I can't wait to post pictures of the finished house. 

I'm very thankful the car broke down so it could give us the opportunity to take a walk and find the dream apartment! Everything fell into place in such a perfect way... 


Now to figure out the money, packing, lifting, truck renting part! 
Yikes! Why is moving so stressful! 








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7 comments:

  1. Love your pictures. I love that the cabinets have glass in them. I'm so glad that you found the home of your dreams. I know you will be happy there

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  2. This place looks beautiful! Well done! We have been somewhat half-heartedly looking a places in North Salt Lake the last few weeks, it's surprisingly tough to find reasonably priced places up there!

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  3. There is one in our complex that is open! It's the second story up with an amazing amazing view of the city and the cathedral! Do it!!!

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  4. What a fabulous apartment! That telephone niche is adorable, and I love those gorgeous antique wooden floors and woodwork. Thr "mud room" may have originally been a butler's pantry (with that pass-through window), or a maid's utility space.back at the turn of the last century, many middle class people had maids.
    Congrats and good luck on your move!

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  5. Yes!! The guy showing the apartment would say this is where they would leave the milk cans and such. It has windows too. It's so neat!

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  6. Fantastic news!!! If you ever want to do a guest blog post or you want me to share anything with my followers let me know. susand1408 at gmail dot com. http://www.crochetaddictuk.com

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