January 20th, 2006 – Home Away from Home

After an embarrassing reference check fell through due to unbelievably bad timing, we were running out of time to find a place before our friends from Sydney arrived and before we overstayed our welcome with Wendy and Terry. The following day we made 4 appointments for short term lease agreements that were fully furnished – the two taboo words in real estate. We took the hour train ride to Melbourne early and started fresh on Bouverie Street. The place was a nice modern two bedroom apartment with a cozy ambience. We were very pleased for the price and decided to put in an application and almost considered canceling our next appointment. Next it was off to Spencer Street, on the outskirts of the CBD, we weren’t too impressed with the location, but gave it a shot. It turned out to be an apartment in the Grand Hotel with all of the amenities and luxuries that a hotel has to offer and two floors of space, I was sold before I saw the second bathroom. Next it was off to Sturt Street where we visited another immaculate place, but rather pricy for a dodgy area. Then it was off to South Yarra to visit a fourth place. Although in a very trendy inner suburb, different people have different definitions of ‘furnished’ and this place was very skimpy on furnishings, but we decided to keep our options open and handed in our third application of the day. The following day we waited impatiently for our applications to be processed and after the poor results of our first application included a bank statement with our subsequent entries. Bouverie and South Yarra wanted further details to process our application, whereas Spencer accepted our terms right away. We were ecstatic and withdrew our other applications while we arranged for a time to sign. Terry was kind enough to help us with our bags and drop them downtown the afternoon when we signed. That night we took advantage of the hot tub, sauna and pool before turning in early after a long day.