So as pimp as our apartment is, it’s ass-expensive.  We knew this and made the choice to renew our lease 2 months after I moved in.  But it’s ridiculous and they’re raising rent again this year.  So, come September 1, we’ll be out of here.

I did some math and played with a mortgage calculator and on HAR.com and it turns out we could afford a decent house in a decent location and still pay at least $3-400 less than we’re paying now.  Plus, the apartments we’d been looking at weren’t that much cheaper than a house anyway.

So we filled out an app for a pre-qualification for a loan.  Man, it feels like freakin Judgment Day.  As I wait to hear from her, I’m afraid she’ll say, “About that loan, I’m afraid I won’t be able to give it to you until you say 100 Hail Marys, 200 Our Fathers and pray for the souls of every single person on the continent of Africa.  Don’t forget Madagascar.”

My credit is decent but I do have quite a bit of debt (which is what is propelling us to move in the first place- so we can pay that stuff off) and I’ve fully accepted that this may not be the time to buy a house.

It might be the time we get rid of some of the furniture and move to a cute one bedroom in Montrose with no balcony, no pool, no covered parking and no gym.  And pay half the rent we were accustomed to paying.

So on any given day, depending on how optimistic I’m feeling, I will either browse houses or apartments online.  To find apartments, I used to use the Houston Press until that got overrun with scams and shady apartment brokers.  So then it was Craigslist, but now you can’t find a single posting from a landlord, it’s all businesses that post something ridiculous like “2-bedroom with hardwoods and washer/dryer, central a/c, dishwasher and covered parking close to Rice University- $550.”  And then when you call, they’re all, “Oh, we don’t have that particular unit available, but . . .”

So I was like, Man, where are all the cool kids getting apartments??  Anyway, I found the website.  And I fell in love with about 50 apartments last night.  Even Dave got excited about moving, and that’s saying something.  It’s too soon to contact them, but at least I know where to look in about 2 months!

I mean, unless that whole house thing works out.