Decision?

I saw four apartments in Bloomington today. The first was a townhouse with a fireplace, large kitchen, half-bath downstairs, deck, unfinished basement, and two bedrooms and a full bath upstairs. The plus side is having the basement in which to sort my books and such, plus I'm ready for something "house-like," and it felt like a house. I also really liked the living room and large kitchen. The down side is that the deck has no privacy, and there is a washer and dryer hookup, but I probably won't be able to rent a set.

The second was a traditional two-bedroom, one-bath apartment with a fireplace, separate dining area (which is nice), and a washer and dryer. It felt large. It had a small balcony.

The third was similar to the second except it had two bathrooms, and the walls were painted a light moss green instead of white. It also had a small storage place on the balcony. The complex also had garages, but the rental manager wasn't sure if one was available.

The first three are in a very residential area, but there is shopping not too horribly far way. (No area will ever be as convenient as my apartment in Springfield was. 95 percent of anything that you'd need was five minutes away or less.)

The fourth place had a private entrance, which made it feel a little more like a home, otherwise was a traditional two-bedroom apartment with no fireplace--but it had two covered balconies, which I really liked. The balconies were larger than at the other places, but the apartment itself was the smallest of the four. The apartment complex is on the fringes of Bloomington, far away from everything--but it's almost on top of the highway that I would take to Lincoln.

Given that the "worst" apartment was nicer than the one that I had in Springfield, I was having a really tough time figuring out which one I liked the best. The townhouse would give me the room that I need to get organized and felt the most "home-like".

The other question was whether I wanted to live in Bloomington or Springfield. I wasn't terribly impressed with most of Bloomington, but I love the downtown area. It's full of funky, iconoclastic shops, coffeehouses, and restaurants. On a nice day (today it was gray and pouring rain), it would be a great place to go for a walk and poke around. Also, the local Unitarian church has a meditation group that meets on Sunday night, which would mean that I might actually get there regularly. After a long discussion with my mom, I decided what I liked the best about Springfield is the fact that it feels like home to me. I'm no fan of downtown Springfield. The townhouses and houses that I picked out in Springfield to look at are very nice though. It probably would be easier to get on with my life living farther away from my previous job (although there are people whom I'd like to see occasionally).

So, I'm going to sleep on it, but I probably will fill out an application tomorrow, drive back to Bloomington, and apply for the townhouse. (It took only two hours of lengthy discussion to come to that conclusion!) I also found a place that sells reconditioned washer and dryers, which would make delivery and setup simpler than buying a set from
Craigslist.

Alea iacta est

I applied for the townhouse in Bloomington. platofish asked if I had pictures. Here's a link to the description of the place, which might provide pictures if it ever stops loading. (I've had bad luck loading their site on my netbook, but it seems to work better on the desktop in the "Business Center".)

(Mainly for my mom: here are the links to the other places that I saw:
Two bedrooms, one bath
Two bedrooms, two baths
The out-of-the-way place with the covered balconies (There's a few pictures on the bottom. It looks nicer in person. The floor plan is "Phase 1, Two bedrooms/two baths".)
(I'll check the links on the desktop.))

The application for the townhouse jolted me a little because it said that "tenants of the opposite sex must be blood relatives or married". Welcome to the Bible Belt, I guess. On the other hand, most people in Bloomington have been very helpful and nice. When I was looking for a map of Bloomington at Meijer's, two employees were helping me find it. It was a gray, rainy, miserable day when I was looking for apartments, and when I left Meijer's, someone else walking out said, "I'm tired of April," which I thought was clever. The apartment manager at the last place I saw gave me detailed instructions on how to get downtown, where to park, and where to go. The waitress at the restaurant where I ate dinner was very attentive. So we'll see....

I was pleased with myself because I missed a turnoff when I went there today to drop off the application fee and give them a copy of my driver's license, but I figured out where to go nonetheless. (It was kind of a drag that I was able to fill out the application online, and I e-mailed my offer letter/pay stubs from my previous position, but I had to physically go there to pay the fee and have them make a copy of my license. There should be a way to do it all online. On the other hand, most of their prospective tenants aren't driving from Springfield--1 hour, 20 minutes one way.)

And now I wait. I have homework to do tonight, a few errands to run tomorrow, an online meeting with classmates about a group project tomorrow night, and a doctor's appointment on Monday morning. Otherwise, I want to work ahead on my final projects for both classes because I will lose time moving. I also would like to drop by my old place of employment on Monday afternoon to see people.