Today, Monday, was a very busy day for me. I had to move out in the morning from my corporate housing, Biltmore in Cupertino, but I still haven’t found another place to move into.

Suite America doesn’t work on weekends (kinda surprising, since it is supposedly a big corporation or whatever), so I couldn’t extend the stay or get any extra info over the weekend. I called early in the morning today (their voice system said yesterday that they’re open from 08:30 — I called just a few minutes from 08:30), asked if this apartment I’m staying in is available for any further days, or whether it is already reserved for someone else very soon. Turns out, someone from my very same company is moving into this Apt right this Wednesday, so they’d only have Tuesday to clean it up, which was planned to have been done on Monday, as I was told. Anyhow, they said it’s fine to extend for one extra day. I then had to call my contracted relocation assistant to ask if my company would cover the extra day of corporate housing; they had to contact my company to figure out if it’ll be covered. :-) Of course, it was covered, so a few hours later I’ve received a confirmation email that it is. But by this time, I was already looking around a number of properties.

Today, I first went to Bre Villa Granada in Santa Clara, right next to the DMV. Before actually going there, it was quite a hassle to contact the place: first, the phone number listed at the end of an agent’s email turns out to be for their general voice mail system or whatever. Then an 800-number they have in the brochure he sent me turns out to belong to another property that BRE manages. And it’s not possible at all to know if any specific apartment is available, no way to contact anyone who knows anything specific, their 800-number agents are quite useless! After actually arriving at Villa Granada, it turns out that the specific unit I wanted to rent, #360 with 759 sq ft for 1790 a month with 1 month of free rent (e.g. effectively 1640 a month), has already been rented out! And one other unit I liked from their web-availability page, #265 for 1770, was not actually on the market and has never been available — still in the final construction phase! Being kinda desperate, I was ready to agree to almost anything reasonably decent, and there was this unit on the first floor, #120 with 759 sq ft for 1860 (I think) with 1 month free rent (effectively 1705). The position was perfect: East for the bedroom just as I wanted, and exactly SE for the living room and balcony, but it was on the first floor and in the potentially noisier swimming pool courtyard. I got all the details, and was almost ready to put the deposit in… If they would not have required me to get a certified cheque or a money order, I might have as well had that apartment now… But because they were kinda inflexible, I decided that I have to at least take a final look at some other properties, and if this one ends up being taken by someone else — so be it…

Called the Hamptons in Cupertino, and, it seems, they lied that they had a unit available that meets my specification: the unit was not facing East, but WN instead. And when seeing the actual unit, I was very disappointed that it was full of old pet smell, and the agent could even agree that there was this distinctive smell! Totally out of the question, and especially since the price was about the same as the units in those other brand new communities where not a single person dwelled in the personal space being rented.

Went to the Elements again, almost by chance, since at the previous glance, no apartments fit my fancy. Long story short, I looked at a few units again, 3 to be exact, and decided to settle for a unit that was actually cheaper, after the discounts, than the #120 in Villa Granada, yet bigger in size and at an upper level, and with the view of the fountain, instead of the pool… South facing. One other thing is that even after being slightly cheaper (1875 a month with 42 days free, effectively around 1620 a month) and bigger (Plan 1 at 861 sq ft), the appliances seem to be considerably better at the Elements when compared to Villa Granada (waster/dryer, and especially the stove that noone uses anyways — E has that new single-surface stove, whereas VG had the older coil-style burners).

Anyhow, turns out, with Elements, you don’t have to pay any application fees, no rent until the 42 days are over (Villa Granada wanted me to pay 360 with a certified cheque or money order as the prorated rent for the rest of July, leaving August as a whole month for free), and even the deposit is 100 dollars lower (400 with E vs. 500 with VG).

I went back home to Biltmore, which, BTW, doesn’t have any one bedroom apartments available — I kinda like mine, after all — the only available option being a single Apt with a single 2-bedroom plan. One thing with Biltmore is that you can hear the neighbours make various noises quite often, so there I was, lying on the bed in my bedroom at about 15:00, busy finishing the application… Now, the rest of the story will have a slightly different tone, perhaps not even work safe, and something that I don’t recall ever blogging about in any journal before. Anyhow, as I was filling in the application, I heard some interesting noise from the apartment above me… Pardon for the details, and I don’t mean to sound immature, but the (couple) upstairs was having sex… I haven’t heard it for too long although I’ve been in my bedroom for a couple of minutes at the time already — the climax seemed to have been the only thing hearable, perhaps for a minute or so… It got me kinda curious of who’s that who’s living upstairs from me? Anyhow, I was still completing my application, after all, I still had to report back to work… The Lease Contract and the whole thing was quite long, and I also had to buy rental insurance and get the utilities going… Anyhow, as I was completing it, just sometime before 17:00, I heard it again, again only the climax of the last minute or so… Now it got me curious… First of all, who is that who’s living upstairs in a 1-bedroom apartment if they don’t have to work during the latter parts of 9 to 5 daytime. Also, how come I’ve never heard they have sex during more “appropriate” hours of being intimate? And, most importantly, kinda curious about the actual people! Now, I don’t wanna sound immature or whatever, but I’ve just never heard that before; some unidentifiable noise from a seemingly disturbed bed in an adjacent apartment, sure; back on Firetower Rd, I heard a neighbour talking intimately to his girlfriend, disturbing my sleep, but I’ve never actually heard her make any distinctive noise (perhaps he weren’t good enough? :). Also, another thing to consider is that with these neighbours, I’ve never actually heard anyone talk from up there, so I’m just really curious who those people are! And I have to move out before finding that out!! Yeah, I know, I’m weird, but whatever. :-)

I finished the application, got back to work to say hi to everyone, committed a bug-fix, and tagged / submitted the release, closing the bug, and got back to the new apartment complex to receive the keys to my brand new place. :-)

BTW, I can’t seem to find that xkcd episode where they estimate how many apartments away from any single person couples are having sex in. Based on that, I’m kinda surprised I haven’t heard it before. :-) Perhaps a different chart is needed — how many people are loud (and how loud) when having sex. :-)