Apt. hunting difficult late in the game

For procrastinators such as myself, there’s no sport in searching for housing early in the apartment hunting season of October. The fun lies within the pursuit of rummaging through pamphlets, finding the complex that seems to be perfect for you only to find there are no vacancies.

Nick Krizinski

The urge for an apartment began as my hatred for dorm living grew. Sharing a room with another person, naturally, made the room all-the-more cramped. Throw in all of our possessions, as well as our lack of any interest to clean, and you’re now on the brink of claustrophobia.

Then there’s the subject of dorm food. Is there really any need for an explanation?

My to-be roommate Nick and I began our quest by exploring the brochures that seemed to be mailed to everyone living in the dorms.

Not only are these brochures arranged in an organized fashion, they’re also rather appealing to the eye. One look at the map of all the complexes and it’s as if you’re staring at one of those Lite-Brites from childhood. The different districts of East Lansing are displayed in numerous colors and shapes. In a way, it’s pretty.

When the brochures failed to answer our more complex questions, the Internet became our friend. Our decision for a complex came to rest with a choice between Capitol Villa Apartments, 1700 E. Grand River Ave., and Collingwood Apartments, 2791 Northwind Drive, both just east of campus. With a decent number of pre-paid utilities in combination with such terms as “shimmering swimming pool” and “tranquil computer labs,” how can one not be attracted to such a wonderful place? Or rather, what seems like a wonderful place.

With complexes in mind, we were determined to see these apartments and imagine ourselves living there. A normal visitation was out of the question. We’re independent college students. We take care of our own business.

Our first visit to these two complexes consisted of loading into a friend’s borrowed minivan, driving to Capitol Villa and looking through the windows with open curtains from the car. All of this taking place at 10 p.m. Yes, we’re creepers.

However, surprisingly enough, not many curtains were left open on a Friday night.

Our self-guided apartment visit stopped there when we gave up searching for Collingwood.

So we became content with Capitol Villa, even before we actually saw the apartment firsthand.

A second visit was in order. This one consisted of actually visiting the location in a professional manner.

We were right. Capitol Villa seemed to be relatively decent. For us, however, our opinions shifted when we actually located Collingwood Apartments. Despite waiting all these months to find 
our humble abode for the 
next school year, we 
were able to find something we liked.

Not only did we enjoy it more, but it was cheaper, too. This may be because the pool and the computer lab are not available at Collingwood. But we’re not complaining.