Our apartment search began one week after we arrived. Before I understood what European apartments were really like, I was excited to return to apartment living, or at least looking forward to some aspects of it. I had in my head images of large apartments with new kitchens and granite counter tops and big, fancy community pools. Silly me... The buildings in this town were built hundreds of years ago. Some of them look like they are lucky to even have electricity and running water. So after an abrupt adjustment of my apartment standards, we set out on a full days journey around town with our real estate agent (provided by Schlumberger) to view apartments. What a disappointment. Everything either looked like a run-down cheap motel or was located "on the wrong side of the tracks." We were prepared to make some sacrifices in what we were looking for, but these were just too much.
We continued searching over the next few weeks, every day I checked the listings online. We saw a couple other places, but nothing that made us think, "yes, we want to live here for the next three years." The problem is simply that there is no availability in this city. Within a month, we were feeling very discouraged. There were only about three new listings each week in all three neighborhoods I was monitoring, so the chances of one being a good fit for us was extremely low. Add to that the fact that our temporary apartment is not comfortable (we only put up with it because no one has complained about our barking dogs) and you can see why it was easy for us to feel down about the apartment search.
But one month ago a listing showed up online that caught my attention. It was smaller than we had hoped, and while the location is fantastic and very desirable, it was not actually our first choice. However, as I had suspected from the online ad, the positives of the apartment outweighed the negatives. It is small, not very nice, and does not have air conditioning (visitors, you have been warned). But it is right next to the tram line, has an elevator (very rare), is well under our budget, and has two balconies, which will be fantastic during the warmer months. We had a number of reservations, but we decided to apply for it anyway, since there are so few apartments available in this town, and it was easily the best option we had seen yet. Finally, after an entire month of waiting, we got our answer! On average, people move into an apartment about two weeks after the application is submitted. Somehow, for reasons we cannot fathom, it will be five weeks for us by the time we finally get the keys. Three extra weeks is a big deal when you are stuck in a tiny, smelly hotel room! But we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we can't wait for next Monday to hurry up and get here!
Our work is just beginning though. We are immediately faced with a tough, but overall fun, challenge: the kitchen. It is very common here to find apartments with "unequipped" kitchens. Since each unit is individually owned, you never know what you are going to get! Things we take for granted in America as coming with the apartment are absent; if you want it, you buy it and install it yourself. As a prime example, our new kitchen:
Here are a few other pictures of the apartment. As you can see, my decorating skills are about to be put to the test.
Living / dining area:
Good sized balcony:
The smaller of the two bedrooms. Our agent tried to convince me that it was a "big" bedroom. I wanted to tell her that in Texas, people have closets as big as this room.
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