Sunday, June 16, 2013

Apartment Hunting

These are not my favorite photos but I'm blaming it all on the hell that was apartment hunting for a day in Portland. I have to recap this for you below:













Dress: Gap; Purse: c/o Lulu*s; Shoes, belt: H&M; Sunglasses: Ray-Ban

Ben and I both hate city driving. I refuse to do it, and he's forced to do it as Siri and I yell out things like "No, don't! That's a one-way" (well Siri says "Re-routing"). So we arrived in Portland after three hours on the road and were a) hungry, b) yelling, and c) had to pee. It was ugly. And then we arrived at an apartment that was... horrifying. The first warning sign were that 19 year old students were moving out of it carrying Target lamps. Strike one. Strike two was the flies hovering in the entrance and the cigarette butt lined stairway. Strike three was the man eating Chinese food on the stoop out of a bag! And then we headed inside to see the tiniest, most horrifying apartment I've ever seen. I promptly had a panic attack in the leasing office of the property manager.

The second apartment we looked at had promise but was on sale as it was the last un-renovated unit in the building. The appliances were from, perhaps, the late 70s and the counters were peeling away. The high pile carpet also looked worrisome. We'd also heard terrible reviews about the noise issues in the building.

And then we drove down to the next viewing located on the Willamette River next to a brewery, some wine shops, gorgeous buildings, a beautiful sky, peace and quiet, and a lot of fit people jogging about. And walked into a perfect townhome style corner apartment ("flat"), with a beautiful kitchen, updated appliances, French doors on the bedroom, and a balcony. The biggest selling point of all was the in-house washer and dryer. Ben and I almost collapsed onto the floor in joy. But it seemed pricey so we went out to get lunch and snapped some outfit photos and went to the next viewing.

The next viewing was a gorgeous apartment but out of our price range and the residents of the building were very tank-wearing-privileged-college-bro which put me off of it immediately. We decided to go back to the leasing office of the townhome to just fill out an application and see what happened later. We wanted to deliberate at home. When we arrived in the leasing office we entered the most horrifying competition I've ever been in: we competed to get the apartment with another couple in the room based on who could most quickly fill out an application, get approved, and pay. We put a security deposit on the table prior to their online payment coming through and I think we won. 

We're in a bit of a state of shock and excitement and hope. We're shocked we moved so quickly and that apartment hunting in a city is like the Hunger Games. We're excited that we could be living in this gorgeous "flat" by the water only a mile away from our respective places of employ/school. We're hoping that this apartment is truly ours and that this other couple that definitely looked a bit more established, if poorly dressed, doesn't get this apartment of our dreams. I guess we just need to wait the weekend out and see if lease paperwork comes out way next week! Finger's crossed.

21 comments

  1. Such a great dress! Loving it. Really crossing my fingers for you! What an intense apartment-hunting story haha :) But it sounds amazing.

    Best,
    Danielle
    http://awriterinlove.blogspot.com

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  2. You really rock this dress, horizontal stripes ad a little fun to any look, love the way you styled it with flat pumps, nice nautical look!
    FF

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  3. Good luck apartment hunting! I love that dress on you. It flatters your figure so well. You look amazing!

    xox Lara www.weheartbeautyblog.com

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  4. U look absolutely fabulous, dear!!!

    Have a lovely evening,

    Nicole

    www.nicoleta.me

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  5. I love your striped dress! So fixated on anything stripes. Good luck on apt hunting!

    Stop by sometime, xo Natalie
    lavagabonddame.com

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  6. Oh my gosh what a story! Well I hope you get the place! And btw, your dress is super flattering on you!

    The Occasional Indulgence

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  7. beautiful dress!! love it ;)
    kisses pretty
    http://blogcashmeremafia.blogspot.com

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  8. Oy, that sounds rough! I hope you got the apartment. At least you looked good going through hell!

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  9. Great outfit....
    good job.........Let's follow each other
    http://top4addictions.com/
    Love
    Mile

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  10. Love the dress! Fingers crossed that the apartment is yours :)

    www.kacieskloset.blogspot.com
    www.daisyraeboutique.com

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  11. Hello! Thanks so much for your recent post on my blog! Loving your dress! The belt is a nice touch too :) If you get a minute, I’d love to know what you think of my latest outfit post!
    xo, elle from Living in Color.

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  12. Gorgeous photos, I love how you belted the dress!

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  13. These pictures are super cute. I love that dress. I should have you as my personal stylist haha. I hope you've had a great weekend. Good luck on the hunt!

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  14. Don't you just freaking love how apartment leasing agents know the apartments are complete crap, they follow you around the entire freaking apartment AND THEN they, without giving you time to talk to your significant other, "DO YOU LIKE THIS!?!?!" "WILL THIS WORK!?!?!" Girl, I feel your pain. Your weekend was my weekend last week. Ugh. I wish I could hug you and give you a beer.

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  15. love this dress! apartment hunting for yall has been intense and i hope you get the apartment! :)

    ~Chioma
    C's Evolution of Style

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  16. City apartment hunting can be such a rat race! I remember when I was looking when I first moved to Seattle, as fast as I could get to places to look at them someone else had already snagged them. Glad you were able to (hopefully) find someplace that will work! And hey, at least you looked good while doing it. ;-)

    Sarah @ Life As Always

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  17. I agree about apartment hunting being more like the Hunger Games... It's a game of survival in this cut-throat competition to get the apartment of your dreams. Anyway, congratulations on your new home!

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  18. hope you get the apartment! apartment hunting is the worst thing ever. and i love your outfit. i vote you should get the apartment because you were better dressed.

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  19. welcome to portland! hopefully you firm up a place soon, i've heard that finding rentals here has been pretty cuckoo bananas for the last few years ... which just makes me all the happier that i bought a place and don't have to deal with that any more. then again, i don't have french doors on my bedroom or a balcony!

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  20. Love the cute dress with the colorful bag! I loved reading about your apartment hunting, and I wish you luck.

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