Insane weekend

The good news: I was offered a new job in DC.
The bad news: I start in a month, which means I have to find an apartment and move in less time than that, all the while still working at my old job, and figuring out what the hell I'm going to do about the 7 months left on my current apartment lease.

This, it seems, will entail trips to DC pretty much every weekend from now until I move. Got up at 5:30 yesterday morning so I could drive down and meet my parents for our first weekend of apartment hunting. My mother would love for me to get a condo, so I can build up some equity rather than throwing away money on rent, but so far, we've only found one place I could afford (in Alexandria), and I wasn't crazy about it. I don't want to buy the first place I see, just because it's a great price. As my mother says, if you buy something on sale, and then you don't like it, you didn't really get a bargain.

So I'm also looking at renting an apartment - which is also absurdly expensive. Once we ruled out all the places that either were out of my price range, or in bad neighborhoods, or so much of a dump my mother wouldn't let me live there, there aren't that many choices, but still, I think it's going to be a hard decision. Having visited and ruled out Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Hyattsville, and Temple Hills (all in Maryland), I've got it narrowed down to probably Arlington or Alexandria, leaning toward Alexandria, because that seems to be more affordable.

I'm looking for a one-bedroom, although we did look at a few studio/efficiency apartments this weekend. The studio would definitely be cheaper, but I worry about a.) not having a private bedroom area when I have guests, especially guests who sleep over, b.) less space for the kitty, and c.) not enough room for all my furniture. I'm in a one-bedroom now, and it's fully furnished, so all that stuff will have to go somewhere. (I suppose it could go in my parents' basement, but the main problem seems to be the bedroom furniture, and I don't know where I'd store all my clothes if I can't fit my dresser in the apartment...)

There's a fair amount of sticker shock going from where I live now, which is one of the most expensive apartments in my (admittedly small) city, to finding out that, on the same salary, I qualify for low-income housing in the DC metro area. Talk about your cost of living differences.

Anyway, since we didn't find anything that was absolutely perfect, we will probably be going back and looking at more places next weekend. It's a damn good thing I like spreadsheets, because trying to keep track of all this is making my head spin.

It's entirely possible that this may become "Laura's apartment hunting journal" for the next few weeks, for which I apologize in advance.