The Hunt for Red September

Here it is folks, yes I am finally blogging again. Believe me, it was not for lack of pictures. This backwards girl had to learn how to shrink before I could post these exciting entries.

We learned all too quickly that September 1st is the big leasing season, so we were at a huge disadvantage from the start, being that we needed a July 1st lease.

This was the first apartment we saw in Boston in a little neighborhood they call Roxbury. It overlooked a beautiful park that was a fort during the revolutionary war and sits on one of the highest points in all of Boston, but, let's just say we weren't interested in a gorgeous view of the projects. Also, this apartment was in such disrepair, we would have been forced to turn into gypsies....

This apartment was in East Boston in a neighborhood called Jeffries Point. Jeffries Point could easily be confused with the west side of South Bend only more desolate. The only nice thing about this place was it's stunning park on the river that overlooked the downtown skyline, but....NO DOGS ALLOWED.

Melba's had my heart almost the whole weekend. Her husband studied cello at my school and it was very spacious with a balcony!! But just look at the front of this place. And it was on the fourth floor, no elevator, very little closet space and not available until Sept. 1st...NEXT!!

This broker had a lot of nervous ticks and drove me crazy. The unit was possibly in the nicest condition, with exposed brick and wood floors, but so small, I would have hypervenilated. I really liked the neighborhood, but this was pushing our limited budget.

And speaking of small, this place was a closet. I had to fight not to laugh at the realtor. It reminded me a lot of Hyde Park with the red brick, 8 story apartment building but I was really hoping for a different look all together just for the fun of it, not to mention this was the furthest one from my school.

This was actually one of the first places we saw very briefly, when we met up with the quirky broker. He was showing another girl this unit and had us tag along before we officially met him and discussed our requirements. We got such a quick look at it that our imaginations went wild with the possibility of being in a brownstone and extremely close to my school. When we asked if we could go back and look at it for ourselves and get a closer look, it was not great and confirmed to me that the next place was the best we were going to do for our whirlwind weekend...

...and 42 Long Ave turned out to be more than so-so. Since it was also not available until Sept. 1, we were able to rent the upstairs unit for the summer. We have an incredible park just across the street, a deck balcony for the summer (on the left there) and a front porch and back yard starting Sept. 1st! The area is all young people, mostly in college and we are very nearby my train line to the school as well as fun shops and restaurants. I will post pictures of the inside soon, but the downstairs unit is much better!