Life is so full lately – I love my job, friends, dogs, gym, hilarious dates, and my brand new Aldo shoes. I think this is the slightly-bootleg yuppie life that I envisioned for myself when I first moved to Minneapolis.
Dates, friends, drag shows, quality time with the dogs, work, snow and unseasonably warm weather.
What a lovely two weeks. Fall was extended this year so Minneapolis still has temperatures in the 50’s and 60’s. The colors are amazing and the morning dog walks have become sprawling two-hour events because it is so nice outside.
With no school year to mark the time for me anymore, I guess summer ends with the Minnesota State Fair. There’s probably a meteorological date or something, but lamb on a stick is a better way to mark the seasons.
I’m ending summer with a new view of the skyline, but I’m still in Minneapolis.
We signed the lease to our new place today. So of course the dogs and I spent most of our time at Lake of the Isles.
It’s a full circle moment. Remember how aggravating the housing search was when I first moved to Minnesota? Well, the post-law school housing search with dogs was even worse, and everyone’s over it.
We get a call from the Lithuanian landlady this morning. Tader’s not a felon and our application is approved. She also says that we can move in anytime in August and she won’t charge us extra rent. Vӧt!
My next challenge is finding a renter for my current apartment so I don’t have to pay double-rent for September. I showed my apartment to several interested couples last week, but no one put down a deposit yet.
At $1,460, the Stone Arch unit is a little spendy, but the next cheapest place in the building is at $1,700 so we to check it out.
The management office at the building didn’t get back to Tader all week, so the plan is to show up and see if we can look at the apartment. The office manager calls as we pull into the parking lot – they leased the $1,460 and the $1,700 unit this morning. Sorry.
Our fabulous gay landlord called us this morning and said that he rented the unit to another couple. We were suddenly screwed again. Tader was inconsolable.
Things turned around in the afternoon. I showed my apartment to two couples who drooled at the thought of a two-bedroom dog-friendly unit for $780. I told them that the rent could get down to $590, which would be a little over $300 per person with the utilities.
We had three showings today. Before the first showing I decided to call some random listings in the neighborhood. I was on the phone with one of the leads when Tader picked me up to drive to our first showing. When we pulled up to the building I realized that I just spent 20 minutes talking to the guy that Tader already vetted.
Me: “Um, sorry, Nevermind about that 7:30 showing. Apparently the boyfriend already talked to you and we are here for a 5pm showing!”
Landlord: “Oh, you’re Tader’s boyfriend?”
Me: “Yep! And we are here!”
Of course the landlord was this cute gay guy and the apartment had a lot of potential. One of the current tenants may be a hoarder, but I liked the apartment and the landlord also owns a Rottweiler! Win!
The apartment hunt began in earnest today with our first showing. The apartment was in Uptown and a very short girl in very high heels was our host. The building was about as old as mine (1920’s) and I was unamused by the pricing. The landlord wanted about $1,800 just for the dogs with $600 in deposits and almost $100 in pet rent.
This weekend’s apartment hunt turned ugly today when dozens of building managers and real estate agents called us back. The theme? The Rottweiler is a deal breaker.
We spent the weekend apartment hunting in St. Paul. We even became regulars at Salut Bar Americain, which is a super cute place by Grand.
MIA the past few weeks? Me? What?
The last two weeks were normal on one level. I was busy living the Minneapolis yuppie life: work, long dog walks at the lakes, clubs, drag shows, cooking disasters, restaurants, cafes, museums, crazy hobos…
