We started with that quintessential renter's tool, Craigslist. I am not exactly sure what people did before Craiglist. I have a vague recollection of old books advising readers to hunt through the newspaper classifieds and then call people. Of course, if you were moving out of your area code, you had to pay long-distance rates to call potential landlords. Shock!
Now, I use Craiglist, which is happily free, and email, which is also free, and my cell phone plan, which is pre-paid and does not penalize me for having an East Coast area code left over from college even though I no longer live on the east coast. I love living in the future! It really does feel that way to me, and I'm sure to others of my generation, who started grade school in a world of rotary phones and the Dewey decimal system and now take our self-scheduled, multimedia medical licensing exams in computer labs after studying for them on the internet. You can also book a storage unit, a rental car, and movers online without so much as checking what time of day it is to see if the 'office' (another old-fashioned term, when nobody knows which days our curriculum coordinator works from home as long as she has occasional office hours) is open. So my point is that I'm grateful not only to Craig, but all of the people who have conspired to make this apartment search so much easier for a poor student. (In a strange turn of events, my mother recently became acquainted with Craig of Craigslist, but that's another story.)
I got on Craigslist about a week before B arrived and started searching for likely places. I also contacted friends, colleagues, and professors/adults for possible leads. Between us, B and I had put together a relatively impossible list of requirements. Here it is, for your perusal:
You'll notice that I wrote it with a real pen on real paper, even though I am so excited about the Information Age and the Technology Revolution and live within driving distance of Silicon Valley. But our list was pretty extensive: near public transport and freeways, allows cats, safer neighborhood, close to somewhere we can run, has bike storage, easy access to laundry, and (for B, compared to my old place) has a shower head higher than 5' off the ground. All of that for less than what we decided was our price ceiling, which was not extravagant in the least. That's asking quite a bit of this very expensive area of our lovely nation!
So using my various sources, I excitedly made a number of appointments (more than we could ever go to) for the weekend B would be here. That in itself was interesting -- I guess the internet makes frivolous/fraudulent listings easier, so I basically dismissed anyone who didn't post photos, sounded the least bit strange on the phone, tried to rush a viewing, or got back to me with weird requests. B read through the postings I had picked out and decided which ones he was interested in, too. Then we both figured out how many we actually had the energy to see in person. The answer was three (ooh, insert Goldilocks foreshadowing!), although some of those were drive-by viewings.
The first place we went to was lovely, tiny, in a great location in terms of access, not really in a safe neighborhood at all, and highly overpriced. The second one was a drive-by viewing of two places close together -- one was run-down, not a great (as in, ugly) neighborhood, but relatively safe and accessible. It had bad reviews on Yelp (another wonderful invention, though it can get ridiculous at times). The second seemed beautiful and well-maintained, but had no place to walk or run and was quite a drive to anywhere -- not really okay for people who don't want to live in their car. The third was different, because it wasn't an apartment complex. It was a basement apartment below a family who owned the house. It seemed bigger than the other places, so we decided to visit in person.
These photos are highly unflattering and low-resolution, so please bear with them. As you can see, it's quite dark because much of it is paneled in a medium brown wood. It has low ceilings, panels to nowhere, random steps up and down to different rooms, and three doors. Its layout is a square -- you enter into the kitchen from the garage. In front of you is a step down into a dark, square room with big windows. To your left in a little passage that leads to an L-shaped living area at right and another little windowless room at left. It has a kitchenette, a tiny bathroom, and a rubber-ducky- yellow bathtub. 
It is separated from the family's upstairs home by a flight of stairs that locks at the top on their side (not ours, which I had trepidations about). It was such a quirky place and full of character that you either took to it right away, or didn't. I think both B and I were quite taken with it from the get-go, although of course the shower head could be higher (he's nearly six feet tall) and the bathroom was quite tiny and old-fashioned.
We both liked it and the price -- it came in under our sum, and this included all of our utilities except internet/phone, as well as laundry and permission to use the garage for our bikes. The only thing about a place like this is that you live with your landlord. So you had better get along well with your landlord! Apparently, he and his wife had two college girls living there before, so we figured it would probably be okay. There were no weird rules about parties or friends. He even said that if we felt like re-painting, he would pay for the paint. He was up-front about the financial side of things, prompt with the lease agreement, and brought his kids and wife to meet me when I went back for a second look. He promised to replace the carpet before we moved in. So we agreed that, although a relatively strange arrangement compared to what we were used to, we would take a chance on it. And we signed the lease this past weekend!Our adventure begins. It doesn't look like much now, I know, but I can't wait to get in there with my good camera and take some before/after photos of the place before we settle in and decorate. And then, once certain huge exams beginning with B and ending with things that rhyme with TAR and SWORDS, respectively, are over, we shall hopefully have a housewarming!
Can you think of any good names for our new home? We could go with something traditional, like The Cellars. A nod to classic fantasy, like The Hobbit Hole? Or unfortunately true, like The Basement Mews? All suggestions welcome, no matter how inappropriate/punny.
