Busy, busy, busy!
Went out and saw five apartments yesterday, and only one was worth considering. The one with potential is a townhouse up on a hill near the mountains. It's the last house on that road, so there's not much traffic. It's on the third floor (the neighbor downstairs has the 1st and 2nd floors). As soon as you walk in, the living room, kitchen, dining room, and a small bathroom are on the first level. A large study with a small balcony and a small bathroom are on the second level. On the third level are two master bedrooms, and a storage room and rooftop patio are on the top level. Yes. There are 4 floors in the apartment. It is old and dirty, but it's unique and spacious. The price is more than reasonable for an apartment this size. I was so excited that I dragged Bill out of his errand-running to come see it right away.
After viewing the apartment, we took a walk around the neighborhood. There's a small park next to the apartment and a supermarket just down the hill a bit. The air is clean and the neighborhood is quiet. We were talking about how we could bargain the rent down when we noticed a construction site right behind the apartment (!!!!!). The information board on the fence didn't list the scheduled date for construction, so I called the contractor and builder. Turned out, there was some modification of interior design that needs to be done and they have to apply for a different license. Unfortunately, no one was able to tell me exactly when they're going to start building it.
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I woke up this morning with a light bulb above my head: I can call the government agency that issue building licenses to see if they would have any idea about that site. I adopted the top-to-bottom. Luckily, I got an answer from a very nice lady at Taipei City Government. What I need to do is to go back to the site and get the license number so that she can look it up for me. She also told me that even if she is unable to see the progress of application on her computer, she can refer me to someone in the town hall who might have an idea. Anyway, I'm determined to get to the bottom of this before I give up the apartment.
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Meanwhile, the search for apartments continues.