House Hunters International - Part 2

In continuation of my last post, I´m going on with House Hunters International - Part 2. Gonzalo picked me up this afternoon after I went to Deloitte to go see two more apartments. I sent him three last night that I was interested, but two of them were already gone by the time that he called the owners. Gotta move quick in this market! With the remaining one of my three picks and another that he was dying to show me, we had our afternoon planned.

Option 4
Urbano

Living area

This apartment was one of the ones I had picked out while surfing the web lastnight. It seemed promising from the photos, and all in all was a pretty good place. It is very close to the subway, near a supermarket, has an indoor pool, a BBQ (which I learned today is called a quincho) and is in a very new building.



Really nice kitchen - big plus




Bathroom



Another shot of the kitchen




Bedroom - the balcony comes across from the den to the bedroom, which i like



 The building seems very safe, but is on a really busy street and has a lot of street noise, even from the 8th floor where the apartment is. Although it has a gym (with 1 treadmill and some weights), it is right next door to a big commercial gym that was advertising memberships for about $25 USD a month. It costs a little more than the second one I saw today, which seems a little crazy because it is in the same neighborhood, and is only 1 bedroom compared to the 2 rooms the other has. The tenant had just left this morning, so it was a little messy, but that is understandable. The fact that the owner was showing it today after it only had been available for a few hours shows how quickly the market moves here.



Another shot of the bedroom





Closet - not bad for Chile / not good for Cameron´s shoes



Option 5
New Las Condes

Living area - lots of space compared to others I´ve seen

I think this is the one!! It is cheaper than the one above ($$ woo!! $$) and twice as big! It is a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment right in the Las Condes area that I want to live. It is walking distance to Deloitte´s new offices, down the street from a supermarket (essential until I get a car), has a pool on the roof, a gym on the first floor, gated underground parking, and is nicely situated on the 14th floor of the building with a great view of the city with the Andes behind. I can imagine that in the winter that the view is gorgeous (think snow capped mountains).

The view (Note: It rained this morning, so the sky is still overcast)

 We had some trouble with this one, but I think it was worth the wait.



I love the kitchen!

 

Bedroom #1

  The story:





Closet #1 (the other closet is identical)



Day 1 - Gonzalo speaks with a woman, we´ll call her Anna Maria, who says that she will stop by the apartment building and leave the keys with the concierge. Gonzalo and I go to the apartment and inquire about the keys, but the concierge looks at us blankly. Clearly Anna Maria had not stopped by with the keys. Gonzalo proposed that we go to another apartment that he wanted to show me to give her more time to come drop off the keys. We returned about an hour later, but there still were no keys in sight. After calling her numerous times and getting no answer, he and Monica (his wife), who by now had shown up at the apartment, decided to call it a day and try again tomorrow. He promised that he would get the keys before coming for me so that we would not have any trouble.



Bedroom #2



Day 2 - Gonzalo picks me up to go see the apartment. He informs me that he was very dissapointed in Anna Maria and wanted to send her a nasty email but wanted to ensure that we saw the apartment first, so he had resisted the temptation. With keys in hand, the two of us go up to the 18th floor to see my potential new abode. There are 5 keys on the keyring...none of which opens the door. Gonzalo tries all 5. Fail. I try all 5. Fail. We go downstairs and get the concierge who returns with us and tries all 5. Fail. Monica called Gonzalo during this unexciting turn of events, who is very insistent that she could get in using the keys just a few days before. We decided that it was worth a shot (and who am I kidding? I have nothing else to do. It´s not like I have places to go or people to see. I have no friends yet.) and so we went to pick his wife up. She tried all 5 keys and, surprise, surprise! Fail.



Day 3 - Before I begin with today´s events, I should add that the previous two days´ failures were what inspired me to start looking around on the internet on my own last night. I also told Gonzalo that if it was going to be too much trouble, I didn´t want him to go to any more trouble for this place. He was insistent though, and sure enough, we got in today! I guess as the saying goes, "Third time´s a charm!"

Bathroom

The BEST part - ample wine storage!!

Okay...I´m a little obsessed with kitchens

Since I´m not really looking for a two-bedroom place, Gonzalo said that he would talk to the owner about moving the bed out of one of the rooms and replacing it with a desk so that I could have a little office of my own. I could then set up a yoga mat on one side of the room and use the TV that is in there to do workout videos. And - another bonus - the problem that every one of these apartments has had is lack of closet space. If I get a two bedroom apartment, I get two closets! The extra bed would remain in storage, so anytime someone comes to visit, I could just trade out the desk and voila! Free place to stay in Chile for everyone! Gonzalo was going to call me after he spoke with the owner this evening. I´m hoping to have good news and be done with apartment hunting. After I start work on Monday, it won´t be nearly as easy to drop everything to go galavanting around town with Gonzalo. I´ll keep you posted!