Rent

When we moved to Fairway Oaks, the rent was $700.  Then it went up to $715.  Now we're being advised that if we want to sign a 12-month lease starting March 1, our rent will be $745.  And if we want to go month-to-month, it'll cost us $785 for the first three months and $805 thereafter.

Also, we're pretty sure jitterbug5bi5 is moving out soon (because we told her that we're not at all sure what's going to be happening with our lease).  So that means we'll be back to paying the whole rent and utilities ourselves.

So this morning we're going to look at places that might not be on the campus shuttle line, but are cheap.  We're looking for 1br/1ba apartments, since this is what we'll likely be moving into when Jodi's in grad school.

My first choice, for location, would be Fisherman's Landing; it's at Fowler and I-75, which is about 15 minutes from work, not 30.  And yet it's close-ish to USF and on a county bus line that goes to campus.  We'll check them out soon.

But first, I've got to get off my butt, stop posting to LJ, and get ready for the day.  So I'll see y'all, Dear Readers, later.

Schooled

I finished the online driver's education class this afternoon while eating a edamame-tofu curry over couscous.  It was pretty simple.  At the end, they try to sting you for rush processing fees in addition to what you've already paid, but I've got 30 days from the accident to tell the county I'm doing traffic school, and 90 days after that to actually send in a copy of the certificate.  So I don't really care if they take two weeks to process it; maybe if I had slacked until the very last minute I'd go for that, but I suspect they get a lot of revenue from people who are just nervous or don't know the procedure.

We looked at apartments today; so far, it seems that the only way to pay less overall than we would here is to live in a 450sqft crate in a shady neighborhood.  Anything else, and we'd exceed the difference in rent just by overlapping rents to move in and out, renting a truck, paying nonrefundable pet fees, administration fees, credit report fees, etc. -- not to mention that we don't pay a separate "pet rent" here, whereas everywhere we looked that actually allows pets allows them because they can make more money from pet owners.

I'm still willing to look at other places, but since Jodi still wants to stay pretty close to USF (she's sitting in on a class or two), our choices are just as constrained as they were when we moved into this place.  We'd have the option of moving to a one-bedroom apartment here, but we'd still have to move everything, we'd still have to overlap the rents in order to move, and we'd end up paying around $700 for a one-bedroom instead of $745 for a two-bedroom.  That doesn't seem worth the effort.  It's true we won't really need an extra bedroom (though I'd like one), or an extra bathroom (though it's not "extra" when we both need to use one).  But surely the difference isn't worth the silliness of renting a truck just to move large furniture pieces 300 meters south.

The other remaining options are Fisherman's Landing, where we'd pay so much in fees that we wouldn't break even against Fairway Oaks for at least 5 months, BUT where I'd have a 15-minute commute -- or getting a new roommate, and I'm not at all keen on that -- or just staying where we are and dealing with the cost.  Because, frankly, it doesn't get a WHOLE lot better than this.  Not in the safer parts of the USF area, anyway.