Elliott and I have been in Richmond for about 6 weeks and have been living in a gem of a corporate apartment about 15 minutes outside of town. The whole idea of a corporate apartment is ease- everything included in the rent (at a premium price) and everything you need to live for a short term jaunt. BUT, we are enduring the worst communication and the worst customer service we've seen in some time and are about ready to get the mess outta here. (We're talking to you Enclave-ugh, such a pretentious name). Because of our unpleasant experience, we have felt even more pressure to figure out our living situation.
Buying a house would be ideal. Could you imagine the fun this self-proclaimed DIY/HGTV addict would have... it would be awesome. However, the fact that I am unemployed presents a few challenges. Not knowing the location of where I might work and the simple fact of not having a second paycheck to our household makes this major purchase a bit scary. That brings us to rentals. The rental market here in Richmond is fairly competitive especially this time of year. We are competing with young professionals and all of the college students from University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University in a few highly coveted neighborhoods. The Fan is a very hip area. Tons of bars and restaurants around every corner and some of the cities most historic row homes (some included on Monument Boulevard where civil war monuments are found every other block in the center of the roadway). Next, there is the Museum District nestled close to the Fan and Cary Street (another very popular area for shops and restaurants) where you can find the Virginia Historical Society and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. There are other pockets, but for rents these are the hot spots. We found a great rental just across the street from the VA Historical Society and are hoping to hear that we beat out 5 other applicants for the place tomorrow... fingers crossed!
In the meantime we have also been looking into short term rental opportunities as well. The most notable of the short term options was a home in the fan built around 1850 and is the "third oldest wood structure in the city"... It had some serious character... some charming, some not! On our tour we were informed that it is rumored to have been the temporary residence for Edgar Allen Poe's girlfriend. E is convinced the place was haunted which is reason enough to say no thanks! But still, the main drawback is the 6'3" ceilings upstairs. That wasn't going to work for Mr. Moore. Oh well, at the very least we can say we have been inside the 3rd oldest wood structure in Richmond and that it was rumored to have housed a literary icon's main squeeze.
Here's to hoping we land the museum district place and that I land a job soon so that we can actually feel a bit more settled and focus on the finer things in life. For example, restaurant sampling has been less of a priority these days. More selfishly, Nordstrom has a sale starting this week and I am seriously bummed that I cannot scope out any bargains. We're not complete hermits, we do plan to venture out to the historic Byrd Theater this week. Two dollar second run movies with a Wurlitzer welcoming you into the theater- yes please!
Love to all!
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