Broke Into the Old Apartment

Ok - we didn't actually do anything illegal, sorry to disappoint.

Last weekend, Matt and I went up to Champaign to visit friends (Charlie, Amanda, and 4-month old RJ) and eat at some of our favorite restaurants:  Dos Reales for Mexican and Za's (http://www.zasitaliancafe.com) for some awesome pesto pasta.

While we were up there, we decided to take a tour (exterior only) of all of our old ‘homes'.  Here's some ambiance music to enjoy while you read on,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ggJS0p-QQc

Our first stop was our freshman dorm, Newman Hall.  Being the boring people we are, we had decided against residing in the loud University dorms.  We toured the various certified housing options on campus, but Newman Hall was by far our favorite.  Like they say, location, location, location.  At 604 E. Armory, we were less than a block from the Quad and the undergrad library.  At the time we were there, only the kids with doctor's notes had air-conditioning, but we enjoyed nice-sized rooms, comfortable seating - everywhere, and best of all... housekeeping!

We sublet a quarter of an apartment our first summer in Champaign, technically Urbana at this point.  At 1306 N. Lincoln Avenue - we combined our two dorm rooms into one very small furnished bedroom.  Our living room and kitchen were shared with three complete strangers- so we spent as little time there as we could, locking our bedroom door each time we left.  The building - which is what caught our attention in the first place - had an indoor pool, hot tub, exercise room, game room, computer room, and a snack bar.  Unfortunately, the pool kept the whole building hot and humid - and all of the common areas uncomfortable to say the least.

Before fall classes started our sophomore year, we moved back to Champaign and into an apartment with a friend from high school.  We were young and very enticed by amenities and ‘cool features' - this time it was a spiral staircase.  On the main floor of our unit, there was a wall of cabinets amounting to the kitchen, a living room with doors out to a balcony, our roommate's bedroom, and a bathroom.  And, right in the middle of it all - a spiral staircase.  The apartment was so small, it didn't matter how we rearranged.  Either you hit your head on the staircase while sitting at the kitchen table, or when we switched the lounging and dining area, you hit your head if you leaned all the way back while sitting on the couch.  Matt and I shared the upstairs room and bathroom - falling down the stairs frequently. 

52 E. Armory was not the nicest of apartment buildings on campus.  It always seemed they were doing some sort of renovations, with insulation scattering the lawn, there was constantly trash (and sometimes worse) lining the hallway, and we had to use pliers to turn on the water in the shower.  (That was our balcony, right over Matt's head.)

When it was time to look for our next apartment, we headed off campus.  (It's typical for college kids to move at least once a year, right???)  Armed with a little more knowledge and experience we set out to find a quieter, cleaner place that we could call home.  We tried to talk a few of the retirement villages in town into letting us live there.  (They arguably occupied some of the nicest buildings in town.) We promised to be polite, quiet residents, but to no avail. 

Not wanting to rush into anything like we did with the last two places, we toured quite a few off campus apartment buildings.  We liked a lot of the places we saw, but we found ourselves comparing every apartment to one unit we liked on the edge of town.  That's when I realized something that I still use (FREQUENTLY) with buyers.  If there is a house that you find yourself comparing everything else to, then that house is probably the one you should choose. 

Once I realized we kept going back to 301 S. Country Fair Drive in our minds.... 

      "I like the hardwood floors at Country Fair." 

                 "The kitchen was nicer at Country Fair." 

                              "Country Fair had more closet space."

                                                    ... we physically went back to Country Fair and signed a lease. 

(This was our building.  Our living room window is just over Matt's shoulder.)

This was our first unfurnished apartment, so we had a lot of fun shopping for furniture and stuff to hang on the walls.  When we were all settled in, it didn't look like a college apartment, it looked like a home.  We loved living there, and we still talk about that apartment all the time.  We liked it so much we stayed there two years - and would have stayed longer if we had more time to spend in Champaign.

My listing at 807 Illinois Avenue in Collinsville reminds me of this apartment.  I made Matt tour that house - tried to talk him into buying it, "Remember how much we LOVED Country Fair....."  But just like the people at the old-folks home, he wasn't having it.

Fun, sentimental tour.  Good food.  Great friends.  Awesome weekend.