Apartment Search, Day 3

By day three, Ken was very ready to make a decision.  We had three apartments to look at, and while I was really enjoying looking at numerous places, Ken was more impatient than I had ever seen him.  The first building that day, the Ben Lamond, was a bit further out of the way (from Susan’s, my bus, and my gym), but it had a view of the space needle and was relatively inexpensive. 

This was our first experience looking at apartments during the day and I knew that it would influence my decisions heavily.  I would be able to see whether or not the apartment was sunny, and sun is my number one priority after being within budget.

We walked to what seemed like the edge of the universe, or the edge of Capitol Hill along I-5, and down a dead end.  I wondered where Ken (who was doing all the apartment research) was taking me.

“Is that it?  It looks like an abandoned insane asylum.”  It did.  Ken preferred describing it as “an old school”, which it looked like as well, but it was pretty clear to me that psychiatric patients were experimented on within these walls.  There were dead leaves all over, and the manager, who appeared to be transgender (FàM) but could have just been a lesbian, wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic (or apparently hard working) as the guy from the Bates Motel. 

The interior had wide, musty, carpeted hallways; creaky stairways; and huge wooden banisters.  It really did look like an old school inside.  Perhaps it spent a decade or two as a dormitory after the state hospital was shut down.  All I could think was, “I hope I don’t like this apartment, because no one takes care of this building.”

Sam (or Max, or Andy—some name that could be an abbreviation for a girls name) opened the door to the unit.  It was really big, fairly bright, and, as I mentioned, had a view of the space needle.  The living room area had a big bay window, the wood floors were old and warped in a charming way, the kitchen was enormous (these size terms are all relative, and very screwed by my spatial perception), and there was a quirky, built-in backless shelf hanging out between the kitchen and living room.  Though falling apart, it was adorable.  One negative was that it was on the ground floor and the bedroom window faced a back entrance to the building, which could be scary at night.  And of course, there would be ghosts since victims of state-enforced hospitalizations in the 1950’s haunt the building.

I hoped dearly that we would find another place that day that was more awesome because I was learning strongly toward the Ben Lamond, and I knew it would be nothing but problems.