I'm a Big Girl Now, See My Big Girl Shoes...

(ah, I love Ingrid Michaelson).

A lot of people lived in their own apartments off-campus during undergrad. I'm not one of those people. Neither are 99% of the people I went to undergrad with. You see, Denison (my alma mater) is a 100% residential school, so everyone, except for students whose parents lived within 5 miles of campus, was required to live in the dorms. It was great, because you never really had to worry about anything, and you got to know everyone really well. It fostered a great sense of community.

It didn't foster the knowledge of how to set up all of the things you'll need to live on your own, however. So here I am, 24 and going into law school, and this is allllllllll new to me.

I've found an apartment okay, and signed my lease without any hitches. But now what do I do? Set up my utilities!

For those in my shoes, moving out on your own for the first time, I mean, you'll need to set up your utilities. Don't wait until you move in to get these things taken care of -- call a week or two ahead of time and have them switch over service on your move in date! It's easy to do, and that way you can make sure that you'll have lights/air conditioning/etc. on your move in day.

For my apartment building, the service providers were already decided, so I just had to call and transfer service into my name. I'm still deciding on my cable service (should I get it? Will it be a distraction? Can't I just watch Hulu Plus or Netflix online?), but for now my electricity and gas are both good to go. I'm not going to get a land line, and water and trash are both taken care of by my landlord.

It sure feels good to make those check marks on my to-do list! Soon my "to-done" list will be longer than my to-do list! Yayyyyyyy.

Summer is an Uncertain Entity

One of the bummers about signing a lease for an apartment in a new city where you're going to be going to law school is that you don't know exactly how long your lease term should be. While everyone in 1L takes the same subjects and reviews the same cases, not everyone has the same opportunities for summer employment, and that employment is what will dictate where you live during May, June, July and half of August.

So the predicament that a lot of law students find themselves in is in deciding how long of a lease term they should sign to. 10 months? 12 months? A lot of times you'll get a price break for a longer (12 month) lease, but the practicality of a 10 month lease is appealing.

I don't have the luxury of making that decision at this point. The apartment that I'll most likely be signing for is a 12 month lease...I didn't have the option of making it a 10 month with an option to renew. Luckily I was able to get the option to sublease the apartment should I be unable to live there for all 12 months.

Ideally I'll get a paying 1L summer gig at a biglaw (market paying) firm in Dallas. Realistically? Those positions are few and far between, and it is more than likely that I'll either have to move back to my hometown and work at a mid-law (but still paying) gig here where I have ties, or work/clerk for free in Dallas over the summer. Either way I'll have to continue paying rent through the summer, so if I do move home for those months I'll definitely need to sublet my place in order to afford it.

Siiiiiiiigh. The trials and tribulations of being a grown up.

Taking a New Approach to Apartment Hunting

So, after careful consideration of several different factors, it was my intent to sign a lease at Cambridge Apartments in Dallas. The area seemed nice enough, the leasing agents were all very helpful, it was in my price range, and there was a one-bedroom unit available.

Unfortunately, my intent meant very little when it came to actually signing a lease. In fact, I never even saw a lease. At the last minute the one-bedroom became no longer available, and that was a bummer.

So I started looking again, this time slightly more panicked (as we're getting closer and closer to my moving date). I widened my net, so to speak, to take in apartments in more locations and at a higher budget. And my belief that when God closes a door he opens a window was completely reaffirmed.

I found a new place that I'm signing a lease on this week, and I'm stoked. It's a 2/1 unit literally right across the street from the law school. Now, I wasn't looking for a 2 bedroom, but I was looking at the floor plan and it looks like this unit will be ideal because I'll be able to have a study area, which sure beats doing my work at my kitchen table. (My dad suggested turning the extra bedroom into a closet. He knows me so well!)

However, there are pros and cons to every situation.

In this instance, I'll be paying a premium for the extra room and convenience in proximity to the law school. After all is said and done, my rent + utilities will be about $200-$250 per month higher than if I had rented at Cambridge. However, I think that not really having to drive anywhere and being in an incredibly safe neighborhood will be worth it in the end.

I'm only worried that really I might not be far enough away from campus. I know that sounds ridiculous. Living so close will be awesome during the school year, but what about finals time? I feel like the stress I will feel on campus (that I could normally get away from if I chose to live somewhere a little more removed from campus) will be just hanging over me all of the time if I'm that close to the source of my stress.

I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?

The Many Moving Decisions of Miss Twenty-Something Law Student

Okay, so moving cross-country (or partially cross-country, as the case may be) isn't a new thing to me. But this will be the first time I've undertaken a move like this without a dorm room (and the included amenities and furniture) waiting for me on the other side. And that just makes this whole process a little bit more difficult.

During college I acquired quite a bit of "stuff" and I had to get rid of 75% of it when I moved back to California, so everything that I ended up keeping was really special or useful to me. And in the last two years that I've been out of college, I've managed to accumulate even MORE stuff. Now that the time has come for me to be a big girl and get my own (unfurnished) apartment, I have to decide what "stuff" comes with me and what stuff stays. 

Let me give you a clue: I want it ALL.

Needless to say, there aren't very many scenarios in which I can keep or even use all of my stuff. And how much I ultimately decide to part with will determine how I move to Dallas in 50 days. Here are the options that I've explored.

1. Moving Truck - I could rent a moving truck from a company like U-haul or Penske. These trucks run about $850 to pick up in my hometown and drop off 6 days later in Dallas, and have a mileage limit of 1750 miles. Now, it's only 1300ish miles to Dallas, so I'm thinking that I would be fine as far as mileage goes, but if I rent a truck I still have to pay for gas and hotels, etc. These trucks get about 12 mpg on the freeway, so at $4/gallon that's an extra $440 in gas at least, not to mention food and lodging. I'm thinking that this option, in total, will cost me about $1600 when all is said and done, plus will take 4 days (1 to load, 2 to drive, 1 to unload).
   
2. U-Haul Trailer - I could rent a small trailer to hitch behind our car/truck. To pick one up in my hometown and drop it off in Dallas 6 days later would cost about $150. Now, the added expense here would come from the mileage and money put into our personal vehicle. Since I'm not planning on taking my car to Dallas, we would probably use one of my parent's cars. We have a hybrid and a small truck, and odds are we would end up taking the small truck (it's older and an extra car, anyway, so no one cares about the added mileage...plus it's tiny and gets good gas mileage). The bad thing about this option would be that someone (probably my dad) would have to drive the truck to and from Dallas, and one of these trips he would be by himself. :/ Total I think that this option would end up costing about $650.
   
3. ABF U-Pack Pods - This option is the least amount of stress. The pod is delivered to my house, I pack it, they pick it up and 4 days later it's dropped off in front of my apartment in Dallas. The contents are insured, so that's another worry off of my mind. It is pricey though, and we're looking at about $900 for the door-to-door service. In addition to that price, I would have to get a plane ticket to Dallas for myself, which is an additional $200, so our total out the door would be around $1100. STILL, it does make it exponentially easier and less stressful on me, which makes it more valuable.
   
4. Two Suitcase Limit - In this option my dad and I fly out to Dallas, and whatever I can pack with me in two suitcases (technically three, since my dad wouldn't need two) is what I end up starting with in Dallas. Of course, this means that the big things -- my bed, my amazing bookshelf, my books, and my mementos and knick-knacks -- couldn't come with me. I would have to sell everything possible before leaving and use the proceeds from that to set myself up with some Craig's List and IKEA furniture before school starts. I might ship myself a box or two of books before moving, but other than that...no comforts of home. While this option is the cheapest (only the price of a plane ticket), it's the least amount of "stuff," and it would probably cost me more in the long run to replace my stuff than it would just to move my stuff.
   
5. Road Trip - In this option we load the little truck down with as much stuff as it can hold, strap the mattress with a tarp over it on top, and take a road trip to Dallas. This option would fit an amount of stuff somewhere between options #4 and #2, which is doable without being outrageously expensive to supplement once I'm in Dallas. This option would probably cost about $500 in gas, food, and lodging.

So, those are the options I'm weighing right now. I think ultimately it will probably come down to my dad, who is the one who's going to be doing the lifting and taking the time off to move me in. It's kind of an overwhelming amount of information to process, isn't it?

Checking out Apartments around SMU

So today I spent a few hours on the phone with various leasing offices around the University Park area of Dallas. Exhausting and confusing, to say the least. It's difficult to assess an apartment building and address when you're not familiar with the city in which you will be living. So I took exhaustive notes, and hopefully, with the help of my dad and maybe a friend who is familiar with the Dallas area, I'll be able to make a smart, informed decision about where I want to live and how much I'm willing to pay.

The apartments that I visited when I was in Dallas last time that weren't in the Village were all too expensive for me to live in on my own, and so I originally planned to go back to Dallas at the end of June/beginning of July to figure out a few other options and visit with some leasing agents. Now, because of family schedules, that's looking like it might not be possible. Soooo, not only am I finding an apartment in unfamiliar territory, I may also be signing a lease sight unseen.

Scary stuff, right?

Well, I've talked with a bunch of leasing offices within the Village: The Cliffs, The Corners/Corners East, The Bend/Bend East, The Gate, and The Meadows. Apparently they are tearing down of the building to start construction on a new building, and so the tenant of the Bluffs have moved into other buildings throughout the Village communities, so not only is there a decreased availability, there is an increase in rate as well. This is a bummer, but probably not a barrier to my living there. Rent in Dallas is still less than rent in Santa Barbara (although considerably more than rent at my parents' house, which after utilities is a whopping $0).

As it stands, the least expensive 1/1 in the Village for a 10 month lease starting on or around August 1 would be about $730. I think that both the Bend East and Corners East had apartments at that rate. My preference in the Village would probably be to live in the Cliffs, because it has a gated parking lot and comes with alarms on the apartments, but apparently most of the people displaced from the Bluffs are moving into the Cliffs, and so there is zero availability as of now.

We're still 60(ish) days out from my move, so within the next 30 days things should be opening up, so I'll have to check back. As of now I'm on the wait list at the Gate and the Cliffs, and hopefully everything will work out.

Contrary to popular TLS wisdom, there are more places to live than just the Village. :) One place that has come recommended was a building called Cambridge Court Apartments. They, too, are gated, and are cheaper than the Village, but they lack some of the amenities of the Village properties and are a little bit (maybe 5 minutes) farther away from school. BUT, on the plus side, they offer a student discount, so that's good. I hate to consider somewhere that I haven't seen, and I haven't been able to check out these particular apartments, but the property has a pretty decent score on apartmentratings.com and the pictures look nice.

Siiiiiigh. Moving 1200 miles away from home when you don't have a dorm room (and the attached conveniences of one) waiting for you on the other end is turning out to be trickier than I thought it would.

Visiting the Village -- An Apartment Complex Review

Well, like I said in my earlier posts, I decided to take a little extra time in Dallas to check out a few of the living options near campus. One complex (well, series of complexes, really) that I chose to check out was the Village.

The Village is a community of apartments complexes pretty darn close to SMU's campus (two freeway exits, I think) that share a park, "country club" and other recreational facilities. The whole community has a 2.5 mile jogging trail and two lakes. Pretty. I think that there are 14 different complexes that are within the purview of "the Village" and I looked at 4 or 5 of them while I was there.

Some of the buildings are newer than others, and some have different amenities, so there can be quite a swing in rent from one complex to the next. I think the lowest priced 1/1 I saw/heard of in the Village was about $600/month, and the highest that I saw was around $1000. For 2/2 I saw some that started right around $850, and went up from there.

The complexes that I looked at were called The Bend/Bend East, The Gate, The Cliffs, and The Lakes. I also took a quick glance around The Dakota (mostly because of the name -- maybe I could convince people I lived in the same building as Yoko Ono).

I was particularly interested in The Cliffs -- it had a gated parking area, some lake views, included alarms, and these cute "greenhouses" where they had enclosed what would have been a patio to add on to your indoor space. I think a 1/1 there ran about $657 without the "upgrades" (black appliances, tile entry, wood laminate flooring in the bath rather than linoleum) and without a W/D. I'm not too worried about the W/D because each complex has several communal laundry facilities spread out, so odds are I'd be pretty close. The Cliffs was behind the Lifestyle Center/country club, close to a main road. That's why it's gated -- so that it can't be used as a short cut.

The Bend/Bend East was located before you got to the Lifestyle Center/country club, coming off of Lover's Lane and Amesbury. They seemed to be less expensive than the other places I checked out, but they weren't gated, alarm service was an extra $25/month, and their pool wasn't quite as nice as the other places. However, the leasing office was really friendly. The plus side was that it would be closer to the SMU Mustang Express, which is apparently a shuttle that will take you to campus. Neither the Bend nor the Cliffs allowed pets (not a problem for me right now, but I might want a dog in the future -- after 1L. Odds are that I would kill anything living from sheer neglect my 1L year).

The Gate is really pretty, with a great pool and really nice landscaping. They do allow pets, and are slightly more expensive than The Cliffs. They, too, are un-gated and un-alarmed. They were across the street and down a little from the Bend and Bend East.

The Lakes was nicer than any of the other buildings I checked out, because it's newer. It has great lake views, is the closest to the "country club" and other communal amenities, and has good access to the jogging trail. It was also the most expensive of the complexes I looked at. I probably wouldn't be able to afford a 1/1 there, but if I got a roommate a 2/2 would be close to what a 1/1 would run at another complex within the Village.

Overall, the Village seemed like a good option for people who wanted to be pretty close to campus while still being removed from it. It was cheaper than I was expecting, and the community had a nice, safe feel to it. It seems like a lot of law students (and other students) make the Village their home, but most of the buildings are 21 and up, so I don't think you would have to worry about it being too undergrad-y. I'm definitely keeping the complex in the running.

So, does anyone have any experience -- good or bad -- with the apartments in the Village?