fish and chips!

Big news!

Seth and I found a new apartment.

It's on the beach.

The apartment shopping had been going o-k-a-y for a few weeks now, and on Tuesday we checked out a listing for this place. I found it on craigslist (where you can find absolutely anything), and to be honest there wasnt anything remarkable about the listing...it was a 1 br place in our price range, with all the features we wanted: parking, utilities, laundry....no mention of crackheads, but then, isn't that what Google street view is for?

So I punched in the address, and street-viewed it. Not only were there no visible drug-addled scary people, but it was MUCH cuter than the listing photo:

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And then I panned around to check out the neighborhood...and realized it was on the beach.


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And promptly freaked out.

So then I called so we could check it out. Basically, it's right across the street from the water. There's a road, then a wide sidewalk, which on the day we went was filled with pedestrians and skateboarders enjoying the sunny weather, then this concrete ledge, and then about two feet to rocks and the water's edge. We walked north along the sidewalk and eventually the rocky part gets wider and wider, and then turns into a rocky, sandy beach with volleyball nets and people sunbathing. Oh. My. Lord. I knew that we had a beach in the city, I just didn't expect to look so...beach-like. From where we stopped on the beach, you can see all of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle to the right. If you look directly across the water, you can see Bainbridge Island, and to the left is some other island, I think it's Vashon. Basically, instead of seeing the horizon, you see mountains and treelines, and rich people's sailboats. Plus you can see all the ferries that go from downtown to the islands, which is mega cool.

Thankfully, the actual apartment was great, too. There's a pretty decent living room (with fireplace!), small dining area, HUGE kitchen (this is going to do wonders for our battles over space to make dinner, wash dishes, put away groceries, and basically share a kitchen at the same time), laundry closet, coat closet, decent sized bathroom, mid-sized bedroom (with tiny closet. Boo!), and two decks, one off the dining area (for grilling. yay!!!) and one in the bedroom. It's pretty basic but since it has everything we need, it should be awesome. We were worried about not having enough storage space, or really, personal space, but with all the cool stuff outside, we'll manage it.

Last night we went over and SIGNED A LEASE (that's how hard we fell) at the leasing office, two blocks away, also on the beach. I felt like we were in a totally different city (or maybe a 90s surf movie?), since the weather was amazing and the air smelled like salt water, and not surrounded by tall pine trees and, well, rain. I'm excited to try all the seafood places nearby and, oh sweet god, get a tan.

Now then, let's talk about the drawbacks. The main one is that the place is NOT pet-friendly (boo!), which was a deal-breaker early on in our search. Seth and I figured we could skirt this rule, since both of our offices are pet-friendly and we wouldn't be leaving it alone in the apartment anyway. We still might be able to sneak one in, if we get properly motivated, and can afford it. The other drawback is that since it's on the beach, it's kind of far from, well, the city. It's not impossibly far, since you can still see the Space Needle (which I still haven't gotten over, despite living here 3 years and seeing it almost every day, from various angles. I just like it.), and we still live in the city limits, and all that. It's more like...we have to adjust our whole routine for things like groceries, movie theaters, delivery places, Target runs, and of course, commuting to work. The great thing is that my office is still directly in the path of Seth's commute, so we'll keep carpooling; we'll just leave 20 mins earlier, and drive over an uglier bridge to get there. Because seriously, the drive goes straight through some manufacturing and industrial facilities that are fug. And ok, obviously it won't always be sunny and warm, and the beach won't be so inviting, but the neighborhood is cute enough to entertain us when it's raining. I hope, anyway :)

Anyway, more details to come!