We had to turn down an apartment today. It was this gorgeous little duplex style place on Weddington in Sherman Oaks, a small residential street in a convenient location. The place is well kept, has it's own water heater, convenient laundry facilities, hardwood floors, an efficient air conditioner, shade trees but also good light, high ceilings, and even a freakin' front lawn. The problem was, it's just too small. I even went so far as to go back and measure the living room and bedroom, measure all of our furniture and draw up a floorplan. I managed to fit our stuff, but there wasn't any room left for storage. It has no closets to speak of, and minimal cupboard space. There isn't enough space on the counters for our appliances, and I couldn't figure out where the hell the cat boxes could go.
So we're still searching. I've been doing a lot of thinking about all the different factors that influence our decisions to choose a place. Here are the things I've thought of so far,
- size
- geographic location
- neighborhood
- nice/well kept
- accepts cats
- amenities (A/C, laundry, dishwasher)
- and last but not least, price
We each of course put different amounts of emphasis on different things. Cybil wants a big place, she's got a total gym and a large volume of books. I'm currently concerned about location and neighborhood, the commute to westlake is dragging me down, and I hate the heat so I'm looking for someplace with trees.
Are there any other general factors that you consider when looking for a place?
