Happy end of December :)
This entry is actually owed to my mom... who, the last time I was sleep-disordering and up in the middle of the night emailing her, suggested that the next time I would be up in the middle of the night, I might as well update my blog. So here goes:
As you may have guessed, if you've been playing along, life's been pretty busy around here. I posted last on my birthday, I think... which had come right after all the holidays... which had come right after getting married... which had come right after getting engaged... you didn't think life would actually calm down for me, didja?
So after my birthday, it was time to dig full-force into apartment hunting. Shaul and I were very demanding... we wanted something in crowded Nachlaot (the name of our neighborhood) that would be high enough to have a view, with a balcony, and not be yucky, moldy, paint-peely, and gross like my old apartment was. We wanted an apartment with an actual bedroom with a door (as opposed to a studio or "two room apartment" wherein the two rooms don't actually have a door between them. We also, of course, wanted it within our budget.
Since we got married, we had been living in two apartments... one brand-new studio apartment with a great balcony and a great view where we actually lived, and one cave-apartment with all my stuff. I was doing all the cooking at the old apartment and schlepping it to the new apartment. Laundry needed to be done at the old apartment. In the penthouse studio (okay, so it was on the 3rd floor, but it was the top floor, and we had it all to ourselves = penthouse), we had only a small, dorm-sized fridge, so almost all the food had to stay in the old apartment as well. There wasn't enough room in the new apartment for me to keep an entire week's worth of clothing, so at least once a week I needed to schlep dirty clothes back and bring clean clothes over.
Needless to say, it didn't take long before I was sick and tired of that.
(For the record, the penthouse was approximately 10 feet x 10 feet, or 2.5 meters x 2.5 meters.)
I had thought it would be relatively simple to find an apartment here, as we had what I considered to be a reasonable budget, thank G-d, and I had been seeing apartments in our price range listed on the real estate sites. Unfortunately, once Shaul would go to visit them, we'd realize the apartments were dark, no natural light, or old and yucky.
We made a deal that by the 25th of November, when our month-to-month lease would be up, we would move out of the penthouse and into the old apartment, so as not to be paying double rent and not to have to schlep so much anymore. We made another deal that we would stay in the old apartment no longer than one month, even if it meant that we'd move into a place we did not love, as long as it was a place we did not hate.
I have to also say that my landlord of the last 3.5 years was simply awesome. For a year and a half, I've been on a month-to-month lease, because he didn't want my lease to be something that could, G-d forbid, prevent me from being "free" enough to get married. And once I told him I was engaged, I got nothing but blessings from him... along with the freedom to keep the apartment month-t0-month and just let him know at the beginning of each month whether or not I would be staying. What a beautiful person he is!
Around two and a half weeks before we were due to move, we went away for Shabbat. As we passed one tall building, Shaul looked up and said something like, "I wonder what the view is like from that apartment." My answer was that if it were the top apartment, it might be pretty great, but anything under that, the view would be blocked by the building next door and the giant tree.
Also around that time, we found a small apartment in a tall, modern building in the area. I didn't really like the apartment much, and Shaul didn't love it, but it seemed like a better alternative than moving into the old apartment. It was a furnished apartment, which was problematic in that we already had a bunch of furniture, including a washing machine and a full-sized refrigerator. Also, the furniture was like something out of a modern, tacky motel... the couch was hard as a rock, the two living room chairs were small and uncomfortable, there was a strange "bar table" along the wall, and the bed wasn't suitable for us.
We talked it out, and we decided that if the landlord would take out all the unsuitable furniture, we could make the apartment work. On a Thursday afternoon, around 2 in the afternoon, I called the agent and told him our conditions. He said he would call the landlord's representative and call me back.
Meanwhile, Shaul decided one last time to go by the office of another agent we'd been dealing with. Until then, the agent hadn't had anything promising -- either stuff was *way* above our budget, or it was crud. But Hashem sent Shaul there that afternoon to pop in, just to try one last time.
The agent told Shaul that he'd just gotten a listing that day for an apartment he thought would be perfect for us. It was in our price range and had lots of natural light. The owner of the apartment would be in Jerusalem Friday morning, and Shaul should bring his wife (me!) to see it, since the owner wasn't in Jerusalem every day. They made arrangements for us to see the apartment at 8:30 the next morning.
At that point, I had a feeling that we would actually love the apartment. After all, I had already called the other agent and told him we'd take it, and Hashem is great for putting me in situations where I have to scramble to do "the right thing" after figuring out what "the right thing" even IS. Shaul didn't feel confident at all -- it was more like a "why not?" kind of thing for him at that point, because he'd been so disappointed in the other apartments he'd seen. (He went and saw almost all the apartments while I was at work, and only if something *might* have been suitable, did I arrange to go see them.)
That Friday morning, we met up with the agent and walked to the apartment. We came across the main street, walked around the corner and up the stairs. As soon as we walked into the apartment, we knew we loved it. We had balconies on two sides of the apartment. The balconies have big glass doors and windows, which means sunlight comes in from the south and the west. The bedroom of the apartment was almost as big as our penthouse. It was a brand-new apartment -- no one had ever lived in it. It even had a small room for the washing machine. It was unfurnished, and the apartment looked absolutely gigantic compared to the penthouse.
And I don't remember at which point Shaul realized it, but at some point during our visit, he said to me, "isn't this the apartment I pointed at last week on our way out of town, and said I wondered what the view would be like from up there?" And YES, it was! Absolutely -- and even though it's not on the top floor -- it has a pretty awesome view :-)
We couldn't believe that the apartment was in our price range, but sure enough, it was.
The landlord originally said he wanted a relatively small deposit, and I was very surprised. In Israel, the law sides with the renter, so the landlords often ask for huge deposits and co-signers in order to protect their investments. A few days later, when the agent got back in touch with us, she said he'd changed his mind and wanted a bigger deposit -- it was a huge disappointment for us, as he was asking for something at that point that seemed not to be realistic for us.
Fortunately, thank G-d, we came to a different agreement -- one much more like the way apartments are rented out in the U.S., and much more within our means. The landlord was even awesome in letting us officially start our lease on the day we'd move out of the penthouse, but we had the key over a week ahead of time, so we could arrange for it to be cleaned (from all the construction dust) and start moving little things in.
We hired movers, and we moved everything from the penthouse on our last day there, to the old apartment. The next day, the movers came and moved 90% of our stuff to the new apartment. I hadn't had time to finish organizing the last 10%, so we left it there temporarily.
We then had almost two weeks to finish moving out of my old apartment... I, of course, took until the very last day to finish... but finished on time, nonetheless.
Another awesome part of this is that we had ordered a bedroom set with mattresses, but they were likely to take two to four weeks to be delivered. The awesome guy at the store told him he'd try to put a rush on it, since we were a bride and groom, but he couldn't guarantee... so he arranged that on the day we'd move in, they would deliver temporary beds for us (my old bed wasn't big enough for two of us). Then, a couple of weeks later, or so, we would get our bedroom furniture and real mattresses.
The morning we were moving, the furniture delivery company called and told us they would bring all of our real furniture, and just a temporary set of mattresses, on the day we were moving in. We would have our real beds -- just with temporary mattresses, with the plastic still on them. The guy said it was the evening before an Arab holiday, so it was possible that they would deliver everything, but only assemble the beds, and then they'd be back the next week to assemble the rest.
As it turned out, they stayed and assembled the whole set for us, so on our first night in our new apartment, we got to sleep on real beds, in our real bedroom.
(For the record, we both would have preferred Jewish labor, but in this case it wasn't our decision.)
And now we're in our new apartment. Our miracle apartment, which we both love very much.
I'm *still* unpacking and trying to figure out where things can go... we have my old bed set up as a couch, and my gigantic folding table is our regular eating table... but slowly, slowly, things are starting to come together.
And at the moment, I'm up in the middle of the night on one of my sleepless kicks, but since we're going to our adopted family in Arad for Shabbat, G-d willing, I don't have Shabbat preparation work to be doing at 4 in the morning, so I've been able to share with you a bit of our awesome apartment miracle.
***
In other news, I love being in Israel at this time of year, because it truly is the Jewish country, and other than facebook, I could easily forget that it's xmas and the new year coming up. I also love being married to my awesome husband. I love my job, and I love my friends. I love my life, thank G-d!
Happy end of December to you, and may 2010 be a year of experiences that we easily recognize as good!
As you may have guessed, if you've been playing along, life's been pretty busy around here. I posted last on my birthday, I think... which had come right after all the holidays... which had come right after getting married... which had come right after getting engaged... you didn't think life would actually calm down for me, didja?
So after my birthday, it was time to dig full-force into apartment hunting. Shaul and I were very demanding... we wanted something in crowded Nachlaot (the name of our neighborhood) that would be high enough to have a view, with a balcony, and not be yucky, moldy, paint-peely, and gross like my old apartment was. We wanted an apartment with an actual bedroom with a door (as opposed to a studio or "two room apartment" wherein the two rooms don't actually have a door between them. We also, of course, wanted it within our budget.
Since we got married, we had been living in two apartments... one brand-new studio apartment with a great balcony and a great view where we actually lived, and one cave-apartment with all my stuff. I was doing all the cooking at the old apartment and schlepping it to the new apartment. Laundry needed to be done at the old apartment. In the penthouse studio (okay, so it was on the 3rd floor, but it was the top floor, and we had it all to ourselves = penthouse), we had only a small, dorm-sized fridge, so almost all the food had to stay in the old apartment as well. There wasn't enough room in the new apartment for me to keep an entire week's worth of clothing, so at least once a week I needed to schlep dirty clothes back and bring clean clothes over.
Needless to say, it didn't take long before I was sick and tired of that.
(For the record, the penthouse was approximately 10 feet x 10 feet, or 2.5 meters x 2.5 meters.)
I had thought it would be relatively simple to find an apartment here, as we had what I considered to be a reasonable budget, thank G-d, and I had been seeing apartments in our price range listed on the real estate sites. Unfortunately, once Shaul would go to visit them, we'd realize the apartments were dark, no natural light, or old and yucky.
We made a deal that by the 25th of November, when our month-to-month lease would be up, we would move out of the penthouse and into the old apartment, so as not to be paying double rent and not to have to schlep so much anymore. We made another deal that we would stay in the old apartment no longer than one month, even if it meant that we'd move into a place we did not love, as long as it was a place we did not hate.
I have to also say that my landlord of the last 3.5 years was simply awesome. For a year and a half, I've been on a month-to-month lease, because he didn't want my lease to be something that could, G-d forbid, prevent me from being "free" enough to get married. And once I told him I was engaged, I got nothing but blessings from him... along with the freedom to keep the apartment month-t0-month and just let him know at the beginning of each month whether or not I would be staying. What a beautiful person he is!
Around two and a half weeks before we were due to move, we went away for Shabbat. As we passed one tall building, Shaul looked up and said something like, "I wonder what the view is like from that apartment." My answer was that if it were the top apartment, it might be pretty great, but anything under that, the view would be blocked by the building next door and the giant tree.
Also around that time, we found a small apartment in a tall, modern building in the area. I didn't really like the apartment much, and Shaul didn't love it, but it seemed like a better alternative than moving into the old apartment. It was a furnished apartment, which was problematic in that we already had a bunch of furniture, including a washing machine and a full-sized refrigerator. Also, the furniture was like something out of a modern, tacky motel... the couch was hard as a rock, the two living room chairs were small and uncomfortable, there was a strange "bar table" along the wall, and the bed wasn't suitable for us.
We talked it out, and we decided that if the landlord would take out all the unsuitable furniture, we could make the apartment work. On a Thursday afternoon, around 2 in the afternoon, I called the agent and told him our conditions. He said he would call the landlord's representative and call me back.
Meanwhile, Shaul decided one last time to go by the office of another agent we'd been dealing with. Until then, the agent hadn't had anything promising -- either stuff was *way* above our budget, or it was crud. But Hashem sent Shaul there that afternoon to pop in, just to try one last time.
The agent told Shaul that he'd just gotten a listing that day for an apartment he thought would be perfect for us. It was in our price range and had lots of natural light. The owner of the apartment would be in Jerusalem Friday morning, and Shaul should bring his wife (me!) to see it, since the owner wasn't in Jerusalem every day. They made arrangements for us to see the apartment at 8:30 the next morning.
At that point, I had a feeling that we would actually love the apartment. After all, I had already called the other agent and told him we'd take it, and Hashem is great for putting me in situations where I have to scramble to do "the right thing" after figuring out what "the right thing" even IS. Shaul didn't feel confident at all -- it was more like a "why not?" kind of thing for him at that point, because he'd been so disappointed in the other apartments he'd seen. (He went and saw almost all the apartments while I was at work, and only if something *might* have been suitable, did I arrange to go see them.)
That Friday morning, we met up with the agent and walked to the apartment. We came across the main street, walked around the corner and up the stairs. As soon as we walked into the apartment, we knew we loved it. We had balconies on two sides of the apartment. The balconies have big glass doors and windows, which means sunlight comes in from the south and the west. The bedroom of the apartment was almost as big as our penthouse. It was a brand-new apartment -- no one had ever lived in it. It even had a small room for the washing machine. It was unfurnished, and the apartment looked absolutely gigantic compared to the penthouse.
And I don't remember at which point Shaul realized it, but at some point during our visit, he said to me, "isn't this the apartment I pointed at last week on our way out of town, and said I wondered what the view would be like from up there?" And YES, it was! Absolutely -- and even though it's not on the top floor -- it has a pretty awesome view :-)
We couldn't believe that the apartment was in our price range, but sure enough, it was.
The landlord originally said he wanted a relatively small deposit, and I was very surprised. In Israel, the law sides with the renter, so the landlords often ask for huge deposits and co-signers in order to protect their investments. A few days later, when the agent got back in touch with us, she said he'd changed his mind and wanted a bigger deposit -- it was a huge disappointment for us, as he was asking for something at that point that seemed not to be realistic for us.
Fortunately, thank G-d, we came to a different agreement -- one much more like the way apartments are rented out in the U.S., and much more within our means. The landlord was even awesome in letting us officially start our lease on the day we'd move out of the penthouse, but we had the key over a week ahead of time, so we could arrange for it to be cleaned (from all the construction dust) and start moving little things in.
We hired movers, and we moved everything from the penthouse on our last day there, to the old apartment. The next day, the movers came and moved 90% of our stuff to the new apartment. I hadn't had time to finish organizing the last 10%, so we left it there temporarily.
We then had almost two weeks to finish moving out of my old apartment... I, of course, took until the very last day to finish... but finished on time, nonetheless.
Another awesome part of this is that we had ordered a bedroom set with mattresses, but they were likely to take two to four weeks to be delivered. The awesome guy at the store told him he'd try to put a rush on it, since we were a bride and groom, but he couldn't guarantee... so he arranged that on the day we'd move in, they would deliver temporary beds for us (my old bed wasn't big enough for two of us). Then, a couple of weeks later, or so, we would get our bedroom furniture and real mattresses.
The morning we were moving, the furniture delivery company called and told us they would bring all of our real furniture, and just a temporary set of mattresses, on the day we were moving in. We would have our real beds -- just with temporary mattresses, with the plastic still on them. The guy said it was the evening before an Arab holiday, so it was possible that they would deliver everything, but only assemble the beds, and then they'd be back the next week to assemble the rest.
As it turned out, they stayed and assembled the whole set for us, so on our first night in our new apartment, we got to sleep on real beds, in our real bedroom.
(For the record, we both would have preferred Jewish labor, but in this case it wasn't our decision.)
And now we're in our new apartment. Our miracle apartment, which we both love very much.
I'm *still* unpacking and trying to figure out where things can go... we have my old bed set up as a couch, and my gigantic folding table is our regular eating table... but slowly, slowly, things are starting to come together.
And at the moment, I'm up in the middle of the night on one of my sleepless kicks, but since we're going to our adopted family in Arad for Shabbat, G-d willing, I don't have Shabbat preparation work to be doing at 4 in the morning, so I've been able to share with you a bit of our awesome apartment miracle.
***
In other news, I love being in Israel at this time of year, because it truly is the Jewish country, and other than facebook, I could easily forget that it's xmas and the new year coming up. I also love being married to my awesome husband. I love my job, and I love my friends. I love my life, thank G-d!
Happy end of December to you, and may 2010 be a year of experiences that we easily recognize as good!
posted by M at 03:41
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