Eureka! or How Greg and Katherine Found an Apartment With a Normal Refrigerator

I failed to mention previously that Greg and I are moving into a downtown apartment, in the Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego. It is a short walk to Greg's work and very close to the Gaslamp Quarter, the Marina, Balboa Park... really, a central location from which to explore everything San Diego has to offer.

However, finding the apartment from Indiana was not a breeze. In late May Greg and I went to San Diego to find an apartment. While there we worked with a fantastic real estate agent who showed us apartments and condo rentals live while introducing us to the different San Diego neighborhoods. We returned to Indiana and monitored CraigsList for units opening up in the buildings that we had seen. In June we were rewarded with a posting for an apartment in our first choice building, at a reasonable price, with a balcony and view of the bay. We sent in our rental application and asked our agent to take a look. She did, and reported back: the unit was perfect and came with a painted refrigerator.

... ummm, what?! The unit came with a refrigerator that had been painted by a local artist, purchased by the owner, and placed in the rental unit for her tenants to enjoy.

Sadly, we didn't think we could live with it for a year (could you?). One could possibly compromise and deal with the woman clutching her stomach while standing a mountainous landscape, but the bunny and the green head make it too weird to live with. (I believe Greg disagrees with me, as he finds the whole thing unappetizing.) After some back and forth with the owner, who wouldn't replace it for us, we had to look elsewhere for an apartment with a normal refrigerator.

This was a frustrating experience, because who ever thought a painted refrigerator would hinder their apartment search? And we were uncertain that another apartment would open in the same building, which we loved. However, a few weeks later we found a posting for a comparable apartment at a lower price in a different building. We ended up taking that unit after confirming that the appliances were normal, and are very happy with the way things turned out.

Eureka!