Apartment Hunting, and a Little Shakespeare

This weekend I took a road trip to The City to find a place to live when I start back to university in September. 

I’m not going to lie, I have a small housing budget for my 8-month stay in The City (actually, I have a small everything budget... It’s going to be a tight 8 months), but I was feeling optimistic about finding a place. 

I went online and found 18 ads for decent-looking apartments within my price range, so I started calling to make appointments. Of those 18, 4 were immediately out of the running because they were looking for someone for August, not September. Another 6 were eliminated because they wanted a one-year lease, and I was looking for month-to-month. 4 of the people I left a message with did not return my call. That left 4 apartments with which I was able to make an appointment. 

So off I went to The City to check out these 4 places. 

Apartment 1: I went to the apartment and waited for someone to show up. Then I waited a little more. And waited a little more. No one. So then I called the landlord to see what was happening. Apparently he had a problem at another one of his buildings, so could not come to our appointment. Thanks for the heads up, mister. He wanted to reschedule for the next day, but I was leaving to drive home later that day, so that was a bust. 

Apartment 2: What a scuzzy place! It was bad. B-A-D! It was a decent size for a bachelor, but that was all it had going for it. The shower was not in the washroom! There was a washroom with a toilet and a sink, but then the shower was in the kitchen.... The kitchen... No door, just a curtain beside the fridge. What?! Ya. 

Apartment 3: This is the apartment I ended up signing for. This is an apartment that should have been outside of my price range! It was the only 1-bedroom I was able to get an appointment to see. That door between your bed and the rest of your apartment makes a big difference when you have this guy running around at all hours of the night: 

 "Me?? I'm innocent, I promise!"

Anyways, the landlord is really sweet. She cancelled appointments she had already set because she didn’t want me to drive all that way for an apartment just to find that it was scooped up by someone already living in-town. Thank you for that, future landlord! She described the other people living in the building, and it seems like it will be a quiet place to live, so that’s awesome. And right at the corner there’s a greasy-spoon restaurant where I’ll be able to satisfy all my poutine needs. 

Apartment 4: Well, I guess I’ll never know how this apartment would have turned out. I signed for apartment 3 on the spot, and called to cancel my 4^th appointment. I’m pretty confident it would not have been as great as apartment 3, my apartment. 

 

So my road trip was a success. I have a home that I’m really looking forward to moving into in 7 short weeks. That's a big stress off my shoulders while I continue getting ready for teacher's college.

*****

Now, to give you a little taste of something crafty, check out this little guy! 

I made this with a 12”x6” canvas, Crayola markers, and a Bic needle point pen (like, one of those liquid ink types, not a ball-point pen). 

I saw this quote somewhere on Pinterest, and it really resonated with me, because I am both little, and fierce (stubborn, outspoken, etc), and I’m proud of it! It's from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The floral print was copied from a Google image using the transferring technique I talked about at the end of this post. 

One thing I should point out: Using Crayola markers was a bad idea. Unless you don’t like your markers. The texture of the canvas is like sandpaper to the marker’s tip! After this piece I switched to using coloured Sharpies, which have a much more resilient tip (though less colour choices). 

Cute, no?