Housing Assistance: Activated

I'm not sure if I've mentioned the Housing Assistance yet. It's been Activated.

No, really. The email I got was, "Housing Assistance Activated." With emails like that, you really can't go wrong. It sounds like a bad line from Knight Rider or something.

Anyway, the Housing Search was pretty damned useful in terms of quickly getting a ton of information about what's available in the area. The relocation people assigned me a rental tour guide (this lady was an ex-real-estate agent who left that end of things because it was way too stressful) to take me around to the big rental areas.

We visited six or seven apartments in under three hours, including the drive out of and back to Kirkland. Balls: hauled.

The lady that was assigned to me turned out to me a whole lot of fun. She seemed to be in her late 40s and has two daughters—12 and 15 years old. We had a great time talking about all manner of nutting things around the area and so forth. Apparantely she gets a number of these Microsoft new-hire assignments and a good number are total duds to talk to. I'm glad we could at least have a good laugh.

Plus, she drove a damned new Audi Allroad. Sweet.

Anyway, to the apartments. Of those we saw, most were the standard fare. Cheesy cabinets, crappy carpets, and cluttered ... cloisters clouded the charisma of the fuck it.

Sorry. Again: in general, these apartments had pretty terrible fittings, although I suppose it wasn't all that bad of an idea. In contrast to the place that Mac, Ken, and I had on El Camino Real, the bedrooms here seemed a bit worse but the kitchens a bit better.

One, however, was fantastically outfitted. And it was gigantic, too. 873 ft² for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. The living room was spectacular with an astounding vaulted ceiling. Great stuff.

But, they wanted a grand a month and the parking was total shite. One car would be difficult ("but maybe doable if you want to pay $75/month for a garage") and two would be nearly impossible. Goodbye, Supra.

Plus, I'd feel bad paying that much for an apartment that I really wouldn't get to spend much time in. I'd rather not have a place that makes me want to stick around the apartment all the time—not that I want someplace that will make me want to leave, but I think you get the idea.

In the end, I got a place that gave me one month's rent free off of an 11-month lease, and an additional $300 for signing up the day I showed up. Although my monthly cost is $870, my averaged rent post-discount is a bit under $800/month for a 1 bedroom place. Plus, these guys are only charging a $99 fee for each cat. In comparison, one place wanted a $750 fee and wanted to charge $35/month, for a total of $1170 over the year.

Yowza. Contrast this to the $600/month 1200 ft² place in Socorro. Which had a garage.

Being a total goober, I completely neglected to take photos. I'll be sure to take shots of the new place, and I'll tell you all about it in only marginally graphic detail when the time comes. I'm sure you can hardly contain yourselves.

Doubly so because I'm sure you're not going to read this until after the followup post is written and both are posted at the same time. So in that case, read on, viewers.