The Short Story:

We hated the apartment we were going to move into, so we didn’t. We found a new apartment to our liking, though it is not 2 bedrooms, it is only one, is fairly large and we LOVE it there already.

The Long Story:

We left thursday August 16th from Santa Maria at 10:30am and arrived in Vista at our new Apartment Complex (Mill Creek Apts) at 3:15. We told them we would be there between 3pm and 4pm, guess what time the clock on the window of the office said they’d return . . . that’s right 4pm. She apparently took her lunch at 3pm – lovely, great start.

She arrives, Angela (we had the first time there met with Emily, we already like Emily better) sorry about the wait bla bla bla, printing the, lease while its printing lets go do our walk through. Around the building, down the sidewalk and up the stairs parallel to view of dead land entered unit 160 and were both stumped.

The floors were stained, the lanloleum (sp?. . .the kitchen floor) was ripped and she wrote it down, then tried to rip it off, but tore it more then asked Jeff if he had a knife on him…………..um – you don’t want to replace the floor for us? The patio was stained in black and brown as if someone used it for a dumpster for years……………..um you don’t want to paint that? or CLEAN IT??. The sliding closet doors that hide where the washer and dryer would go (if we had one, and we could’ve rented one, and they also have laundry on site) were broken, painted over poorly and pieces were missing so it squeeked near the top and ratted (sp?) the floor out at the bottom………………..um you don’t want to fix that before you try to move someone in??? The paint looked dirty on the walls, and as we looked closer it looked like dust and maybe even mold, or grease, or just plain mud was on the walls and it was painted over leaving a terrible puke colored tint………um didn’t you clean the walls before painting them? – I guess they don’t do that here. The blinds were warped and bended and some were missing………….are you kidding me with that. And of course, the floor plan was different. The way the fire place was set up made the living room much smaller and awkward – where are we supposed to put the furniture without blocking the door or fire place? – – – – – We’d like to look at the demo room again. So we did, THIS was the floor plan we agreed to, THIS was the cleanliness we agreed to, THIS was the hallway and paint job we agreed to, THIS had the cupboards inside the bathroom not in the hallway, making a smaller space to get through said hallway. Her answer to everything was either It must not have been available, or it doesn’t come with that, some are different. We went back upstairs to view the apartment we hated, and asked her to give us somet time to talk amongst ourselves (our movers were there, Eric L’Heureux [best man at our wedding] and Jeff’s brother Daniel) At the same time we looked at eachother and said “I don’t want to live here” There was no A/C either, that’s a lie – there was a wall unit on the floor – by the fire place. . . No light structures in the bedrooms, nor ceiling fans. Have I mentioned that Vista is about 20 degrees HOTTER at all times, and muggy as well than the Central Coast – I’d like some air circulation please. Thanks have a great day. We decided to not live there, went down stairs told Angela everything that displeased us (well *I* did, I like to do that sort of thing) and that we were going to leave my car and our moving truck there while we searched for another apartment. Did they really charge people $1,110 a month for this? Yes, and my response was “then they don’t know any better, but we do.” The four of us got into L’Heureux’s car and were off.

Our first stop was the next best place (Early in July when we decided to apply at Mill Creek, we almost decided to apply at Soft Wind Point but they were a bit more expensive). It was only a few miles away we got there, no two bedrooms available. His name was Geoffrey and he was 6’7″ and funny, they had air conditioning in their building so we stayed a bit to see what else we could think of. After telling him the brief run down he asked if we had tried other places, and started naming them off – but no, we hadn’t he was about to give us some places to go to when his co-working yelled out a number to him and Geoffrey stood up, grabbed keys and said lets go take a look at it. Baffled, we stood and all 4 of us went to take a look. Didn’t know if it was going to be a one bedroom or two bedroom, no idea. Two bedroom, two bathroom. New carpet, new paint, new everything in the kitchen, new ceiling fans. Looked VERY clean, we liked it. $1,230 . Oops, our budget is no more than $1,175. It may seem only a few dollars more but when you are also paying your own water, trash, gas and electric, gas to SDSU 3 times a week, him going to work, me going to work and maybe to auditions…..we need to stick to our budget. He said he’d give us a few minutes to think about it and left. We like, this we knew. We couldn’t afford it – so lets see if we can look at a one bedroom. As long as its fairly large, it will work. …..Do you have any one bedrooms available, not til September 15, WELL that won’t work, we only have the truck til saturday. =) How bout a 2bed/1 bath, not till August 28th. Again – woops! Then the Geoffrey guy started calling all these different apartment complexes to see if they had anything. It was now after 5pm, and most rental offices are closed by now. He sent us to Shadowridge Heights.

We arrived at 5:25, Hello Annabella my name is Aiyani and this is my husband Jeff. We tell her the story on how we got there and decide to look at both a 1bed/1bath, and a 2bed/2bath. We actually fell in love with the 1bed/1bath. Big living room with a patio and storage place. HUGE kitchen for an apt, never seen anything like it in an apartment NEVER. Pretty big, and I may venture to say Gigantic bedroom, in comparison to other one bedroom apts we had seen in our lives. Windows and blinds were clean and all in tact. 2 windows in the bedroom, one in the bathroom (yay!) a ceiling fan in the dining room and ceiling fan in the bedroom. New carpet, and you can smell the fresh paint (not too terribly strong, you can just tell though) Then we looked at the 2 bedroom, and actually liked the one bedroom better having not listened to any of the prices yet. MOVE IN SPECIAL. Deposit is only $199 instead of $500. $30 credit check (total for both, not each) And prorate to move in mid august is $710. We also would get $300 off first months rent (first FULL month, so in september) AND if we sign a six month lease they will knock off $100 per month for the length of the lease. We filled out our applications, and she needed payment stubs and proof of student loan approval which we had. . . in the moving truck. . . at Mill Creek. We will bring them tomorrow! We shake hands we leave, we go to dinner with Daniel and L’Heureux goes home to Allison, his wife.

Pat & Oscars pizza, you want and need the breadsticks for sure and now of course – where do we sleep tonight? L’Heureux had called his friend James’ parents because they have a guest bedroom and asked if we could stay there. They’d never met me but they knew Jeff from before so it was okay. We got there, took our eyes out (our contacts) and went sleep.

8:30am Friday August 17th. We get up, and head over to Shadowridge Heights with our payment stubs and student loan approval sheets and walk in. Good morning Annabella. She takes copies of our papers, sits down and says “Ok, what time do you want to move in”. Holding breath for a minute. . .”is that it? – I’ll take it!” We laughed and said, what time would be best? She said 11:30am because she needs to get the lease prepared and take care of a few things. We stand up, we shake hands we leave. We go to breakfast at IHOP, we go to Target to get a couple necessities, we go to the bank. Hello bank person we need to put this money for this apartment back in our account, we didn’t end up moving there, and then we need to get another money order. Fine, fun dandy. 11:40 we show up and sign papers, do a walk through – I take before pictures at 12:50pm and the unloading of the truck began at 12:55pm.

And the unloading lasted until 4:45

16 Foot moving truck. L’Heureux was able to help and so was Allison, brother Daniel had to work. But it all got upstairs. There isn’t anyroom for a couch, so its good that we didnt’ move with one – Jeff’s parents graciously offered to buy us one when we were ready. There is room to walk in the door and turn right to go out to the patio, or left and around to go the bathroom or bedroom. The unpacking was for another time.

We went to Target one more time for a shower curtain liner, some scissors, a gallon of milk and a half gallon of ice cream (necessities necessities. . . ) Went home, and showered. Sat outside at our bistro table with our water and powerade, sporting tank tops and shorts and talked about the last two days.

The night ended in going to Linens N Things to pick out dishes (the ones we got were discontinued and we couldn’t complete the set) and I lined a couple cupboards. We slept on the mattress without the frame and watched the last episode of LOST Season 2 before falling asleep.

We have arrived in Vista, Safely. =) Keep in Touch all