An Apartment in Portland

Volunteers for Peace vfp.org (volunteer work in different countries)

At last today I toured an apartment I can truly see myself living in, although it’s not in this rather botanical neighborhood of Southeast Portland, and it’s almost in the suburb Beaverton, close to the city limits. Still, it’s a very green and quiet area, even if it’s more suburban, and the apartment itself will be satisfactory.

The landlady showed me two one-bedroom apartments, all of which are the same size and format. A balcony overlooks trees and bushes and a creek—and a storage compartment is on the balcony. The kitchen is small but more spacious than the others I’ve looked at (the same goes with the apartment in general). The landlady called a small carpeted area, just beyond the kitchen, the dining room, and there’s a big carpeted area for a living room—the balcony is off there. The bedroom is a completely separate room with its own door, and it’s smaller than the big living room and has a wide closet. In the hallway is a closet containing the water heater and enough tiled floor to keep a kitty litter box. The bathroom is small but has a tub rather than a shower stall (the closet-size apartment I first looked at only had a shower stall). This apartment has lots of possibilities, and I still want four tall bookcases. Even with all my books, I can still see it as easy to get all my stuff in this apartment, especially now that I’ve gotten rid of so much.

My plans involve living more frugally, but this will be a challenge.

I’m thinking that if I don’t get accepted for this apartment, then I’ll take the moving van to a storage place and stay at a hostel, as a friend back in St. Louis suggested. Actually, my dad will be with me then, if all goes well, so he’d be able to help out in person. This apartment that I looked at today is about twice as big as my brother’s apartment in Phoenix.