Housing

As promised, I am trying to post more often and bring everyone up-to-date on what's going on here in Charlotte for me. This post will focus on living arrangements. During the first week of July I moved into my apartment in the South Park area of Charlotte. I'm renting a townhouse style apartment with 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The layout is nice with a large dining/living room combination which gives a nice feeling of space. It even has a comfortable and private although small deck off the living room. At 1,458 square feet, there is plenty of space and at times over the past few months I've even wondered if it's too much space! The eat-in kitchen is a nice size with a large picture/bay window in the front giving it lots of light. This particular unit has not been updated and was built about 25 years ago, so the appliances are not up-to-date but work fine. You can sort of tell the age by the lack of a built in microwave - something I didn't even realize until I bought some frozen food to eat on unpacking day and found out I couldn't cook it when I got home! Luckily for me, my sister had an extra microwave which she gave to me when I was for my visit in December.

Upstairs are two bedrooms that are very close in size and each has a large closet that runs just about the entire length of each room. There is another large clothes closet in the hallway and a linen closet as well. What is really nice about the layout is that the bathrooms form a barrier between the bedrooms, so you really can't hear anything between the rooms. Although I'm living here alone, I'm sure that is a nice feature for roommates or families. Although I have used all the closets for some sort of storage, I don't even have enough clothes to fill all the closets!! Believe it or not. Currently I'm living in the "guest room" because my plan when my place in NJ sold was to buy a new bed for the master bedroom. I'm still sleeping on a full size bed that I bought at Bamberger's when I worked for them during college ... so you know how old it really is. The base rent for this unit is $925 a month and extended basic cable is only $20 more a month. Being only 3 miles away from work makes it all worth it! The place is built well, in all the time I've been here, only once have I heard noise from one of the apartments on either side of me. Back at my place in NJ, I could hear the neighbors sneeze! It is very quiet here.

Speaking of the quiet feel, the complex is comprised of about 83 acres and feels very much like a small town rather than an apartment complex. There are tennis courts, a kids playground and three seperate pools around the grounds. The clubhouse/office also has a workout room that is available 24 hours a day (a place i admit i have not visited yet, but plan to start using soon). On the south end of the complex is a small shopping center with a supermarket, drug store, drycleaner and several restaurants. All is within about a 2 to 3 block walk from my apartment so that is very convenient.

I've only experienced a few challenges with the apartment, the first being a leak in the air duct over the living room which caused part of the ceiling needing to be replaced and as it got cold down here an infestation of ant ... but these issues were taken care of and no longer exist. When my best buddy visited last week after our drive back from NJ, he seemed impressed with the apartment which was comforting to me, since I always question every decision I make in my life.

That's what's happening down in Charlotte - back in NJ my co-op still has not sold. When I rented the apartment and moved in, there was supposed to be a closing within the next couple of weeks. Well, as my luck usually unfolds, the potential buyers were not able to get the financing to close. That was after being under contract for about 3 to 4 months, building inspections and having to make some minor repairs. That contract was for $140,000 which was about $30,000 more than I owed on the mortgage. I was excited because I would have enough money left to pay off any outstanding debt and replace or buy some furniture that I needed. We put the co-op back on the market but prices had dropped already by about $20,000 and we tried to put it on the market to at least break even. Since July, I've had three other potential buyers, each at a lower price than the last and each was unable to secure financing. The title company was able to negotiate a short sale with the mortgage bank and they held off foreclosure proceedings as long as a contract was drawn. The last offer came in on December, 22 at $86,000 cash. I'm not sure how this will work out ... whether the bank will accept this offer -- but I just need to get my name off this piece of property in NJ so that I can try to get my credit back on track. With the apartment here I have not been able to make any sort of mortgage payment since June. Please keep your fingers crossed that something happens soon!!

That about does it for today's post ... today is my first day off this year! So, there is laundry and cleaning to do and guess it is time to take down the tree and christmas village ... thanks for reading and I'll be posting soon!