A conversation with C

Sometime in July:
So a lot of people have been asking me lately when we're going to move in together...
Yeah, I've been getting that too.
What kind of timeline were you thinking?
I don't know - maybe sometime in October or November?
Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm going to sign up for some alertes emails on pap.fr and seloger.com, just so we can start getting an idea of what's out there and what can afford.
That's a good idea. We should make a list of exactly what we want in an apartment. My musts are: on the line 12, easy access to Luxembourg garden, safe neighborhood. And a balcony and parking spot would be great, even though it's not likely. How about you?
Hmm....I'd say I'd like at to have least 45m2, less than 10 minutes from Montparnasse, and a decent-size kitchen. No higher than 3rd floor (French) if there's no elevator. My optionals would be: a bathtub, room for a washer, dryer & dishwasher, a cave and somewhere in the 5th or 6th arrondissement. And it'd be great if there was a gym nearby.
Do you care if it's an old or new building?
No, not really....but maybe newer would be better so that we wouldn't have to deal with creaky floors or bad plumbing/electrical work.

A week or so later:
Hey hon, check out this email I got. It's for an apartment in the 15th. It's 50m2, has a parking spot and a balcony. The only thing is the price - it's about 200€ less than it should be...
That sounds kind of suspicious, but it's through an agency, so we could at least give them a call and try to visit it. There's no harm in visiting a few places so that we can see what we like and what we don't like.

A few days after that:
So this is the apartment. As you can see, it's on the 3rd floor, with an elevator. It's 2 minutes from the metro, on a quiet street. There are plenty of shops around here and there are two gyms within a one minute walk. The parking lot is downstairs, as is the cave. It's 50m2 total, and has a nice big living/dining area. The balcony is a bit small, but it's big enough for a small chair and some plants. Now on to the kitchen- it is a decent size, with lots of storage, AND there's room for an oven, a dishwasher and a fridge/freezer. The bathroom is quite large as well, and has a bathtub, plus hook-ups and space for a washer & dryer. And now on to the bedroom. It's a bit small, but also looks out on to the balcony and has electric shutters, which are great for keeping out any noise. So what do you think?

We look at each other....it's perfect. It has absolutely everything we want, at a really fantastic price. The only thing is....it's available August 1st and we weren't planning on moving for a few months yet and it's not in my neighborhood (more on that another day). Plus Crystal & her husband had given us some good advice on getting an apartment through C's job, and there are some real steals to be found in Paris (though we found out afterward that we made too much money to qualify for any of the good stuff anyways).

We decide to think about it overnight. It really is the perfect apartment for us. And neither of us had any notice to give on our current places. The low price would allow us to make some small improvements, such as giving the walls a fresh coat of paint and replacing the carpet with parquet, with money left-over to buy some new furniture & appliances. The gym was just a few doors down and was worlds better than my current gym (for the exact same price). Taking it would also mean that I wouldn't have to spend the next few months pouring over ads or stressing about the fact that I was out of town so often and would miss out on visits. Or that I would be gone on a work trip when we would need to move. And that was all extra stress I certainly didn't need or want.

Which is how we found ourselves signing a lease on August 4th, and then spending the rest of the month cleaning, renovating, cleaning some more, shopping, packing and unpacking. There are few more boxes to put away and a few more decorations to buy, but we're just about settled in now.

So that was my August. How was yours?