Apartment Hunting in Connecticut – Round I.

We spent much of yesterday in Connecticut, looking at houses and apartments. So far, no luck.

It’s a good thing that UConn isn’t very far from Boston. Our first appointment was at 10:30. We met with a nice real-estate lady (recommended by someone from the English department), who had a 3-bedroom house in Storrs to show us. The house was immaculate, completely renovated (though tiny), with the rent under $1000, and pretty close to campus. The problem was, it sat right in the middle of a construction site. In fact, it was owned by a construction company, whose office was right across from it, and we could see some lady checking us out from her office window. Unnerving. We said we’d think about it and rushed to our next appointment.

The next appointment was at 11:30, and it didn’t last long. At a Mobile station in Ashford we met up with a woman named Natalie, who showed us what the ad referred to as “condo” and what we immediately recognized as a grimy and smelly 2-bedroom apartment, populated by two graduate students. To Natalie’s credit, she could tell the place wasn’t for us and she didn’t waste our time.

The next house we saw was in Chaplin. The most amazing house - in the middle of some woods and completely secluded. The people it belonged to bought it as their second house, but didn’t have the time to live in it. I wish I knew more about architecture, so I could describe it properly. (I’ve attached a picture instead.) Movie Dictator, an architect’s son, fell in love with it immediately. So why didn’t we rent it? Two reasons. One: it was way more than we could afford. Two: it was too secluded. As much as Movie Dictator wanted to live in the middle the woods, he quickly realized that without a car (or even the ability to drive one), he would be completely disconnected from the civilization.

And so we left "the house in the woods" and went to see a house by the lake. I was really hopeful about this one. It sounded perfect on paper. Plus Movie Dictator had been dreaming of living by a lake. We drove into Coventry, got a little lost, but finally found the right place. Outside the house looked fine, but inside it felt kind of cramped, its three bedrooms clamped together. It resembled another one of those student apartments. Even more disconserting, the couple who owned the house were still very attached to it – e.g., they had some of their stuff stored there, and they wanted to come and use the house if we ever were away, and they wanted to come and use their boat from time to time… Also they didn’t want anyone to smoke outside on the deck (Isn’t it what decks are for?). Also they kept telling us how they wanted to stay friends with their neighbors there, and to make a good impression on them, and we were starting to get a sense we’d be watched all the time, especially since the neighbors’ houses were practically pressed against the rental house. And once again, it was just too far from sidewalks and stores, too impractical for Movie Dictator.

The final place we saw was called “a duplex.” Of course, it turned out to be another one of those dark, horrid, smelly student-apartments. We took one look at it and left.

By then we were exhausted, headachy, soaked (it rained all day), and hungry as hell. We drove to Willimantic, which is…gasp…an actual town. Like with an actual town center and shops and everything. We visited it before – during my interview trip – and liked it. Seeing it now, after all the “wilderness,” we realized that it was what we needed. A town. In theory, a house in the woods might be perfect for a couple of writers like ourselves; but in reality it would be a nightmare. The whole house-hunting trip – though a failure – was quite useful. We have our priorities straight now, and we’re going to concentrate on towns, especially Willimantic and Manchester.

On the final note: none of this would’ve been possible without our trusted GPS device, Mio. We didn’t have to look at maps or worry about directions. All day long we rushed among these little towns (Ashford, Coventry, Storrs, Mansfield) that surround the university, and not once did we get lost. (Okay, we did once. But only slightly.) Overall, Mio performed admirably, and for that we are thankful.