Leah’s Cafe

We are in the midst of apartment hunting, and internet is a great tool that aids in our initial search.Most of the sites we visited have quite extensive list of apartments, some even have users’ ratings and comments which help to gauge the condition of the apartments. Unfortunately some of the comments or ratings have not been updated for a long time, it’s hard to tell whether the apartment that gets a 5 stars rating 6 years ago still is as good now.:-)

We have used quite a few sites to find apartments that meet our criteria and budget, before we decide to visit the apartment management office for a tour of the apartments.

Most of this sites work more or less the same. If you are looking for Nashville Apartments, you just have to key in the city and zip code, you may or may not limit to apartments within a certain budget at this step.

The apartment finder will search for apartments in Nashville, TN and returns with some featured apartments and a map showing you the locations of this apartments on the top. At this stage you may set the criteria and budget.

You may also click on “See all” to look at all the apartments available in Nashville that meet your criteria and budget.

To get detailed description and contact information for that particular apartment or apartments that catch your eyes, you just have to click on the links. You would find photos and floor plans for the apartments or you can request for a brochure by giving your email. If you want to check out the apartments personally, you will find the maps and direction and contact numbers of the property management you can find on the site come in handy.

Internet is making apartment hunting much easier, isn’t it?

As I am disposing the business and getting ready to move to IL, the big boy has started to look at apartments for rent. We are going to get an apartment near his work place. We are going to live in a college town, the big boy prefers not to live among the students as it can be very noisy, with all the partying and drinking, typical of students’ lifestyle.

If we have a choice, we prefer to live in a duplex or a townhouse.  But, they are more expensive and  have more fees to cover. So we may just start with a one or two room bedrooms apartment and looking to buy our own house in 2-3 years.

My friend just moved back to her hometown after living and working in New York City for many years. She worked in the publishing field and loved the vibrant Big Apple very much. She and her husband moved from this small town to Big Apple after they got married seven years ago. But her husband was not so adaptable. If she was like a fish in the water in New York City, her husband was like the fish out of water. :-)

What can she do in this situation? If they want the marriage to continue, she has to make some sacrifices on her part. They sold the Manhattan real estate they owned. Though the real estate market was not fantastic, they were able to get out before the subprime crisis.

They were able to do it within a short period with the help of the real estate company. In fact, statistic had shown that people are able to sell their property consistently at a higher price by engaging a real estate company like Prudential Douglas Elliman !

Upon comparing notes with another friend, we found out that we have been told two different sets of stories from these liars. They might be sneaky, but we are not born yesterday as well. They have no idea that we are friends and we talk frequently.

These liars probably didn’t expect me to find them suspicious as well. They thought they have fooled both of us. Sheesssh…, don’t tell them, they are the ones who have been fooled!  It would be too late for them to find out later. :-)

We are not one of those people who are super duper organized. We collected junks and inevitably our house is one big dump site. Moving is actually a good time to de-clutter and get rid of stuffs.

As we are sorting out the boxes that had been sitting there since the last move and empty the drawers, found many missing stuffs and duplicates. We have found so many unused batteries and a few safety cutters in different drawers.

We must have gone ahead to buy a new one whenever we couldn’t find the one that we had!!

Was at the immigration office to get my passport renewed. The immigration office had moved into our neighborhood last year, it’s only 3 minutes drive from our house, so it’s very convenient to reach the office now.

The renewal process was very quick, I came home really impressed with their efficiency. Went there at about 1.30 p.m, not many people were there. I have gotten the form the day before, so I showed the receptionist the filled form and the passport sized photos required, the receiptionist gave me a number.

My number was called within 5 minutes and after finger printing and payment, was given a receipt and told to come back in 2 hours. I was there at the immigration office for less than 1o minutes!

So I went home, ate my lunch and got some house chores done, went to do grocery shopping and stopped by the immigration office on the way home at about 3.00 p.m. I gave the receipt to the collection counter, and within 10 minutes, my name was called and I had my new passport in hand.

All in all, that was a very pleasant experience. Considered the fact that immigration was department that received the most complaints previously, they really did some clean up work. One thing I noticed, the officers actually smiled and talked nicely, they didn’t act like you owned them money, which they did before the clean up.

While we were at a few government departments getting paperworks sorted out this week, we noticed that the televisions at the waiting area were not showing the television programs like they normally did last time. The LCD screens placed around the waiting area were flashing commercials after commercials.

Many people were actually watching the commercials as they have nothing to do while waiting for their turns. Looks like a win-win situation for the said government offices, by giving permission to the ad agency to do television marketing at the waiting areas, they probably get a kick back plus free supply of big flat screen televisions.

We actually got to know some local businesses that we never heard of through some of the commercials. Isn’t it a good idea for local businesses to get some exposures?

Have been busy running around since Monday, running to and fro a few government agencies to get all the paperwork done. Haven’t have time to sit in front of the computer nor check in the various networks for assignments.

The buyer of the business had paid us a down payment on Monday as we signed the sell and purchase agreement. On Tuesday, we changed the company registration record to add the buyer as new owner. On the same day, we called the architect in so that we could start submitting the plan of the premises and start the name transferring process. On Wednesday, the buyer met the landlord, we did an assignment of the lease then went ahead to send it for stamping.

The name on the license needs to be transfered to the owner before she pays me the remaining purchase price. It usually takes more than a month to get approvals from all the licensing agencies if all the paperworks are in order. We hope the transaction can be closed and settle before the end of April.