House-Hunting

Why I always wind up moving in the middle of summer in Nebraska, I'll never know. I guess it's better than the middle of winter, but really, I am not looking forward to hauling all my stuff across town in a couple of weeks.

The lease is up on the Katies' House on Meredeth Street, and my roommate (Katie) is moving to Florida to go to grad school. So I've been searching Craigslist and riding my bike all around looking for one bedrooms for rent downtown. I've toured three different buildings and apartments so far. One great, one good, and one shit hole.

I feel like this housing decision is a big one because I'm looking at signing a 12-month lease for the first time in my life. When bad things happen to me I always google "teach english in [insert random foreign country]." Last night, I googled "Prague" and "Korea." 12 hours later, I'm considering signing a lease on an apartment? That seems a little risky to me...

The first apartment I found I am in love with. It's only a studio, but it's a big one. Look at it here. The pictures do it pretty good justice. It even has a sunporch! All the closets and shelving and dressers and mirrors are built-in, so I wouldn't have to take a lof of my yuckier furniture with me. It's in a neighborhood that I already know and like, with my favorite Mexican grocery store, Intoxicants liquor store, and a Mexican bakery just a block or so away. But it's $400 a month, and they want a hefty deposit, and a 2 months' rent buy-out if you want out of your lease early. Also, they want me to move in like, yesterday, and that means I'd be paying rent on two places for all of July.

The second place, which I looked at this afternoon, is probably my best option right now. It's at 14th and E, and the building is called William Penn, which pays nice homage to my Pennsylvanian upbringing. And Angela used to live there, so I'm sure there's lots of her good energy left over. Here is a picture of the outside of the building:
The apartment I'm looking at is on the third floor, almost blocked by the tree there. It has it's own private hallway, so I shouldn't have any noise troubles. There is a kitchen with newish stove and refrigerator, a little dining area, a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It's historical too, although not as beautiful as the first one, with wood floors and arched entries and an old phone nook and lots of built-in shelves. It gets east (morning) light in the bedroom, bathroom, and living room; north light in the dining room and kitchen. It has tons of closet/storage space too. The best part is that it's $50 less rent each month than the 11th St. place, and a much smaller deposit, too. Also, if I need to buy out of my lease, the buy-out is much less, and there is no penalty at all if I can sublet it to someone else. And they'll hold it for me through the end of July, so I'd probably move in somewhere around the 15th or 20th.

The third place was a shit hole. It was only $310 a month for a one-bedroom but it had window a/c, really terrible carpet, almost no light, and nothing at all special about it. It kind of stank too. The only good thing was that it is on Goodhue which is the street the capital building is on, and it's only a block from the capital so it would be on a nice street in a central location.

I'm having a little bit of trouble committing to a year in a place, but otherwise, I'm kind of excited to move. I'll live downtown which will cut my driving down to almost nothing, as I'll probably bike and walk almost everywhere I go. I have mixed feelings about living alone, but I think it will be all right.

What do you think? Should I go with the middle one--the good place, that I like but don't love, and that will be a little easier to afford--and call it a day?