Jason and I have been keeping a close eye on Craiglist and a cool website called padmapper.com, hoping that the perfect apartment comes available in Encinitas. The problem we face is, although we want to stay in Encinitas, there is no such thing as an affordable 4-bedroom rental here. So we have to weigh the pros and cons of moving farther north to get a bigger place that's not as expensive, but have a longer commute (and in San Diego a longer commute can be hell if it requires traveling on any of our freeways at rush hour) OR staying in Encinitas but compromising on space in order to keep our rent close to where it is now.
We saw a promising 4-bedroom listing just a couple miles down the road from our current condo, and there happened to be a showing yesterday morning. I was optimistic because there are a lot of really nice developments in the area where this apartment is located, and our daycare would still be on the way to and from my office.
The apartment turned out to have a ton of space--not just four bedrooms, but a couple of extra small rooms that could serve as an office or perhaps a kid's playroom, plus a gigantic master suite with a closet as big as our current bathroom and a large master bathroom with a twin sinks and a huge claw-foot tub. BUT... everything about the interior was shockingly cheap, from the cabinetry to the closet doors to the windows. The oven was so tiny I'm not sure it would even hold a 9x13" pan, and we'd have to provide our own refrigerator, washer and dryer. The "back yard" was a strip of dirt enclosed by a wood fence that was leaning precariously, and the view out of every window was the tops of the many, many cars that crowded the cul-de-sac where the apartment was located.
Probably the biggest turn-off was the vibe I got from the neighborhood itself. Immediately next door there was a man and woman watching loud TV in their garage, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes at 10:45 in the morning. At one point the woman got up to retrieve something from her car, and she gave me the stink-eye while rummaging in her trunk--wearing something that looked like a satin nightgown with a cigarette dangling out of her lips. Quality.
Later in the day, I noticed there was an open house at a recently renovated home across the street from where we live. I've had my eye on it because it went up for sale and was bought on the cheap in March, and since then we could tell that the owners were probably in the midst of flipping it so they could sell it for a much higher asking price than they bought it for. Sure enough, a For Sale sign went up in the yard a couple weeks ago, and I've been hoping for an open house so I could be nosy :-)
I popped over and was very impressed with all the renovations. They completely re-landscaped the yard, restuccoed and repainted the exterior, and the inside was full of really great upgrades - bamboo flooring, granite countertops, gorgeous appliances and fixtures, recessed lighting, travertine tiling in the bathrooms, etc. The fenced-in backyard was much bigger than I would have guessed, also beautifully landscaped, and there were french doors leading from the master suite to the backyard.
But, despite the fact that it's a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home with an attached two-car garage, it's a very SMALL home; 1,200 square feet at a price tag of $529,000.
Super cute, but not for that price!
We've sent out a couple emails to try to set up showings at a couple more apartments during the coming week - fingers crossed!
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