I do… that’s the thing.
We have a 17×25 foot living room and a full sized kitchen with a pantry, chef’s island, and all the conveniences. (I spent one year in an apartment without a garbage disposal and thank you, no I’d rather not do that again.) Two full bathrooms, three bedrooms. Linen closet and a “storage” closet where we keep the litter boxes. Hardwood floors. We may not have the greatest neighbors, but I’ve had worse.
So when I talked to the apartment manager last month and she told me the rent was going up to $795 a month this year and probably $860 a month next year, I was torn.
I don’t want to leave. I like this place. And we have a LOT of heavy furniture and a lot less bulky friends than we used to.
On the other hand, I don’t think paying as much in rent as we could be making in a mortgage is exactly a wise idea either….
I made a snippy phone call to the site manager about it and wrote a snippy letter to Great Atlantic, and Kevin and I decided we really couldn’t afford to move right now (this was before we discovered we were pregnant) but that we would probably go next year.
Monday, I called in and said we were coming in to renew our lease on Tuesday or Wednesday and would they please have it prepped for us. Guy: “Uh-huh, sure, no problem.” Wednesday… Girl “I didn’t know anything about it, and Teresa’s not here. She’s the one who knows all the renew rates…” Me: “I fail to see why Teresa or you couldn’t have attended to it yesterday or Monday when I called.” Girl: “Well, Teresa’s not here right now.” Me: “That doesn’t really answer the question, does it? I’ll just assume you’re an idiot. Do you think we could have it ready tomorrow or is that asking too much?” Girl: “Um, sure.”
Not being extremely convinced, we called ahead of time to make sure it was ready before we went over. It was. Thank god. Sheesh, four days to fill in what amounts to six blanks on a piece of paper… would that my life were that hectic…. (note: sarcasm)
Anyway, we went in, and signed. Nice thing: Rent is only $760. That’s $15 a month more than last year, which is, in my opinion, a reasonable increase….
So… I still like my apartment.