After driving in what seemed like too many circles in a three-block radius, we parked in front of a tiny row of one-story apartments and walked inside. The 450 square feet “one bedroom” apartment led you into a tiny room straight from the doorway, with another even smaller room in the back. The walls, you could tell, were extremely thin, as neighbors a few apartments over playing music were providing atmospheric entertainment. We looked around for a second then got back in our car and left.
The tiny Mountain View apartment was listed for $1175 a month.
I’m rather spoiled but I care about having a living environment that makes me feel good. This is an issue of both space and natural light, as the rest I can forgive. It seems though both space and light come at a vast premium around these parts.
Today, we went to see an apartment in the SF Peninsula area. 750 square feet. Two bedrooms. It appeared most of the square footage was used on closet space, for better or worse. The neighborhood was awful. Noisy. By a major road. Street parking would be impossible. The apartment was renting for $1750. We’re really trying to stick to under $1600 total. My rent will go up just $150 a month – which is sad but doable without a major intrusion on my finances – while his will go from $0 to whatever we end up paying. We both like the $1600 limit conceptually.
Only I’m not sure we’ll find a place for under $1600 that isn’t awful. It appears not-awful starts out at about $1800 a month. Nice goes for $2300-$2600. Really nice goes for $2600+. Again, this is for a one bedroom. Still around 700-900 square feet.
I’m not completely panicking yet. We have a bit of time. He is planning to move in March 1, while I’ll come along April 1. That gives me 30 days to move out and move in without the crazy rush of jumping from one place to the other in a day. But we still have to find a place we like for March 1. I hope to get lucky in February.
This all is stressful to because of my plans to not spend a lot of additional money the first few months of the year. My paycheck after 401k contributions on Jan 15 was $0. I plan to continue 90% investments until it is maxed out. That should take about two months. By March, I should be getting paid liquid funds again. All is up in the air about my job situation as well, so it’s just a lot of change all at once. I had a moment of complete panic today but I got over it after almost falling down.
