Sunday, January 26, 2014

#22 - Week 8

This week was dedicated to the apartment research \o/

The Saturday was particularly efficient with 9 apartments seen in 5 different locations with 16960 steps \o/
We visited a place far from downtown Bellevue but nearest from Sam's work: Surrey downs. It is like a village with apartments, with little lakes and cute watercourses. But on the road between the leasing office and the apartment, we see a least 20 ducks on our way. I don't like ducks especially since they ran after me while I was running. The man of the leasing office goes on talking with Sam, straight to the ducks ... I just stop waiting that they go away and I catch up the guys, incognito. Well the apartment was dark and too small for us. And to live there, I think having a car is necessary. So we will stay in downtown Bellevue at least one year, and we will see when we will have our driver license.
The second place, in downtown Bellevue, above the luxury shops: The Bravern. The residence is super classy and luxury, the fitness room is great, has the swimming pool, a jacuzzi and a steam room. So we quickly understood that it will be too expensive for us but the hardwood floor in all the apartments was just what we wanted. And we were very disappointed because, it is really too expensive for us and also too small for us.
The third, a little residence near our actual home, Aventine. Nothing to say except that it was really small, we were sad because there was hardwood floor :/
These are the 3 appointments that I had. Is is not really efficient. The best is to check the residences on a map and just go to see their leasing office. So for the rest of the day, it was already 4:30(PM), we done so.
We went to Courtyard off Main, we saw a nice floor plan on their website. Sadly, it was already taken so the girl in the leasing office gave us a tour, even if it was a smaller one, but while it was very warm, it was also too small.
Just before closing, we found a perfect floor plan at Avalon Meydenbauer. But they had no time to give us a tour :/

We celebrated this first day of apartment research in a restaurant: the Red Robin. What a pleasure. Bottomless beverages and really good hamburger and fries (much as you want). After having paid, the waitress gives us back our credit card and ask if she can refill our glass ... in France you pay and you get out, not here, I love that!

On Sunday, we have visited the residences ... well the Sunday is not a goo idea: with a pre-superbowl final match (yeah Seahawks \o/) and the Martin Luther King Day there was nobody at the leasing offices, but we had some card so I've sent emails.

We went to the hairdresser. Here you have like in France (normal style, they do stuff with your hair), some very crazy shops with hair-make-up-nails and the barbers. I have choosen one: Rudy's barbershop. It's an old gas station, chairs are comfortable. People were nice, my hairstyler was really nice and kind. $29 each in 30 minutes. For a men, it's probably expensive but for a girl with short hair, it's a real pleasure. In France, for each height to cut, I had to pay 40€ ($54) in average.

On Monday morning, 2 apartments seen. The one which we had the good floorplan we'd seen on Saturday. Sam has fallen in love with this one, big enough for all our stuffs: big couch, 2 desks. It's a 1-bedroom with den, it is really great when you are only 2 (well with 2 cats) but you need a place to work.

After this, we saw the Avalon Towers residence. The apartment was not free so we couldn't see it, but they have a show room. This apartment was so nice and lovely. I loved it (with harwood floor !!). It was a 1-bedroom with a study, but our 2 desks don't fit in it. The woman of the leasing office looked like my grand-mother (when I was a little girl but I will always see her like that), I just wanted to take the apartment for her. She made us a tour a the residence. It was really classy, with a big fitness center in the top floor where we could see our view if we took the apartment. In the residence you have beautiful views : forest, city, mountain and the other tower. For our price, we had a view on the other building but far enough to have sunlight ... but our windows were just in front of the bedroom of a man, who slept naked, without sunblind or something. It was surprising and so we didn't sign for it.

On Tuesday morning, we took all the measures in the apartment with the den, to choose our furniture. So we signed the papers and paid the deposit. The deposit was a lot more expensive than what they told us, because of our credit score. We didn't know what that was, but now we know that when we arrived, we must ask to your bank to have a credit card to raise your credit score, or you can buy a house or a car. Our banker have told us that this card cost $300, and every penny count for us, and we didn't understand the power of this card.

We have got our id card of the state of Washington, so classy \o/


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