No Longer Homeless

Well, it wasn't an easy process, but I am no longer homeless!!  It was quite an ordeal, but I have finally signed the contract and will move into my apartment on Saturday.

Admittedly, I was hired late in the game here at the American School of Warsaw.  Having said that, I'm doing my darndest to get caught up in all of the procedural things that have to take place to make the transition successful.  Finding housing is one of those things.  From the first time I heard that we would be working with a realtor, I thought it would be easy peasy.  They sent us a questionnaire and we gave them our preferences: # of rooms, size, special requests, location and the days we were available to see them once we got here.  

The location piece was difficult because even though I've been here in Warsaw before, I had no recollection of the neighborhoods, or their pros and cons.  I didn't know if I wanted to live in the hopping city center, or nearer to school to ease the commute.  I sought out and found an episode of "House Hunters International" which featured a different teacher from ASW on her journey of apartment hunting for school.  We were even lucky enough to have a Google map of different teachers' homes and videos and pictures of the areas they were in.  Even with all this legwork, I still was a bit frought about where I wanted to live and what I was looking for.  

I knew initially I preferred two bedrooms - ripe with room for people to visit when they decide to. My big thing that I wanted was a shower with a mounted shower head at standing height.  Not really that much to ask, but a terrible inconvenience if not available.  Yeah, it's possible to roll it around your body and clean yourself with the shower head in hand, but really - how annoying.  Granted that it is way up there on the list of first world problems, but it's what I want.  I was interested in a balcony for Boo, and a spacious area to make it feel comfortable and like home.  I also decided that I wanted to be in one of two areas that were not in the direct center of the city, but were kind of mid-way between downtown and school.  I communicated a few times with the realtor (Alicja) and she sent me a list of 10 different offerings.  I dutifully mapped them out, made pro and con lists, and narrowed down which ones I would like to tour upon arrival.  I thought I was set.  Well, the joke was on me.  The offerings I was sent were all "examples."  None of them were actually ones I was interested in.  

Back to square one.  I emailed her and said after talking with some to-be colleagues, I shifted the location I wanted a bit.  Still mid-way, but maybe a bit closer to the happening places in town.  She said she would put together some more options and we would tour them when I got to Poland.  

On Saturday afternoon (my first day here) I got an email (along with another teacher here) indicating that we were going to tour apartments the next day starting at 2 pm.  I emailed back right away and told her that would be great.  Less than 30 minutes later, we got an email cancelling the appointments for the following day.  She asked if we were free the next day to see some in the morning - and she sent some apartments to look at.  This is where it took a quick downward turn.  Not only were the apartments not what I was looking for, they were tiny (32 square meters) and out of my price range (or shall I say the school's price range since they are giving us a housing stipend).  Really?  What were the questionnaire and emails for if she wasn't going to show me what I was looking for?  Additionally, we were at school the following morning (a schedule she had had since July) so NO, I was not available to look at apartments tomorrow.  Keep in mind, that the other teacher hadn't been told that the afternoon appointments were cancelled - thank goodness I was there to tell her.  

She told me her colleague would contact me the next morning and we could see some the next day. When her colleague finally emailed me back - at 1pm - we settled on that afternoon to look at some. At the assigned time I was to go look at apartments, there were three other teachers waiting in the lobby for the same real estate agent.  Wait, what?  I was going apartment hunting with three other teachers all looking for the same thing?  How is that good?  Were we to arm wrastle for the one we wanted?  Ugh.... so we piled in this tiny car and set out to see four apartments.  One was not in an area ANY of us were looking, one was WAY over our budget, one was nice, but farther out than we wanted and one was nice and in a good location- it just didn't fit my taste.  So now what?  What were the next steps?  Alicja's colleague would find some more offers, and take us out again.  

I definitely wrote an email to Alicja stating my disappointment in the offerings as they did not match my criterion, and in the fact that we went in a group of four.  In the mean time, I had discussed real estate agents with several other teachers at the opening dinner and first days, and as it turns out, Alicja with a J was not doing well by other clients as well.  So I reached out to a different agent and decided to tag along on another teachers series of visits the next day.  The apartments she was to see ended up getting jumbled because the owner of one had the wrong meeting time, and so we decided to go out to a different one and come back to that one.  Well the one we went to was greatly different than the pictures, and was quite far out in terms of convenience to either the city center or school.  We had to return to the first one, but by that time I had to meet my tech team for dinner.  At any rate, THAT agent (not Alicja) told me she would search for some apartments, but to remember that so many people were unhappy that they all contacted this agent and she was quite overwhelmed.  I told her I had patience and could wait a bit since I was an add on.  Keep in mind that there are teachers here who have very small children, who also are not getting housing or help from their agent.  It's been quite a mess.  

After getting back from the second set of bum visits, I talked with some other teachers.  they toured one that they thought I might like, and that they didn't want, so I contacted the landlord.  Turns out, I had already been emailing the landlord herself from a posting that was sent earlier in the summer.  A teacher from the school lived there earlier and he liked the apartment quite a bit.  So I arranged to get myself to her - no agent involved - and see the place.  

Turns out it was perfect.  Two bedrooms, two baths, two balconies, large living space, nice kitchen and location 50 meters from a metro station and the bus depot.  I can take one bus directly to school.  Genius.  Turns out I'm a better real estate agent than anyone in Poland.  JK.  Here are some pictures: 

second bedroom with pullout couch

Living area - kitchen on the left, patio out the doors

kitchen - freezer door is open on left, fridge is above it.  There is a dishwasher and oven, and the washing machine is in the cabinet to the left of the oven 

bedroom with balcony

bathroom with shower

bathroom with tub

one side of the patio

other side of the patio

living room

I decided yesterday after visiting that it indeed was the place for me, and emailed her that I would take it.  I returned today to sign the contract and finalize things with a walk through to see what worked and what didn't.  She is going to buy a television and (maybe) a new couch - I'm not sure if it will happen because we had a bit of a miscommunication on this but we'll see.  

Here she is going through the contract with me

paying my deposit and first month's rent

here she is editing the contract - the one I signed... 

I mean penciling things in is legit, right? 

I don't know if it's an advantage or disadvantage to not have an agent, but I don't tend to sit back for long when I have something to do or that I want.  I took care of business.  She seems nice, and the last teacher lived there for six years, so I'm going to give it a go.  

You should come visit and check it out for yourself!