We got us an apartment, yes we did.
Last week (was it?) we did a little Milwaukee-Chicago-Nashville-Jacksonville-Milwaukee round trip, looking for a Jacksonville apartment we might conceivably be able to afford. This was somewhat easier than we had thought, given that the two areas we'd rented in before, collectively, were Chicago and New York. See, i'd heard some ridiculous friend-of-a-friend stories a few years back that claimed in some parts of the United States you could get a one-bedroom apartment for less than seven hundred a month.
Without roaches, even, the rumors used to say.
In a good neighborhood! I wrote it off as urban legend. Now that i've seen the light, i'm mainly just amazed that we and all our friends paid so much for so long to live in such horribly depressing places. Not that coastal Florida is the cheapest place to be hunting an apartment either, but for two-thirds the price and about fourteen times the amount of sunshine, i too have become a believer. Evangelist, too.
We spent our first day touring the complexes, figuring we'd at least find a place to fall back on if we couldn't get anything more interesting. This was not an encouraging day. Mildly entertaining, though, particularly on paper. With suburbs, you know they usually at least name them after the natural features they bulldozed to build the place. But with apartment complexes, you're into full-on ad-rep territory. I mean, "The Preserve At Cedar River?" And then there were the apartments themselves. Sample sales pitch: "Now, as our brochure says, we do have the exterminators come through and fumigate at least once a week, but if you have problems more frequently than that, don't worry, we can call them out anytime!" This was said with a big smile. The next complex was better, but when we asked about availability, they thought a bit and said cheerily, "Well, let's see. The sheriff should be here next week to get that man out of eight-B, but then again, it might not be until next month. Nine-A might be sooner, though. You know how these court things go." We nodded.
Thankfully, the next one was pretty nice. It was a partial-wall efficiency - a slight crimp in our plans to have everyone we've ever met come to visit us at some point - and pushing the very top of our price range, but we would've had a river view, and also, Katie did not feel physically unsafe walking around the neighborhood (a justifiable first). So we figured we had a frontrunner. End of Day One.
Day Two dawned a lot sunnier, and it was time to switch strategies. We bought a paper and asked around a bit, and then we started driving around the most intriguing neighborhood we'd seen yet. Picture the garden district in New Orleans meeting Camden Town in London, give it more of a small-town feel (and, apparently, a small dash of Chicago's Clark Street), and there you go. In Jacksonville, they call it
Riverside/Avondale. Okay, it's not nearly as exciting as that made it sound, but it's nice enough. We cruised up and down the streets at random dialing the numbers on all the For Rent signs we saw, which actually got us better results than either the paper or the internet did, even craigslist. Once we'd seen this little caretaker apartment behind one of the big brick two-stories, we knew we'd seen enough. We had to fly back to Milwaukee the next day, but we applied, and we got the "yes" call on our way out.
And we packed the truck today. (Gratuitous plug: If you don't fit in a rental minivan, and you're looking for a cheaper option than U-Haul or Budget, i highly recommend
ABF U-Pack. At least so far.) We leave tomorrow morning, and in theory, the truck is supposed to show up down there Friday or Monday. So i'm actually really looking forward to this. I've never lived in a historic district before, unless you count Cabin 219 on the Caribbean Mercy. A historic former garage, yes - it had the little plaque and everything - but this promises to be a lot cozier than the now-legendary house at 5 Sunset. And even cheaper, relative to size. Better smelling, too.
