The search is over!
I found the perfect apartment today, and it's mine, all mine! OK, I guess I'll share it with the boy. But all those poor suckers who showed up just a few minutes after 11 are out of luck. My old Midwestern habit of showing up early instead of fashionably late got us to the apartment five minutes before the group showing this morning. The realtor showed up a few minutes later and said it was first come, first serve, so if we liked it, it was ours. Score!

We went upstairs, and the second we walked in the door, I knew this was it. This was the apartment we'd been looking for. The front door opens into a spacious living room/dining room. The kitchen is just past that and has a huge sky light (did I mention the 12-foot ceilings?) and a washer/dryer. That's right, a washer/dryer in the apartment. There's a spacious bedroom at the back, a closet with some handy built-in shelves and a newly remodeled bathroom. And to top it all off, the apartment is right in our price range and is literally a two-minute walk to the PATH train. (If you're familiar with Hoboken, it's on Garden between Newark and Observer Highway.)

The only drawback is that it's a fifth floor walk-up. But I live in one now, so I don't care. And really, it's a small price to pay for such an awesome apartment. I'm just glad the stairs scared away the people who looked at it yesterday, so that we could get it. We did all the paperwork, passed the credit check and signed a lease by 3 o'clock. I can't wait until September!