wyntarvox

My housemate and I got approved for a place to rent in St Kilda yesterday! We pick the keys up March 25th. The waiting sucks a little bit, but I guess it means less overlapping rent that we have to pay. I'm excited to be living closer to the city and in a more cosmopolitan area! Fitzroy St (about a block away) is famous for its cafes etc., and we're quite close to the beach, the Palais Theatre and Luna Park.

Now the jobhunt begins... My contract with Telstra has been extended to June 30, but after that with a reorganisation going on, there's not much they can promise after that. There are a few good looking positions around at the moment, so I think I'll throw my hat in the ring for those and see what happens, even though it's a little bit early.

Yesterday I went and bought a fridge and washing machine for my new place. Luckily a friend of mine was working so we were able to wrangle a Good Deal. They'll be delivered to my new place the afternoon of my first moving day, so at least those are two fairly large items we won't have to worry about moving ourselves.

My aunt and cousin were visiting this weekend too. I took them and Mum for a drive to see my new place. I tried to ring the real estate agent to see if I could get the key to actually take them through, but none of the property management staff work on the weekends, so. We were able to peek in the windows, so they could see most of it. My aunt was really excited about it.

The last week or so I've done a bit of development stuff around Dreamwidth (as well as a bit of support). I'm such a Perl noob, but I'm slowly figuring things out. Mostly by trial and error! I banged around on things this weekend and something resembling a front end for FAQ category management fell out, which is cool. Fixed various other bugs and added small enhancements during the week too.

So yes, will be moving in to my new house in about two weeks. I sign the lease on the 22nd, so it means I'll have 6 days after getting the keys until I go away for a week, but oh well. There was another application in on it and I didn't want to risk asking them if I could sign the lease after I got back in case they were eager to just get someone in and paying rent ASAP.

I was surprised to hear back so early, actually. I only dropped the application off at lunch time and the lady told me I might hear back tomorrow, but most likely not until Wednesday. Then she calls at about 3:30pm to say I'd been approved and in particular that my previous real estate agent had given me a terrific reference. Not sure what happened to the other applicant.

I'm excited about my new place. I'll be able to walk to work, which is something I was really looking for in a place. As much as I love my parents (and I really do), I am really beginning to miss having my own space. I lived on my own for two years at the start of uni and loved it; really looking forward to getting back to that.

Of course I actually have to move all my stuff. And buy a fridge. And a washing machine. And set up electricity/phone/gas/Internet/etc. No doubt I'll complain about all this a whole lot, but once it's all done and I'm moved in, it will be awesome.

I had an appointment earlier this morning to go and see a unit I'm interested in renting. I got there and there was a couple and another lady also scheduled to go in. We all wait around for a while and the agent finally turns up almost 10 minutes late.

We all get ready to go in and the agent walks up to the front door. After trying the keys, she discovers none of them fit the front door. Okay, so she tries the garage key. No deal. Tries to go around the back, finds the fence too high to climb, so tries the other side. She finds a gate. She tries to use the keys at the backdoor to no success.

After the guy from the couple tries the garage key, the agent comes up with a bright idea. She walks up to the window and tries to break in. I understand that it's not really that big a deal, but breaking in to a place is not the best way to instill confidence in potential tenants. All I could think was "If this slight, middle-aged white woman who wouldn't know the ghetto if it bit her on the ass manages to break in to this house, I'm so out of here."

Luckily for her she was unsuccessful and I'm going back tomorrow at 9am.