Apartment Hunting

Carlos and I have spent the past few weeks looking for an apartment. Living with his parents is nice, I think if we had moved out earlier I would have been a bit lonely. In their house there are always visitors, always life. I am forced to practice my Spanish here.

But Carlos feels that it's time to leave the nest. His only experience not living with his parents was our time in Holland. On the other hand, I haven't lived with my parents for almost 10 years (though I do enjoy visiting). I've had five dorm rooms, two apartments, a full year of hostels and tents, one condo, and almost one year with the future in-laws.

Our budget is $200 per month. A typical salary here is $1000 per month. Qualified professionals can make more, working for a mining company one can earn $3500 per month. Minimum wage is $230 per month.

Like everything else in this country, looking for an apartment here is different than in the US. In the states, the visit takes five minutes, you look around the place to get an impression and say to the person showing, "We need to think about it. We'll call tomorrow." You say this if you love it or even if you hate it. Or, if during the visit you make enough eye contact with your partner/roommate(s) to agree that you both/all hate the place, you just say, "Thanks, but it's too big/small."

In Ecuador, the first visit can take an hour. You walk through the apartment. Every room is pointed out, even if it is obvious (i.e., this is the bathroom, this is the kitchen). The walk though takes five minutes, like in the states. But then you discuss. You discuss the apartment, who owns it, and if you know them ("yes, your friend is my cousin"). Then you talk a bit more about the neighborhood, the neighbors ("oh, my friend's parents live on this street") and if the park around the corner is noisy. Then you discuss the parking, the utilities, the price, the contract, and what day of the month rent is due. This is all done even before Carlos and I have discussed with each other if we even want to live there. And usually, as soon as we return to the car, we turn to each other and agree that indeed we don't want to live there.

We have probably seen a dozen apartments, all of which ranged from decent to bad to terrible. One had no windows. It was the right size, two bedrooms, one bathroom, appliances included. But not a single window. Another was spacious and full of light, set in a garden on a hill with amazing views of the city. But it smelled a bit musty and the owner told us that the water marks on the walls were just places where they ran out of the other color of paint. Uh huh, right.

Then there was the apartment where the kitchen was outside. It was downstairs, and next to it was a tiny little room, presumably the pantry. Or was it the dining room? Upstairs was the rest of the apartment. You entered through the bedroom and had to pass it to get to the bathroom and living room. Like that bar in Chicago where you need to walk through the band to get to the bathroom. The whole place was awful and decrepit. For $170. However, if we wanted to live in the house below, which was three times bigger and ten times nicer, it would be $250. Not a bad option, but I didn't trust the owners after seeing that apartment.

Finally, we found one. Actually, Mami found it for us. It is across the street from her sister's apartment, and she saw the "for rent" sign in the window when she was visiting one day. We visited and Carlos immediately fell in love with the place. I liked it too, but it just seemed too big for just two people. It has three bedrooms, one bathroom, smallish kitchen, but sizable dining room and living room. Plus, there is an interior courtyard that is covered, but still open air (for laundry). I would guess that it's about 1300 to 1500 square feet.

Anyway, I had some reservations at first. Besides thinking it was too big (what the hell are we going to do with a third bedroom?), the parking space was too small. Or one can say, our truck is about five feet too long. Actually, it's about three feet too long to fit in the space, but then we wouldn't be able to open the front door.

But both problems have been resolved. We will use one bedroom as a bedroom, another as an office, and the third, the one with the least light, will be only for the TV (since we have lived together I have been on a continuous campaign to rid the TV from the bedroom, I find it distracting and anti-social). Carlos's aunt across the street has a parking space but no car, and out truck fits there. By the way, when I say parking space, I mean a secure one. Here, you can't just leave your car on the street overnight. That's asking for trouble.

We haven't signed the lease yet, but will do so in a few days. We plan on cleaning the place and packing up this weekend, then moving in the next. We plan on bribing his teenage nephews to help us with the move. That's the only thing that I think is the same as in the states...payment for moving is beer and pizza.