Flat Found

Hello from Edinburgh.  After an angst filled week of interviews with agencies and wandering around the city,  I have found a flat. Unfortunately I can't move in for a couple of weeks.  Also, it isn't actually in the city.  I will be living in Gilmerton which, while still in Edinburgh, is a 30 minute bus ride from the city center.

You see, when flats are advertised for rent in Edinburgh, they are not including the council tax bill.  That is a rather hefty charge.  Also, as I have no credit history in the UK, I would have had to pay 6 months rent up front.  Can we say, NIGHTMARE?  The flat I fell in love with was the first one I saw.  It was a one bedroom in the city center, a couple of blocks from St. Andrew's Square.  It had a "kitchen" that measures about 2 by 3 feet with a wee breakfast bar-ette for  little bit of work space.  For the privelage of living there I was going to pay 610 pounds per month.  The landlord gets the rent on a monthly basis BUT I have to pay all six months up front plus an additional 885 pounds for a security deposit and agency fee that took the total to 4545 pounds for the flat.  All at once.   NOT INCLUDING COUNCIL TAX (a further 150 pounds per month payable direct to the council not the landlord).  No Thanks.

The problem I had with that is, as cute as the flat is (view it at: http://www.rettie.co.uk/lettings/5113),  I wouldn't have been able to eat.  That is how much my savings would be decimated.  I would have had to come back to DC at the end of the lease, especially as I still don't have a job with any permanence.  Added to the above is the fact that in the UK you pay 146 pounds a year to the BBC to watch TV.  Even if you are watching TV on a laptop.  Then there is electricity which is 40 or so a month.  So my rent all told for the flat would be 800 or so a month.

So, I waited and found a two bedroom flat for about 200 pounds cheaper from a friend of a friend.  It is a grown up flat with one double room and one single room, a living room, decent size kitchen, bathroom with shower, and a shared back garden.  So I have room for guests.  Dorothy and Vlad, I got the two bedroom just for you.  Now you have to come visit.

 Have a look at the flat if you want (http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-29448707.html).

Next up...my sojourn in another friends house while the living room I sleep in is being painted and my mourning the fact that I can't go to Blackpool with Laura as I am waiting to hear about a job at the Scottish Gallery of Art as a retail manager/book keeper of all their shops, 4 in total.

Cheerio for now,

Tina