Unfortunately I still have no good news to give re: my housing situation. I have seen places ranging from disgustingly appalling to barely decent & livable. Nothing has blown me out of the water yet though. Also, to the person who posted an ad for an 20 sq meter 8th floor walk up, no elevator, for 750€ a month - you should be ashamed of yourself! You've really got some balls to charge that kind of rent. But unfortunately he/she is not alone in having that kind of nerve.
Some of the more interesting places I have seen include a place with a hole in the ceiling, left-over from a pipe leak several months earlier. Or another place completely covered in cat hair and with a pipe that was about to burst but that the owner "didn't want to fix until it actually did". Gee, sign me up.
I also saw a fairly decent place owned by a 50 yr old English man who traveled a lot and who didn't want to leave his place empty....but it was on the 6th floor, no elevator, and I'm a lazy ass. Yesterday I visited a similar set-up: a huge apartment right on the place de la république, owned by a retired Italian who used to be an EU lawyer. The owner was really interesting and spoke at least five languages fluently, and the apartment itself was nice - each room had it's own full bathroom and it even had a dryer. I think I would've taken it had he not been retired or if I had a real office to go to. But the idea of working from home everyday with an old man puttering around the house was just not that appealing to me.
Out of desperation, I finally made my way over to the American church, but there wasn't much in the way for ads and there were herds of people writing down the ones that were there. An 50yr old Greek man also followed me home from the church, spending 30 minutes trying to convince me to go have a drink with him. I'm sorry Makias, but your landline (and cell and email address) went straight into the poubelle.
So September 1 is rapidly approaching, and I still have no solid leads in sight. The good news is that I technically don't have to be out of here by Sept 1, but the bad news is that if I stay longer, that means more watching of the childrens. On a positive note, at least all this apartment visiting is helping me discover more of Paris (and the long metro rides are giving me time to figure out how to work my new phone).
Labels: House Hunting
posted by Ksam @ 9:25 AM
3 Comments:
wishing you lots of luck!
apartment hunting is the worst :(
If I hear of anything, I'll let you know right away... There is my friend, Flo, that you met at the picnic who has a place--- She's moving back to Australia in Oct... Not sure if she got someone yet or not.. I can ask her if you want...
We lived on a 5th floor sans elevator from when Gab was born until Louise was born (2 years). You get used to the walking and my thighs were in kick-ass shape. I even carried a very heavy 1 year old up everyday and it just became habit.
All of that because the apartment was the best we had seen on the market and the most affordable (82 m2 for 1100 a month charges included). My point is, if it's affordable and you fall in love with it, don't let the walk-up scare you, you do get used to it and Franprix will still deliver your groceries for free.
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