House Hunting

So the last few days I have devoted a lot of my time to house hunting. House rentals all tend to start on the first of the month, so I really want to move out of my hostel by June 1st, otherwise I may be stuck there for another month, which is not only a nightmare (I've already had enough of sharing a small room with 3 other guys, and a public bathroom) but also very expensive. It is nearly $1000 a month for the hostel, as opposed to $500-$600 for a private room in a house. 

Also, living in a hostel means you have to eat out for pretty much every meal you have, which is also way more expensive than making your own food! 

So, how is the house hunt going? Not great, but not terribly I guess.

There is one website (Craigslist) where everyone posts tons of house shares that are available. There must be 50 or so houses put up every single day, maybe more. One of my hostel room mates described it so well to me today.

It is like going to a T.K. Maxx shop (Winners here in Canada, T.J. Maxx in America). You have to sift through aisles and aisles of crap clothes before you find something you want, and then when you do, it doesn't fit. That's exactly what it is like on Craigslist looking for accommodation. 95% of the listings are complete crap. I'll give a particular mention to a guy named Solomon, who expected you to look after his 2 year old daughter every night whilst he worked. There is also a house who refused you to cook any meats inside, you can only cook it outside on the barbecue! 4% are okay, but tend to have a problem of some sort, like a bad location, smokers, marijuana (it is fairly regular here for people to smoke pot), ancient house or boring people. 

1% might be great, but then they may not want to live with a British guy who is only here for 1 year. There has been two places I have really wanted to live at, one of them didn't reply to an email and the other I am hopefully viewing this weekend, if they get back to me. It has 3 pretty cool people living there from what I can see, is well located (on the skytrain line to Downtown and my friends place) and it even has a 3 legged dog! I love dogs :) So, my fingers are crossed for this place!

House hunting is not fun, but it is going to be a lot better than job hunting, which will begin once I have a house! Dreading that.