Scouting trip to Asheville, NC

A week and a half ago Niesha and I took a trip down to Asheville to try and find a place to live since we had planned to move down there at the end of the month. Smart eh? The 11 hour drive down to North Carolina went relatively smoothly but upon arriving at our friends, Michael and Dawn's place, and opening the trunk of the car Niesha and I made a shocking observation. It so happened that when I was loading the car with bags and stuff Niesha thought I carried her duffle bag down to the car. I assumed she had it on the final trip to the car that we both made. So back in our apartment on the floor of our bedroom near the closet sat Niesha's clothes and overnight supplies. I felt horrible. My wife, who is a very forgiving woman, said it was okay and we made the best of it (with a trip to Walmart and Dawn lending and giving Niesha a bunch of stuff).

Apparently Asheville is a very popular place, especially with school starting up right about now. We had a tough time locating many apartment complexes that had any available units when we called leading up to our trip. And it didn't get any easier. We had driven down on Saturday and so Sunday was our first apartment hunting excursion. The first place we had made an appointment at was only about 4 minutes from where we were staying and the place was quite decent. Next I called to confirm an appointment that I had made for later that night to see a small house for rent. But it had been rented. So next we headed to our second appointment. When we got their the lone employee was already helping a prospective tenant. I jokingly said to Niesha that that guy better not be stealing the apartment we were coming to look at. Turns out he wasn't the apartment had been rented the day before and they no longer had any units in our price range. So after seeing one apartment, that was actually available we were done for the day. That night we looked more online and made some more phone calls to try and increase the number of options we had left. We originally had only 3 more appointments on Monday so we increased that by a few.

The second place we saw Monday morning was very......interesting. We met a lady who worked for a property manager at one location and although the current tenants hadn't moved out yet she could show it to us and two other guys who were possibly interested. As we entered the two bedroom four-plex apartment it literally looked like a landfill had died there. We could not believe they would show a place like that, although the lady may not have known the state of it.

After a full day of checking out places we had narrowed our choices to three places. After further deliberation we got to two since the one was a little high on rent and didn't include any utilities. We talked and dicussed, made decisions, and then changed our minds. Finally we decided on a place called Willow Ridge. We planned to go there first thing in the morning, sign some papers, drop off the security deposit and head home to Kalamazoo. The next morning we arrived at their office at 8:40 am and the office was supposed to open at 8:30 but no one was there. A maintenance man came by and said they had run some errands and would be back in 20 minutes. 40 minutes later (and with at least an 11 hour drive ahead of us) the two female employees returned. When we told them we had been waiting for 40 minutes the one lady in a rude tone said, "that's why we make appointments". I replied, "Excuse me but your office hours start at 8:30am" She assured us she would help us. As the other female entered the office I saw her put down a grocery bag with hair products in it. Apparently the urgent "errand" these two women needed to do was get hairspray. Looking through an apartment chart the first lady said, "Oh, that apartment you wanted was rented after you left yesterday. And the other option we had mentioned is gone too." We stood there not believing our ears.
As we got in the car we realized we had wasted almost an hour at a place that didn't have any vacancies. So we headed to the backup place called Parkway Crossing. At Parkway they apartment was still available so we took it. It was two hours later than expected when we finally rolled out of Asheville and little did we know that thanks to three road construction sites, and a major interstate accident we would arrive home over 12 hours later, with Niesha having to work early the next morning.
But here's where it gets even more interesting. Four hours into our drive home we get a call on Niesha's cell phone from Willow Ridge, the lady who put the deposit on the apartment we wanted called and cancelled so it's available now. I told the lady we had put down a deposit elsewhere. I hung up. Niesha and I talked. I called Parkway and they could refund the deposit with no penalty. Niesh and I talked. I called Willow Ridge again and asked how we could get the apartment without being there. I got the info and hung up. Niesha and I talked. Now we were unsure of what to do. We obviously didn't like the office ladies at Willow Ridge. Niesha and I talked some more. I really wish Willow hadn't called us about the open apartment, it would have made the trip home much more relaxing. We ended up deciding to stay at Parkway. So here are some photos of the model unit they show to everyone. Of course it is decorated better than we will be able to do with our limited budget but it may give you an idea of our new home.



The kitchen is small and the two rooms aren't that big but it has a walk-in closet and the living room is much better laid out than Willow. Plus the bathroom is also bigger.


Our friends Michael and Dawn were awesome hosts. Somehow though I didn't even get a picture of them. Here's a pic (above) of their house and their CRAZY driveway.


The highlight of the trip for me was getting to drive Michael and Dawn's son's 2006 5.0 liter Ford Mustang. I have never driven anything with that much power. Screaming around the back roads of Asheville was a blast in that thing! I'll have more pics of our trip on my facebook account soon....hopefully.