Wrong Home To Go Home To

Sheralee and I went to sign the contract for my apartment yesterday.

We met the landlady downstairs at the apartment community office, and from there she walked us up to see the finished apartment that I had been waiting oh so patiently for. However, I noticed that she wasn't leading us toward the apartment.

The landlady attempted to dismiss our concerns and added that she had made the same mistake several times. She insisted that we follow her, and we did.

In an unfamiliar building, we went up an elevator to the 16th floor. She unlocked the door, and tadaa! We saw a finished apartment. The good news was, she did a great job getting the place ready. The bad news was, it was the first time that either of us had ever been in this apartment. How could this be?

The community staff had shown us a single 3 bedroom apartment three times, but had called a different apartment owner of the same floor, but of a different building altogether. Huge mistake.

The community staff tried to deny having made the error, and insisted that we were mistaken.

I spent some time considering taking the surprise apartment. She did do a great job on the floors and bathroom. The kitchen counter was a caulked jigsaw puzzle though, but that's normal for kitchen counters here. The biggest issue for me was the lack of view from the windows. It wasn't impressive at all, and that was key in my decision on getting the first apartment we saw. After considering that I was spending twice as much on this next apartment than before, this apartment simply would not do.

Later, the community staff managed to contact the owner of the actual apartment I wanted in the first place. It turns out, he doesn't want to rent it out ...

It's apartment hunting time again!

Photo: Silly scallions!