Today I met with the manager of the apartment complex I'm supposed to be moving into in a few weeks. I went back last Sunday to measure some specific dimensions of the apartment, and was given a key to a different apartment than the original one I'd looked at. When my mom, Jessie, the boys and I went in to this second apartment, my mom and Jessica both immediately said, "Huh -- smells like mildew." Which made it the second one; the first apartment I'd looked at had also smelled like mildew, but I had been assured that it was just because it hadn't been aired out much, being a "model" apartment with no one living in it, and that if my apartment had any issues, they would be taken care of right away. But with the second one smelling like mildew, too, I started to get worried.

Also, the second apartment had carpet in the dining area, unlike the first apartment which had had linoleum. Eeew, fluffy carpet under the dining room table! I'm not a fan of any kind of carpet under dining room tables, just 'cause you have to be so CAREFUL, but at least the really flat kind you can sweep. No pile for crumbs and bits to fall into. (Remember I have 4 year old nephews!)

So today I went and met with the manager and told her my concerns. She was pretty reasonable about the whole thing, I thought, and I feel fairly good about moving ahead. As tenants move out, all apartments are getting updated with the linoleum in the dining area, so that turned out to be a non-issue. And she assured me that when she's doing her post-vacate walk through, she'll check for mildew, and make sure that if there's mildew in the carpet it gets pulled and replaced, and when they repaint, she'll make sure they put a coat of anti-mildew stuff under the paint. And then, before I actually sign the lease, when they're all done working on it, I'll do a walk-through with her and see what I think. If I'm uncomfortable moving in at that point, she'll give me my deposit back (which I gave them to hold the apartment).

Jed mentioned that if they repaint, I might only smell new paint and not smell the mildew when I go through. This is something to keep in mind. I have a pretty good sniffer, though, so I feel pretty good about my ability to tell. Although I think I'll change to a six-month instead of twelve-month lease, just in case anything shows up later. I'm also going to get a couple of those Delonghi oil-filled radiant heaters (or some other brand, maybe -- if anybody knows of any good ones, let me know) for the living room and the bedroom. The heating system that's in the apartment is a baseboard electric one in each of those two rooms: a) expensive to run and b) a fire hazard if you want to put, say a couch or horrors! a bed next to the wall!

Is this apartment sounding not quite as fabulous as it sounded before? Well, it is to me, too, but it's still the best I've seen for the price in Santa Cruz. So... there you have it. If the mildew thing can get taken care of, I think it'll be fine. And if not, well, my sister and Stewart aren't kicking me out (though I think they're looking forward to having a guest room again), so I can afford to keep looking. Big hooray for family!