joys, part 2

i failed to tell the whole story in my previous post. i gave a glimpse of what looking for a place entailed but let me paint a more colorful picture.

part of the frustration of finding a place was the vast number of email i had to sort through. each craig's list posting i replied to had to get copied from whatever email client C'sL opened and put into my gmail account. early on i forgot to copy the exact subject line, which gave detailed specifics about the listing so i could tell them apart. i had many emails with the subject line 'your apartment'.

once i ventured out of C'sL into xpat sites it didn't get much better. some places were independent agent sites - these were the easiest to manage. but some were compilation sites - gathering apartment listings from multiple agents. one day i was excited having found, what i thought, the perfect place for us. the site forwarded my request to the agent that listed it only to tell me they only do 6 months leases, not 3 like i was looking for. but the site i got it from would not allow me to see which agent it was going to so i continued to email this agent time and time again with new inquiries about different places. i am sure she was really tired of getting email from me repeatedly asking her for apartments...

i found a very promising houseboat listing which i eagerly awaited a reply for. it was on a reputable looking agent website. unfortunately they wanted a renter 'directly' which i finally figured out meant immediately in january. this one really bummed me out - it seemed perfect - 1 bedroom with a convertible second, great location, fully furnished, a piano, within budget, and with a little boat for canal cruising. after the negative response i continued my daily search secretly pining away for my houseboat, or watervilla, as the agent described it.

more time passed. more emails going nowhere. more frustration and obvious scams.

as december came to an end i started to get really worried. we talked about changing homebase locations or spending some time in amsterdam and then switching to rome for even more short term (and more expensive) places.

i got the nerve to contact the agent again about the houseboat to see if she had rented it 'directly' and she said it was still available! i offered to rent it for the month of january even though we would not be occupying it until february - i chalked it up to paying an agent fee which it looked like i woudl have to pay anyway by getting a helpful agent.

we quickly came to terms and rented the place for a 4 month term. the landlord bundled in the utilities and 2 beds for the kids in the guest area as well as adding a washing machine. we signed the lease and sent off a check via international wire transfer (i did follow up with local US references on the agent just to be sure it was legit).

so, as of several weeks ago we were proud tenants of a houseboat on the keizersgracht canal.

and, just to come full circle, i originally found the houseboat listing on craig's list...