The apartment hunt, day 4: great success.

Today was grueling. But we may have found the best apartment ever.

I don't want to jinx anything, since we're still sorting out the paperwork and there's a chance someone else could jump in and get their application approved before we do (thereby dashing our dreams and probably earning themselves the worst karma in the world, not to mention a death wish from yours truly). But if everything goes smoothly, there's a good chance we'll end up with the best apartment ever.

But let's take a step back. Here's how the day went.

We started with Sal (formerly known as Craigslist Lady), who showed us two pretty nice places in East Williamsburg (whether East Williamsburg is just a euphemism for Bushwick or in fact a unique neighborhood that lies between Williamsburg and Bushwick is still up for grabs). They were both definite possibilities, but we wanted to keep looking.

Our next stop was also in East Williamsburg, and it was another I'm-not-going-to-be-there-but-the-super-can-give-you-the-keys sort of visit. We didn't realize that the super was going to drop the keys out her window to us, though, and I can't decide whether this was endearing or weird. In any case, the apartment was a walk-through. So we left.

Then we met a real estate broker in Clinton Hill. We were pretty excited to check out the neighborhood, since we weren't too familiar with it and it seemed to be the most affordable area on our list. However, things are usually affordable because they suck. I don't know why this didn't occur to us earlier - but if Clinton Hill is the cleaned-up version of Bed-Stuy, I don't want to know what Bed-Stuy looks like (especially not after dark). I'm pretty sure at one point a piece of glass fell from the sky.

Needless to say, we were a pretty fatigued by the time we met up with Dawn - and I had some serious doubts about her claim to an affordable place in DUMBO (a neighborhood so trendy we hadn't even considered it an affordable possibility). Still, she seemed so friendly (and had such cute shoes) that I couldn't help but trust her - so we hopped in her car and let her do her thing.

When we got to the apartment, I'm pretty sure we almost peed ourselves. This place was amazing. Not only was it on the second floor of a nice, new building with a functioning intercom system on a beautiful block in DUMBO - but it was so big that Sarah and I got confused and started asking where the doors went (Dawn actually had to explain to us that they led to more rooms). The apartment had a beautiful new kitchen, a nice bathroom, two big bedrooms, a living room, and even a separate dining room. So many rooms. More rooms than we would know what to do with. It was huge, it was in DUMBO, and by some miracle it was affordable. It was the best apartment in the world. I wanted to give Dawn a hug.

Having made up our minds that Dawn was magic, we let her drive us to an apartment in Park Slope. We were a little skeptical about what an affortable place in Park Slope would look like after last night's disaster apartment, but we were too enamored with Dawn to protest. And the place was great - new kitchen, big bedrooms, bright living room, and even an outdoor area through the back door of the building. It was definitely nice and still within our price range, but we were too in love with the apartment in DUMBO. So Dawn shelled out the paperwork and gave us all the details about applying for the lease.

Sarah and I headed home, exhausted but victorious. We're in the middle of getting all of our forms filled out and faxed in, and Dawn is going to start talking to the landlord tomorrow. This weekend will be pretty crazy, since I'm headed up to Cambridge for some college nostalgia and Sarah's got a pretty important audition - but we'll be in touch with each other and with Dawn and we will keep our fingers crossed that this place works out. If it does, it will be completely above and beyond anything we ever thought we could get. If it doesn't, though, we're sure Dawn could find us another place. We're too in love with her to ever leave her side.