The Things a Rental Will Let You Know.

As you know, we are renting a furnished apartment in Melbourne.  We love the area of town that we're in, located very close to lots of shops, cafes and bars.  We're in the city, but not the CBD, so it's busy but not hustle bustle.  Port Melbourne was a rough part of town several years ago, but it is slowly coming up.  It's right on the bay and all-in-all a great location about 7 minutes from the CBD.

There are many great things about living in a rental apartment like:

1. Location - it's great.  Awesome, in fact.  What sold us on the place.
2. Windows surround the living room.  Lots of natural light.
3. No yard work.
4. The landlord pays for any services that need to be done - air conditioning fixed, TV fixed, etc.
5. None of the stuff in it is ours.

But, there are some things that are not so great that I'm glad I know now, before I thought it was a good idea to put them in our own home, such as:

• Shag carpet/area rug - looks great, but in reality, it's a harbor for bits of everything, and a PITA to vacuum.
• Glass coffee table - one day we came home from the tennis, and there was a huge crack across it.

• Black granite countertops - they look great, but they are impossible to keep clean.  IMPOSSIBLE.
• High gloss white cabinets - again, they look great, but they are impossible to keep clean - especially behind the stove.
• Oven the size of a shoe box - Not good for anything, let alone baking or cooking a turkey.

• Black tile and grout in the shower - again, looks good, but difficult to tell if it's clean or dirty, and if you got all of the cleaning solution off of it.