Tuesday, September 27, 2011

homeless less!

Yes! it is true! I, Lauren Spivack, have rented my very first apartment.  I would like to take the time now to thank BC for providing me with 4 years of housing, mom for letting me move back home after graduation, Israel for putting me up in an absorption center, Allie for letting me live with you for two months, and the Porath's, Itamar, and the Fridman's for housing me during my wandering times these past two months.  I am oh so very glad to say, however, that in a few short weeks I will be a new resident of Nachlaot, Jerusalem.
Here's a little bit about how the search went:
Allie and I spent many hours looking up apartments online, Allie continuously and diligently sent me listings with addresses, info, and numbers to set up meetings to go look.  The first weekend I was going to  go to Jerusalem to look at apartments I ended up having to stay Shabbat on my army base so I couldn't.  So I decided to take an "errand day" from the army last Thursday and spend the day apartment searching. Allie, again, searched on the internet and sent me listings of potential apartments because the apartments we had written down from the week before were already rented, as it typically goes here...quickly.  I added to the search, checking things for myself and adding a few listings to my potential list on Wednesday night.  Thursday morning I decided to check online again and saw an apartment in our price range in a really great location, the center of Jerusalem.  I decided to go to this apartment first and really, really hope that it was a winner so I didn't have to trek out of the city on the bus to look at all the other apartments on the list.  I called when I got to Jerusalem and went to the apartment first, as I had hoped.  The apartment was adorable, re-done, and in a great location, I was so excited!  I knew I had to call Allie though to double check about the location, because it wasn't the location we were looking in all along.  I had to make sure she was alright with compromising a bit on the size for the fact that it is re-done and, did I mention, in a great location?  Only problem...it was about 6am in Boston and Allie was up late getting a friend from the airport.  No fear, I knew mom would be up so I chatted with her about how I felt about the apartment and in the end we decided I really should go for it.  I sat outside the apartment as the time passed and watched potential renter after potential renter look at the apartment.  My stomach turned as I knew I didn't have much time (dramatic, huh?!)  I finally decided 8am was good enough to call and wake up Allie and I did just that.  I told her all about the apartment and the fact that it's a bit small and the second bedroom, my bedroom since I'll be in the army most of the time, is a loft, not an actual room.  She thought it was a good idea to check out a few of the other apartments on the list so I reluctantly but diligently hopped on a bus to the outer part of the city.  I meandered around a bit as I called the potential apartments to no avail.  Either I could not look at them that day, they only had one bedroom (the list "rooms" here which included living room and sometimes a kitchen or another room so you can never be too sure how many bedrooms are there), or some other funk that didn't fit with us.  Finally Allie and I decided that I need to go with the first one, it's too good to pass up and after all, it's in a great location.  I called back the realtor and signed the papers that afternoon.  All in Hebrew, all understood, all by myself :).
I signed the lease for a move-in date of November 1st hoping that the current tenant would find an apartment sooner so I could move in before the 1st.  I wasn't very optimistic as she had pretty particular desires for her apartment but alas, I received a phone call today from the current tenant that she is planning on signing for an apartment on Sunday with a move in date of October 10th!  Wah-hoo! That means I can move in to the apartment on the 10th/11th instead of the first of November!
I know, I know, it is all very too good to be true.  Whoever is crossing their fingers and praying for me out there keep up the good work, I REALLY appreciate it :)
                                                       check out our adorable kitchen!

No comments:

Post a Comment