Got Myself a British Postal Code!

That's right people.........got myself a place to live! Start sending your money.

34 Hedsor House, Ligonier Street
London, UK E2 7HG

Only took me 4 days and viewing a lot of depressing room photos/ads online. Most places I inquired about wanted a letter from my employer and a reference from my past landlord. This seemed to be a problem and I was limited in who would rent to me.

In addition, many places only had twin beds in my price range. And it appears that the housing prices are so high that no place has a living room anymore. They have converted them all to bedrooms. So much for a fun flat where roommates hang out together!

Yesterday, I first viewed a hole in the wall in Camden where I would have to share a bathroom with 5 people and live in a twin bed. The room was so small that 2 twin beds could not fit in the room side by side or end to end. No thanks. In addition, it would have cost more to ride the tube (subway) to go to work since it was in a different zone then central London. I then walked around the city for a number of hours looking at neighborhoods. It was very clear that if I wanted pretty trees and houses...way to expensive (mostly if you have no job).

A friend of a friend recommended Shoreditch, the trendy, artsy, bar packed area of town if I could afford it. I viewed a place there last night. The owner has rented the place to a friend, Michele (26 year old Italian guy) who is looking for 3 roommates. The place is a 4 story walk-up with the flat on the 4th floor (can we say exercise). After getting to the flat, I found the place in complete remodeling zone. The owner is putting in a brand new Ikea kitchen and the entire kitchen had been removed and was still laying in the center of the room. However, the kitchen was huge (bigger then my kitchen in DC! :) In addition, the place was being painted. The place had a large room ($1400 a month) and a small room for rent ($1200 a month). The large room was huge (bigger then my studio in DC) with lots of storage. The small room was about 8 feet by 14 feet with a window. It also had a brand new double bed, old dresser, and wardrobe in it. Personally, I could not justify the rent for the larger room since I only brought 107 pounds with me to London. The kicker to the place, Michele did not need me to sign a lease and just wanted a month's deposit and 1st months rent. He wanted me to stick around for about 6 months if possible.

After I left the place I started to think it was ridiculous not to take the place. Since there was no lease, if I hated the place, I could just leave. It also was on a quite street, one block from tons of shops etc. and about 8 min walk to one of the biggest central tube stations in London. And it had a double bed!

I went back and told Michele I would take it. He was not prepared, had no keys, or paperwork to make a "contract." He said he would take the deposit money from me, but I said how did I know that tomorrow he would not change his mind and keep my money. We went back and forth on how to make the deal. I asked him what he had to "trade" for my deposit since I did not have a key. During all of this, Michele, me and his friend were all joking about the situation. In the end...get this....I got Michele's Italian driver's license for collateral. Between Michele and his friend, they figured between the airfare back to Italy, the cost of the license, and the hassle to replace it, it was equal or more in value. It was also funny to see how shocked his friend was that Michele handed over his license.

I will be meeting up with Michele tomorrow to get the key and return his license! I will move in next week sometime after the place gets internet.