Enough of fun and games, from Monday onwards I had a mission of finding myself a home. So overnight I was dropped down from enjoying the night life in Brisbane to the lowest stair of Maslow Hierarchy, the physiological need of breathing (check), food (check), sleep (almost there), sex (on hold), clothing (check) and shelter (ALERT!!!). During weekend I had spotted potential apartments from realestate.com.au and started calling for the agents to book inspections. I am looking for a unit or one bedroom apartment around CBD, Spring Hill, South Brisbane or West End. There are plenty of options around, but the good ones go quickly of course.
On Tuesday I had my very first inspection to a building called M on Mary Street. Building owned by Korean investors, the traffic in and out was mostly Asian students. The agent was 30 minutes late and after 30 minutes of waiting I got to see 3 quite terrible student flats. The first one had empty whiskey bottles all over the place, used condoms in the bedroom floor (cause and effect I believe) and all broken terrace glass. The second was clean and ok but with no balcony or air con (you need ac here). The third one was big and with balcony but rented with the most awful furniture ever. The location is very central, but does not make up the mess. OkThanksByeBye!!.
On Wednesday the same target: Went first to Boundary Street 82 in Spring Hill. Awesome view from the balcony but the apartment itself was quite poorly kept and the bathroom was super messy. Yuck yuck yuckuti yuck. Continued to Gregory terrace; a definite no-go. I am not 50 and in need of tacky two floor apartment with bright blue fitted carpet and pink cupboards. By the way, WTF is going on with the fitted carpets? Who is the freaking (British) no-brainer who thinks carpet is handy in almost tropical climate? For sure it makes the flat smell like mould and is very handy memory list of all the stuff the previous tenants have poured on the floor, but where’s the beef? (and not meaning the beef on the carpet near kitchen). To quote a certain cleansing lady @ a hostel in Vienna back in 2004 after somewhat liquid party of ours; WHAT IS THIS???? Late afternoon I had one more inspection on Edmondstone Street, a 2 bedroom apartment @ West End. The other people were commenting the place to be “so nice and novel, lovely really”…and all I could think was that if nothing else shows up, I could maybe stay here for couple of months but will most likely cry myself to sleep every night. Two thumbs up for the sake of cheerful spirit! I counted to ten, got some sushi for dinner and said out loud that this can only get better, so hold on girl.
On Wednesday night of insomnia I came to the conclusion that maybe my home hunting is following the same logic as my search for the guy who’s The One (seriously I think there’s more than one The Ones for everyone. It’s more of a question of right timing, chemistry and compatibility on topics around core values). It’s called the Ansku’s Exclusion Method™; from a large sample population I am one by one excluding candidates that are not suitable for the job. It’s very time consuming and slightly depressing I can tell, haha. But I am confident to know when the right is there, it feels right and pieces in the puzzle find their place. It must be same with home hunting? You cannot force it, but you need to be out there to check the market. If the candidate is unclean, badly structured and smells like mould, no matter how much you decorate and polish it won’t feel good (goes with men too). Timing is everything and the good ones go before you even notice (been there done that). Also, this is not one of those situations where “you get used to it” or “lower the bar” applies. Well, could be that in 3 weeks time the fitted carpet with the weird smell is perfectly fine and in 4 years any guy wanting to be the father for my babies goes too :/ For the both topics I sincerely hope that I find the right or the right finds me before things get dirty. And I just actually compared the process of home hunting with finding the love of my life. Gee!
Thursday was a new day, full of hope and I had four inspections in my calendar. Kaija promised to join me and be my cheerful home hunting companion and second opinion. We started from Tank Street in CBD, only 2 blocks away from Accenture office. Location got ten points before even getting to see the place. Or as Kaija said: “You have the police station, Brisbane Magistrates court and Accenture office as your neighbors, a perfect holy trinity isn’t it?” This flat was a furnished one, a tiny tiny tiny studio with a view (no balcony) to South Bank. For my happy surprise it was very clean, quite nicely furnished and the very first flat I actually could apply. There is also a bigger (1 bedroom) flat free in the same building and agreed inspection for that for Monday. The bigger one would be in 34th floor with balcony facing to the inner city, definitely worth checking out. I left the place with a big smile on my face and thanked Kaija for being my lucky charm.
Next stop was a 2 bedroom flat in West End (the other side of the river) @ Manning Street. The apartment was within in my price range so I thought 2 bedroom flats are also worth checking, also leaving more opportunity for the B&B business I am soon starting here ;) Anyways, for starters the landlord Valerie (a lovely lady in her 50s) warned me that the place looks super busy with all the moving boxes from the tenants that are now moving out and I promised not to freak out. The place was really really nice and big. It had an open kitchen, lounge, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a nice big balcony facing to the inner court with pool and barbeque area. According to local standard this place had the fitted carpet too, but it had so many other good things I didn’t care and it didn’t smell bad. Talking with Valerie I found out that her daughter has worked for Accenture several years (and worked very hard, long days and all nights according to her) and her current son in law is a manager @ Brisbane office. What a coincidence. She asked if I already know the manager I am working for and promised to keep fingers crossed that I get to work for Steve as he’s super nice. Before leaving the flat Valerie showed the big cupboard in the hall and said it’s perfect for hosting massive number of shoes and winked. That being said I decided to apply for the apartment and Valerie was very happy to hear it.
Our last stop was the one I was most looking forward to. A reasonably priced studio in Spring Hill with timber floor! Exclamation mark for the timber floor. Yay! Spring Hill is the San Francisco of Brisbane, a very hilly part of the city with a lot of soul. The flat was @ St Pauls Terrace, only 5-10 minute walk to city center. When I saw the place I knew this is it!! It has my name on it, it was screaming “Ansku take me”. Light poured in from the full wall windows, it had open kitchen with nice white new cupboards, big bedroom and renewed small bathroom. Balcony was facing towards the street so a minor point deduction for the noise, but the timber floor has it. I said I DO! I filled in the application form straight away. The property manager promised to call within 48 hours but most likely I will hear from her already tomorrow. I feel like waiting for a call after job interview. Pliiz let me get the place!
So my home hunting has been like Spring Hill, filled with ups and downs J The past four days have also been an excellent way to familiarize myself with the city and getting a good daily exercise by walking nearly 10 km a day and interval exercise on those days I have had inspections on the hilly streets of Spring Hill. Another positive note; to my huge surprise I have always managed to find all the places I’ve needed to…and meaning managed to find a place without a six block journey from A to B taking 90 minutes as has happened in my city of love, Barcelona. I think I can say it is official now, I have learned to read the map. My dearest living map and sense of direction Frederik hear me out, I CAN READ THE MAP!!
So tonight for the sake of applying for two nice apartments and learning to read the map I decided to celebrate a little and walked in to Nine West and bought awesome pair of purple suede high heels. So in case I get a no-go tomorrow, at least I am wearing gorgeous pair of shoes which make the news feel less bad. And if the apartment is meant for me, then the shoes is just the icing on the cake as I am all dressed up and off to celebrate to Firefly with my to-be colleagues and raise a toast for not being homeless anymore.
Thumbs up and fingers X:ed my friends!
//Ansku
PS: After I get this post published I'll grab the Ikea catalogue and start mind-furnishing my to-be home...be it the one in Spring Hill or West End or somewhere else. I will find The One :)
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