Today began early this morning. Well, at least early for me as I slowly staggered out of bed at 8:00 am. Because of a few issues at the post office yesterday (on top of the fun I was having at the office) I had to get out the door early, stop by the post office, and see if the Saturday morning shift could find the invisible package that eluded the staff yesterday. So, following a few grumbles from my wife for my alarm cyclically sounding, I was out the door with plans to meet her at Barnes & Noble in Montgomeryville for our weekend activity, our regularly scheduled program.
Surprisingly,
when I got to the empty post office, there wasn’t a single issue getting the
mail as somehow overnight the packages had rematerialized. With mail in hand I
headed across the street to the lodge and got the couple hours of work done
that was about a week overdue at this point. Still, it didn’t take as long as I
was expecting so I was on the road and heading north with about an hour to make
the 30 minute drive. Thirty minutes if I didn’t miss the turn(s) and the large
bookstore in front of me. With that said, I was still about 10 minutes early.
After
grabbing a quick coffee and a horrendous quiche (never again) we made our way
to the first apartment on the list where my mother in law was waiting to show
us the space. It has been over two years since we last seriously did some apartment
shopping and I can’t say that I missed the process. While I do enjoy seeing the
different spaces and attempting to envision how it might work for us, it is
still a lot of effort with no guaranteed outcome.
We
saw four places throughout the day. The first was the second floor of a duplex
situated next to a library with a young owner living on the first floor who
seemed to be in over his head. While it is more space than we have now you
could tell that it was the second story of a converted single family home. On
top of that it was a little way from the main road so, while a decent start, it
wouldn’t work for us.
The
second stop was at a single family home in the next town over. It was a quirky
little house with double the space of our current apartment (including an extra
half bathroom) but there were a few things that didn’t really work for us.
First and foremost, there was a commuter SEPTA line running right behind the
house (maybe 10 feet away) and, like I said, the amount of usable space was far
less than the square footage due to low ceilings and odd walls. The property
was also much further from the highway. If it were in a different location it
would have been perfect but, as it stands, it doesn’t work. Next.
The
final two stops of the day were in the same development. Both apartments were
mirror images of one another with the first stop having not been updated in
some time with the second seeming like there were newer fixtures but still
dated. The second was, overall, in better shape but it was also more expensive
and the previous occupant had a cat which does not bode well for my wife’s
allergies. The first apartment of the two, while it had a few issues, is a
great space for what we need. With 50% more space than our current rental, faux
hardwood floors throughout, and all the ancillary aspects that we have in our
current building this place was clearly our first choice and the one we will
pursue a bit further. Clearly it wasn’t my mother in law’s choice but it was
the decision that my wife and I made and we will see how things progress.
After
a few hours, it was time to call it a day so we all went out for a late lunch
and discussed what we liked, what we didn’t, and the things that we would like
to see in future showings. The quick lunch behind us, we headed back out into
the rain and headed in three different directions. I guess we will just have to
wait and see how things progress on this front over the next month. I will keep
you posted and hopefully have a few pictures the next time around.
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