APARTMENT HUNTING TIPS!

So I will start by saying I have just signed a lease for an awesome apartment. It is a 2 bedroom apartment with a huge kitchen, huge living room, 6 windows, 1 bathroom and lots of storage space. It includes 2 beds, 2 desks, a glass top kitchen table with 4 chairs, a stove, washer and dryer, vacuum, dishwasher, refrigerator, lots of cabinets, 2 dressers, 2 lamps, a couch, glass top coffee table with two matching end tables, entertainment center and a lazy boy chair which are all like NEW. Another plus is all utilities, cable, internet and trash services are included in the rent. It is located in a very quiet and safe neighborhood. It is a upstairs/downstairs duplex and I have the downstairs apartment. The guy who lives upstairs is actually the owner and is a very nice guy, he is in his 6th year at the MU vet school. The apartment doesn't allow cats or dogs but that's okay because the owner has a pet horse! By horse I mean THE BIGGEST GREAT DANE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! So I should feel very safe with that gigantic animal in her pen which runs next to my patio! It is also a plus because I will get to pet and play with the dog without having to clean up after it or feed it, so hey... that's like the perfect pet situation! :) now comes the important question...

How much am I paying for this place?
Well friends the answer is 600.00 a month for everything listed up top. That may sound like a lot but once you start searching you will realize that at a huge apartment complex that same deal may run you at least 1,000 bucks if not more.

I wanted to write this blog to leave a few tips I have learned during the search. I actually started looking at apartments back in February with two friends of mine. Then after a month of searching one of the girls' family decided they wanted her to stay in the Christian Campus House and were not okay with her moving out. So in March we re-started the search with our number being down to 2. We searched for about another month and then my one remaining partner actually started looking into transferring colleges to play softball at another school. Well she still had some time left in season so we agreed to wait until the end of May to see what she had decided and whether she was staying or not. End of May got here and she decided to not stay at MU. So that dropped me down to one, numero uno, all alone without a home.

I searched all summer and in the past couple weeks was really starting to feel like I would never find anything that was affordable. Most 1 bedroom places that were not taken were either the size of a small closet and over priced, or where located in very questionable neighborhoods that would really make me not feel safe to be alone. I happened across an add in the Columbia Tribune for this apartment and decided to not get too excited but to check it out, having gotten my hopes up on articles before only to be let down by someone REALLY over exaggerating there place for rent in the paper. This place however, worked out.

NOW... for some tips and pointers!

1) Make sure when you ask about rent to ask if utilities are included... if they aren't find out the average cost per month for that residence. You can usually do that by calling the city services wherever you are and giving them the address you are interested in. SEVERAL places said they were 300.00 a month and then with utilities would have been at least 500.00! And lots of those did not include internet, cable, washer or dryer, or furniture.

2) Decide if furnished or not furnished would be cheaper. 25-50 bucks extra a month for a furnished place might sound crazy but that adds up to 300-600 for a 12 month lease. Will you pay more than that once you purchase a bed, desk, couch, washer, dryer, microwave etc. This mainly depends on how much you already own, how much you can do without and how new you want your stuff. Garage sales and flea markets are great places to find furniture if you don't mind older fixer-uppers.

3) Do you own a pet? Sometimes apartments require a pet deposit PLUS a per monthly charge. Don't let that hidden cost get you.

4) LAUNDRY... this was a big deal for me because I wanted a washer and dryer. Find out if the place has hook-ups, actual includes machines or just has a coin operated room for everyone. If you are like me, I didn't like the idea of paying 1.00+ for each load in the coin operated machines, especially since some machines don't QUITE hold as much as they should. I figured roughly that a "normal" load for me would most likely be 2-3 for the coin machines and with drying that added to be 5-6 bucks each time I washed. If you do laundry each week that could be like 20 bucks extra a month. That's 240.00 a year, when you can buy a used set of washer dryers for 100-150. (It's true just look on Craigslist.)

4) SAFETY! You can call your police department or even just Google to see what kind of area the place is in. Does the road and surrounding roads pop up in a lot of crime reports and news reports?? Then STAY AWAY!

5) Be sure to consider all the extra things you wouldn't think about right off the top of your head when moving to your own place:
Pots and Pans
Towels and rags
vacuum
plunger
umbrella
blender
utensils
plates, bowls, cups
bedding
cleaning supplies
extension cords
curtains
lawn mower
weight scale
coffee maker
toaster
rugs
light bulbs
shelves
hangers
TOILET PAPER :)
And so on and so forth....

6) What kind of air/heating system does it have? If heated with gas that may be an extra utility bill to pay.

7) Internet? Cable? See if there is already a hook-up for ethernet or a cable hook-up. If you have to get things installed yourself for internet and cable that may be another fee you haven't considered.

8) Parking, is it assigned? Is it well lit? What if you have guests, where do they park?

NOW GET STARTED HERE ARE WAYS TO FIND PROPERTIES:

1) Drive around town and find signs in yards

2) Check online renter search sites such as Apartments.com and Apartment Finder .

3) Don't just take the landlord's word for how the apartment is, ask other residence and check out opinions on site like Apartment Ratings.
THAT RATING SITE REALLY HELPED ME!

Alright guys, hope that this blog helps someone out! Feel free to comment with any questions, concerns, things to add... etc.

THANKS!
Trinity

CHICAGO

I recently took a trip to Chicago and have several pictures to show from that adventure. I have to go through most of them and edit them before posting them on this blog, but I wanted to go ahead and display a panoramic shot I took and then pieced together. (It is actually the one I use under the blog title)

ENJOY!

I'm back and I've brought a few changes...

I haven't wrote for awhile on this blog but I am going to try and bring it to life again. I want to make it a more day to day blog where I share lessons I have learned, pictures I have taken and things I have done. I hope to leave little tips that I have pick up too. Such as good places to eat, shop or visit. I hope to build my following and keep people entertained! Thanks for checking this out and I will leave you with a couple pictures that I have taken recently.

Here are a few portraits I took of a friend and her husband. They are expecting a child and I was able to have a photo-shoot with them.

THE PRANK!

So I am, by nature, a prankster and decided it was high time for another prank. Before I leave the Christian Campus House I want to have as much fun as possible... well one night while thinking this I came up with a great idea, instead of pranking the other girls or guys (the students aka my peers) I decided it would be epic to prank our ministers! They are a fun loving group who can enjoy a good laugh so I knew that was my ideal group to get especially since they always miss out on being the targets! So after my last final a few friends joined me in carrying out my prank idea and I finally have the video done!

So without further ado, enjoy the video!

Summer break...

So its here, summer break. I have been officially graduated for 2 weeks and I still can't believe it. I haven't blogged for a long time but I felt the inkling to. I haven't been up to much because my job doesn't start until August. I have been relaxing and doing some stuff I didn't get to when I was in classes and busy with school. I have been eating healthier, cooking often, working out on a more regular basis, SLEEPING (yes I actually get to sleep now! WOW) along with a few other things like movie nights with my friends, going to the batting cages with my boyfriend and just sitting around reading a book. So far I have read 4 novels and probably watched 20 movies! haha! OH! I also put together an uber puzzle, dorky I know, but it was something I had not done in FOREVER and I rather enjoyed reverting back to my days as an elementary school kid. It is a picture of Mickey Mouse and, even though you can't see it, the picture of him is actually made up of a lot of small scenes from Disney movies... in other words HARD AS HECK!


One of my recent summer adventures was just two days ago (Thursday) when I traveled to Oklahoma City to watch my roommate and her team play. She is on the Mizzou Softball team and they made it to the Women's College World Series. I am very proud of the girls, having known several of them for awhile now. Today however, they lost, but they had an awesome season and ended with a record of 50-12. Not too shabby eh? 50 wins is AMAZING! It was a long day on Thursday because we drove to Oklahoma City that morning, leaving at 5:45 AM and drove back home afterwards arriving in Columbia at 2:00 AM. Other than that like I said I have been up to randomness and relaxing. I hope to start this blog up again as more of a day to day record of all my happenings!
Thanks for reading and post me back!

LAST WEEK OF COLLEGE!

So here it is... my last week in college. It is kind of scary but I am ready. I think. I have enjoyed so much being at MU these past 4 years that I am not quite ready to say goodbye. I have loved my time in the journalism school and as a student at MU but the best part of the last 4 years has to be my time at the Christian Campus House. I have lived here every year since I came to MU thats 8 regular semesters plus 3 summer semesters. It has become a part of me and I will miss it the most. I became stronger in my faith and my walk with God while also getting to do some pretty awesome stuff! I have also been able to use the little things I learned in my journalism classes and apply them to CCH events. I made several videos and promotional adds while here, as well as participate in several skits. I even wrote and directed several skits/videos/speeches for CCH. This past week I gave my farewell speech to the people at CCH and it had to have been one of the hardest things I have ever done. I talked about all the good times, the lessons learned and where my future is taking me. After talking I showed this video:




I luckily won't have to say goodbye for good from CCH. No I won't live there again but I may actually have an internship there for part of the year next semester. I will be working on more in-depth videos and such for them and possibly will get to help with setting up a website. I am excited to have that to look forward to along with a couple other job possibilities. I will be working for a start-up company called Athelink and that starts in August. The last thing on my plate right now may be working part time at FM 92.1 ( a Christian Radio station in Columbia) as a sort of online manager. I pretty much contacted the management and asked if they had jobs available and told them about myself. They said they actually did not have any openings but would let me know... and that is when I decided I wasn't going to take no for an answer. I wrote back selling myself on all of my online skills and knowledge. I told them about twitter and facebook and blogs and how if used correctly those tools can be very useful for a company to get word out. I talked about my website and all I am involved online and just kept going. After I sent that message the manager wrote back and said that the station officials had actually just been talking about starting a twitter and facebook the other day but decided not to because they did not have enough manpower. He said he would talk to the others to see if they could possibly move the budget around to afford to pay me part time to do that work. I think if that all pans out it will be great experience and great fun! I am so happy that even in the bleakest of times as far as jobs go, that I see hope on the horizon. I just have to make it through a last week of school, finalize my apartment and hopefully start the jobs I mentioned above!

FIRE! Graduation and the Job Hunt!

So this week turned out to be rather event full. Monday I produced sports for the newscast from 2-11. I also had a package run during my show. It was a really cute story about some senior citizens who play a nintendo Wii while living at Tiger Place (an independent living center in Columbia). After my shift I was starving having not gone home to get supper during my shift because I was working on my package. So I decided to cook myself a delicious meal of chicken, carrots, celery and etc. stir fry! I sat the pan on the burner and barely a minute later it burst into flames! HUGE FLAMES! It set off the alarm system at CCH where I live and woke all the girls. All 40 of us! I had to put it out with a fire extinguisher but not before the microwave also caught fire! It was awful. I felt terrible because it was 1 AM and then to top it off the firemen showed up. Super. After they left my friends helped me clean up the mess that the fire and the fire extinguisher had left behind. (BTW fire extinguishers emit a substance very similar to fine grained saw dust) It was a pain to clean up but I was lucky to have amazing friends to help! After clean up it was already 2:30 AM and I was still hungry and now sad and embarrassed, so my boyfriend took me to Hardee's to get some food. Then on Wednesday I started to feel really ill, eventually I got sick to my stomach which later was attributed to the medication I was on. Go figure, the medicine helps to be not sick in one way but then sick in another. Another awesome event of the week. So Thursday I felt a bit better and dragged myself to class and then got around to go shoot my final package for sports class. I drove all the way to Harrisburg just to turn around because the people never showed up. HAHA. So what have I learned from this week? That I have bad good luck, but can still laugh at myself. Now as I head into the weekend I am going to be bunkering down tomorrow and Sunday to study/prepare/memorize/etc. for the four finals I have this coming week (which I might add is NOT finals week even though it includes my finals!) I have 3 toughies on Tuesday but the other final is Thursday and it is the least hardest. As I see it, I technically have one had rough week left and then can celebrate GRADUATION! I am excited for so many reasons, but sad for others. I DO have a job, not much pay, but its a journalism job so that is a giant bonus. I DONT have a place to live yet but that will pan out too I am sure. I look forward to working my last web shifts at KOMU, but will most likely miss the action when its gone! But that is how the story goes!

Graduation is 15 days away...and counting!