I moved out and into my own apartment here in CA. That's where I have been for the past week and a half. But, I have to say the move has been terrible!

My apartment is lame, my landlord is a bastard and northern CA has the highest average living costs in the U.S... So don't think ill of me when I tell you what a GOOD deal I got for a "small" $2200 USD down payment and "low" payment of $825/mo.. Egh. It's unfortunate, but I must say I have an overwhelming sense of dissastifaction with this place.. But it is a place nonetheless.

... And after I put a $500 deposit on the apartment, we weren't able to move in for another 2 weeks because the sales woman couldn't get her "crew" together to clean the darned place! So we went almost two weeks with no real place to stay. After moving out, moving in and out of two different friend's houses, living in a Uhaul and moving in/out of temporary housing, we are finally in the apt.

Lots of things have gone wrong (already!) and the place is/was mess. Even after waiting for almost two weeks, it was NEVER cleaned! Painted, shampooed.. Sure that was nice... But bulbs were burned out, spiders hanging on the walls, three missing window screens, rusty this and that, dirty cabinets, dusty counters... etc... I spent two days cleaning the whole place. Very disheartening. Especially since the "professional cleaning lady" supposedly cleaned this place twice.

We had a plumbing leak right over our btand new bed... Nothing quite like a wet matress! Turns out another apartment above us had their bathtub overflow and it spilled right onto our bed just a few inches from my face.

Now that my nomadic existence has ceased, my DSL modem and service should be ready tomorrow (or will it?)... Hopefully I will get to visit TS more often. I have temporary dial up access through AOHell right now.. Imagine my disdain!

Was wondering where you had wandered off to.

Rick, man, that really sucks. $800+ for an apartment? I had two apartments in Florida. One was for $650/month the other for $369 (but was split up between 4 roommates). That really bites man. Hope your making a decent amount of money, but for that price that kind of crap isn't worth it.

Good luck on finding something better or having better luck with what you've got.

Haha!! My mom pays $1080 per month (one bedroom apartment!); sadly thats considered cheap around here!

The money I make is very little as compared to my rent. I get about $250 to $300/wk. Luckily I don't have any other extra expenses and my girlfriend works too.. For right now, anyway.

Where I used to live (Kentucky), a very nice apartment cost $350/mo.. $650 would buy a huge condo there.

Most apartments here are $1000 or more a month. Many are $1400 or higher.

The most common price for a small, 2 bedroom house in this area is $400,000 to $500,000. I live about an hour and a half from San Francisco, which happens to be the most expensive place to live in the world, averaging something like $2800 to $3200/mo for apts. Our neighbor is San Jose.. Silicon Valley itself.. Which isn't much cheaper.

.. And my apartment isn't even 1 bedroom.. It's a small studio with an extra, small room just large enough to fit a full-sized bed.

We've transformed that into a bedroom.

I would love to live in Cali., unfortunately I dont have the money to as of yet. Hopefully one day though. I have always wanted to live there for various reasons.

program w/ the FHA.......about 24 hours to approve.........to 282,000k around here..........for 2k down...........did one 2yrs ago..........went up 125k in a year.......put it down on the next..........up 85k in 10mos.........now , refinancing down to a 5yr fixed @3%..........and saving another bundle...........all tax deductable..........from 2k+, a couple of years back..........and what's the kicker is that they're really lenient, as it a first time(meaning you don't have a FHA loan) home buyers program

????

You will get by.

Its not easy when you first move away from home, but trust me you will be fine. Your first couple of homes are a disaster.

Even the place I am right now is my first to myself and its a struggle to keep it afloat. The cost of living is going through the roof, but I seem to be getting so little back in return. Electricity bills that are sky high from just a couple of computers and a TV, and hundreds in council tax but there's still pot holes in the streets and head-cases walking the streets.

However, remember one thing:-

You can now do whatever the hell you want. And that, my young friend, is almost priceless.

LoL. It's a slow read, but I can sort of understand you.

Wow, and I thought I was doing badly, but I feel so well off now, despite being unemployed!

Isn't it strange that every so many years the cost of living rockets and the economy takes a dive, all at the same time. Once everyone is broke, things then start to pick up again. Strange indeed.

Good to see you've settled in Rick, and glad to have you back. Oh, and it might be a good idea to change your name just in case your landlord decides to visit techspot.

My landlord can #@$%#$5 #$%$%

Amen Phant. I've lived on my own before. I am from North Carolina, and moved to Tampa Bay Florida for a year in 2000-2001. I lived in two different apartments and I came upon some problems financially, with my roommates, etc., but all in all it was much better than living with parents. I miss the freedom.

Congrats Rick...
Even if it must've been hell getting there/getting set up, I'm sure things'll straighten out iwthin a reasonable time...

But what you went through, I can't imagine how it must have been living in a uhaul and finding missing window panes etc...
Though I do know how you feel about the "professional" cleaninglady...
I had my apartment cleaned 3 times before I finally decided that I'd do a better job myself (and I'm not really that good at cleaning)...
There was some sort of strawberry jam on one wall, dust lying at the floor, the oven was sticky, the roof was grey (should be butter coloured)....

The only thing they managed to do was clean the windows... And that was only after the third try...

I actually feel bad for the previous owner who had to pay for the cleaning that never happened...

Anyways, I hope for your sake it won't take you as long a time to get inet access as it has taken me...!
It's so far been 1 year and half a month since I ordered... But now they're claiming I'll get a final date (within the next 2 weeks) by day after tomorrow...
Yeah right... :

But good luck to you and your GF!

Well, this is the real thing, isn't it. OK, I don't have as much money for computer games, CDs, drink etc as I used to. But I have my own place and can do whatever I want. That's worth its weight in gold.