Apartment hunting

While Richard was at work last week, ensuring those underpaid rock stars receive their royalties, I viewed several apartments in the Santa Monica area.

Apartments, condos, duplex, triplex, lofts...there are various names for 'flats' here, but one thing they all have in common is the abundance of storage space. No matter how small an apartment, you're guaranteed a built in closet or walk in wardrobe and still have room for a huge bed and en-suite. I guess they were built with that in mind, and there is the overall SPACE to do it here, but it's still great.

Most of the 2 bedroom apartments also come with 2 bathrooms, which is a bonus. Of the 4 I viewed this week, two stand out. They're both on the upper floor, so no more living in between people. They're in quiet areas and are part of no more than 6 units. They both have a washer and dryer in the apartment too, which I like as it means no more communal laundry rooms. Also more importantly they have a garage or car port and are within 30 mins walk to work for Richard.

The first (left) was very bright, with the added bonus that the rent includes all utilities. And it features our own guava and lemon trees outside!

The second was on a palm tree-lined street and equally lovely; bright, huge rooms, masses of storage but best of all it's own private front door entry.

Not sure if either of these will still be available when we're ready to move in the first few weeks of August, but fingers crossed. In any case it's been a valuable experience, if only to learn we could have access to free lemons.