house hunting

[kareina]

Now that I’m back in Milan, and August (also known as the month the city closes) is over, it is to begin the house-hunt in earnest—to find the place where I will live for the next year and three months. Therefore, this morning I went out and found a realty place where the receptionist spoke a bit of English; I told her I wanted to rent something in the neighbourhood, she made an appointment for me to come back at 13:00 to see one apartment, and a second for 15:15 to see another. Accordingly, I returned to their office at 12:55 (as I despise being late). That receptionist was gone, but the next guy on duty had much better English. I chatted with him while waiting for the realtor who was to show me the apartment to show up. After a bit the receptionist called the realtor, who was taking longer dealing with a contract than expected. So we chatted some more (this receptionist had spent a year working in England, so was quite fluent in English). Eventually the realtor shows up, with the people he's doing paperwork with, and they aren't done yet. At about 13:40, the guy I'm chatting with apologizes for the delay again, and I suggest that perhaps I can just look at both of the apartments at the same time, so he checks, and the relator says yes, so they tell me to meet the relator at the apartment at 15:15. So I went home for a snack, and went to the apartment from there, arriving at 15:10 (of course) and wait. Finally, at 15:29 both the realtor (who doesn’t speak English) and the English speaking realtor arrive. The apartment turned out to be a nice enough place--plenty of cupboards, a small but useable kitchen, and a decent bathroom, complete with shower massage. So I ask how much it costs, and they say 190,000 Euros! To which I reply that I'm looking to rent, is this one for sale? Yes, it is. The first lady misunderstood me and thought I wanted to purchase a place to live. Sigh. I’d love to. Alas, I’ve no down payment, and somehow I don’t think I’d be able to obtain a mortgage without one.

However, the day was not a total loss on the house-hunting front. I also called on an apartment for *rent* which is across the street from my office. Not just across the street, but in the building that I’ve most admired from the outside. However, it is kind of small (28 square meters), so I won’t know till I’ve seen it if it will do, and my appointment for that one isn’t till Wednesday morning.

In other news, I've posted a compare/contrast essay on the two conferences I attended the past couple of weeks on my other blog.

Comments

[white-dandelion.livejournal.com]

Having rented a 25 square metre apartment...on the short term end it was fine... But if it was for any length of time I'd definately go for more space. If it is laid out well it might be okay, but eventhough mine was well laid out it still had the main room as both living room and bedroom and the eat-in kitchen was decent sized with space enough for a table and chairs with out being crowded.

Best of luck with the flat hunt.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know how that much space feels. Since it will be only one year, three months left of my contract here when I move, I think it counts as "short term", and if I like this one, having my office literally across the street will mean that my living space overlaps into the next building (I'm already here all hours of the day and night because this is where my internet connection is). I'm hoping for a situation where the kitchen is in the living area, so that I can bake things and do other things while it is in the oven without getting so far away I can't tell when it is done...

[madryn-1960.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of your house at Ferntree. There wasn't a huge amount of space, and you had to share with a heap of other people. Maybe 28 sq m. is not so bad if you're mostly on your own, and mostly out. Certainly, the convenient location is to die for.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Well, for comparison--the double living room at the house in Fern Tree is roughly the same square meter amount of space as the apartment I'll go look at in a few hours.