This is the first post from a series about our first rented apartment, in Pinsker St. As many of you may know, Tel Aviv is a very expensive city, and my then boyfriend and I were looking for our first place together, near both our jobs. We wanted the best this city can offer, walking distance to everywhere, five minutes to the beach and all the nightlife you can imagine.
In order to get what we wanted, not willing to negotiate location and within the budget, we decided to rent an apartment in a relatively bad condition. (I say relatively because in Tel Aviv almost everything affordable is falling appart, and the demand is so big, especially at the center, that the landlords don't even bother fixing or painting the properties.) So we traded location for condition, which in my eyes had a lot of room for improvement on a low budget.
WARNING: If you suffer some sort of heart condition, please don't look at the pictures. Just subscribe to my blog so you can get the "after" ones!
Ok, i get it, you don't see what i see... but... it's 400m from his job, and 500m from mine! and 300 from the beach... and at the low side of our budget!! We should consider it...
Until we saw it. The kitchen... (here goes the horror movie music, the one whith the shower on, and the knife's shadow on the wall)
We told the owners we may come the next day during daylight. But as soon as we walk out, we understood that kitchen was not for us.
The next day, we were taking a look at another apartment, at the top of our budget, and not that interesting, good but not very convincing. Let me explain for you out of Israel, how it works.
In Tel Aviv, if you want to rent a good place, good relationship between location, amenities, size and price (plus the problem we don't have a lot of elevators in central Tel Aviv), if you want to catch an opportunity like that, you need to: get there 20 minutes before everyone else, call the person who is showing it and make sure he understood your name and that you're first in the line. (maybe like i did my first time, tell him you're a new immigrant who's been two months couch surfing, so if he's got a heart, will give you preference.)
Then, you stand by the building's door, or if you know the apartment number, you try to open (almost every door in Tel Aviv is openable without a key or a code) go up and wait there, watching other people gathering there with you. (it also happens that the entrance number isn't clear, so you see other people looking for it, and trying to mislead everyone else, so they are the first ones to arrive, it's soo typical!) By the time the owner/agent arrives, there are 12 people waiting. Maybe you find new couples forming at the spot, just to get to share the apartment. :) Nah, this one i made up.
Then, if you like the place enough, you need to declare it your own before someone else does, and be willing to sign the contract right away (It means you need to show up with a check wallet), or at least a sort of pre-contract where you are charged a non refundable amount of 20% the monthly rent for having the privilege of thinking about it, and signing at another moment. And some of these places often don't have enough windows!
So believe me when i say this place had potential. It seems nobody else saw it, because, as i told you, we were about to decide on another one, when Pinsker's owners called. They wanted us, nice, reliable people. They said they're fixing the kitchen, so we decided to go again in daylight. Long story short, we signed!!
The pictures are really bad. It was night and the place was very filthy. Also, the furniture was not well arranged, but we saw the potential and went for it. The best feature: five minutes walk from both our offices, and the possibility to eat lunch together at home. And, to walk the dog enough during the day. (Worse feature: third floor with no elevator).
Here is the kitchen after they fixed it:
They asked if we had a counter top colour in mind (I have to admit these are not common landlords!) I asked for black counter tops, and i was more than happy with the results... even the brown tiles that i hated look good!
Better place already, eh? Wait to see what we did!
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