Beachside living!

From the stories I heard from other associates, I was anticipating the apartment search to be a lengthy, complicated and annoying process. And I was wrong. I looked at four apartments, three of them were awful, one was great. I applied and was approved the next day, and signed a lease yesterday!

The first place I looked at, advertised as an extra large two bedroom on the beach, was an extra large two bedroom a few blocks from the beach. It was also miles from the tram stop, old, musty smelling and so extra large that our furniture which filled our NYC one bedroom quite nicely would have filled about a corner of this place.

I moved on to apartment number two: a two bed on the third floor of a ten story older building across the street from both the beach and a tram stop, in the low end of our price range. It's never a good sign when the rental agent, as she is unlocking the door, mentions how she is trying to convince the owner to repaint and recarpet. Ugh, this place was a dump. Sorry, honey, our price range just moved up a few notches!

Apartment number three was actually a house, a seemingly adorable, ivy-covered, Victorian townhouse, five minutes from the tram and ten minutes from the beach. The owner left out the fact that it was next to a very popular homeless shelter. He also left out the fact that adorable, ivy-covered, Victorian townhouses feel like dollhouses on the inside. I mean, I know I'm not petite, but I did not fit in this house. The stairs were so narrow that only one-third of my foot fit on each step. The sinks were so small you could hardly wash your hands. One bonus was that the owner was the first person to guess that I was American instead of Canadian!

Fourth time's a charm. A townhouse-style two bed on the beach with a huge terrace, perfect for BBQing! It needs a little bit of fresh paint and, like most apartments in Melbourne, is unfurnished meaning that it doesn't have appliances. Otherwise it is perfect (I hope)! The lease starts June 1, our sea shipment is scheduled to be at the port on June 6 and will have to clear customs, but we have temp housing until June 17, so the timing should all work out well! Happily accepting visitors once we are settled!

On another note, is it weird that I never liked American Idol when I lived in America nearly as much as I do now? Have the top 5 ever been this good before? It's pretty funny when Seacrest is announcing the phone number to vote, a big pop-up covers the screen saying "you cannot vote from Australia." Glad to know that all those millions of people who don't vote for the president but do vote for the idol are actually American!

Xoxo, Kel