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We now officially have a place in Portland. We got back our signed copy of the lease today, and we have a check to go in the mail after the holiday. We will be moving to Forest Ave. in Portland in just about exactly three weeks. It’s now starting to get very real and very exciting, but a bit scary at the same time. I just hope that, after all this anticipation, we’ll love Maine as much as I think we will.

At last we have found success in our apartment hunt! We looked at about a half-dozen apartments last weekend and, in the end, the decision came down to two. The first was the apartment we liked from our Memorial Day visit and the second was one we’d seen on Craig’s List for a while, but only finally got around to calling last week. The deciding factor really became value for our dollar.

Option A (the Memorial Day pick) was a 2.5 bedroom third floor apartment at Ocean and Walton. The neighborhood was pretty quiet, Back Cove was within walking distance, and the sunlight in the place was stellar. The thought of having a separate office was quite appealing too. Much of the apartment was newly renovated, but the kitchen left something to be desired. There was simply almost no prep space. As I like to cook (and am told I’m pretty good at it), that was a major minus in my book. Balancing that out was the fact that the landlord is a great guy and we’d have loved to live in a building he owns. This place was going for about $1000 a month, plus utilities–just a bit above our original desired cap of $1000, utilities included.

Option B (the winner) was a 2 bedroom second floor apartment on Forest Ave. This one is only a half-mile from Option A, so it’s still within walking distance of Back Cove. Baxter Woods Park is just down the street too, so our dog will get to enjoy the outdoors quite often. The bedrooms are a little bigger, but there are only two of them, so I’ll have to set up my “office” in the guest room. The kitchen has ample counter and storage space, and the feel of the place is just a bit more modern and cheery. Coin-op laundry in the basement is a minus, but the other apartment had hookups, so we would have had to buy a washer and dryer or used a laundromat. In the end, though, the overall value of the apartment was too much to turn down. Forest Ave. is much busier than Walton St., so this place was listed for $925 a month, heat and hot water included.

It’s tough to make your decision solely on the basis of money, and we did not use that as the only deciding factor, but a chief concern in my mind was not financially crippling ourself by taking on an apartment that really was not within our budget. In the winter, the difference between these two places will work out to probably $300 a month or more. That’s just too much money to ignore. We’re happy with the place we chose, regardless of the cost, but the fact that we’ll continue to be able to put money toward an eventual down payment makes us even happier. We finally (almost) have an address! Now it’s time to get the lease signed and start planning the actual move…

Uggh…when will it end. Due to an unwillingness on our part to sign a lease without seeing the apartment again, it looks like the keeper We reported last month may be on shaky ground. C’est la vie. Recent trips to Craig’s List have yielded several promising apartments near Back Cove.

We’re headed up again this weekend to (hopefully) sign a lease on a place. We’re bringing Her sister for an extra opinion. I’m hoping to get at least four showings lined up between now and Friday. There is a nice development in South Portland that could be worth checking out. It’s extremely close to the airport though, so that is certainly a strike against it before we even get there. However, we live in the flight path of the Albany Airport now, so it might not be that big a sacrifice. We’ll have to see. I’m not sure on the heating in that place–if it’s electric again, I think we’ll avoid it.

All in all, things are coming together. The situation with the apartment from the first trip is disappointing, but we’re excited to see so many places with potential listed now. I guess maybe it was too much to hope for to find the right place two-plus months in advance. We’re closing in on a month to go now, and things are looking up. I can’t wait. I counted today–only 23 working days left.

I found a link to a very interesting website today. Rentometer allows you to look up comparable rentals in your neighborhood and let you know if you’re paying too much (or too little). A very useful tool for someone looking for a new apartment. Surprisingly enough, they had over 100 apartments in the area we’re looking at (I guess I’m not the first person to find this site), and the amount we’re going to pay seems to fall right in the middle of the range.

The past week has been a slow one for our Maine move planning. As I’ve mentioned before, She is a teacher, and it’s the end of the school year. Anyone who is married to a teacher knows that all things not school related pretty much cease to exist for the final two to three weeks of the school year. We did, however, manage to make it down to Connecticut to be part of a very close friend’s wedding. That was great fun, but didn’t leave any time for browsing Craig’s List or any thing else Maine related (except to explain to lots of friends and acquaintances that, no, we don’t really have a reason to move other than that we love the area).

The wedding was in New London, another coastal community. I realized that the ocean smell and the sound of waves are probably very high on the list of motivators for moving to Portland. They bring back memories of vacations at the shore when I was young. If you haven’t experienced sleeping within earshot of waves lapping at the beach, do yourself a favor and rent a place on the coast somewhere, if even just for a weekend.

Okay, back to the moving prep. Our very promising apartment off Ocean Ave is still on the table and looks like it will be our new home starting at the end of next month. I’ve been playing a mean game of phone and email tag with the landlord, but we plan to head up to Portland again in two weeks to get a look at the finished renovations and sign the lease, assuming everything looks good. I can’t wait. Once that’s done, the moving planning can begin in earnest.

Speaking of planning for the move, I counted today, and I only have 28 working days left. Yay! While at the wedding this weekend we did enlist some help to drive my car up to Maine and unload the truck. We’re pretty set on renting a moving truck and doing this ourselves–it’s just too expensive to have someone else do it for us. Too bad my company isn’t covering moving costs. I think that’s about it for now. We’re down to seven weeks, give or take. It’s getting so close…