So last year around this time, my co-teacher told me that I would have to face a change in the housing situation come my next contract.
My school was paying for our current apartment and they were paying w500,000 a month. The school budget is supposed to be only w400,000 a month. So come my new contract I would be expected to pay the remaining w100,000 a month. So I asked if it was possible to look for a larger space to live as my husband and I had been living in 1 room apartments or studio apartments for nearing 6 years and we were getting frustrated living on top of one another all the time.
My school gave me permission to look for a new place to live, on the proviso that I could pay the keymoney (deposit) for the apartment and anything over w400,000 a month was my responsibility.
GREAT!!!
So we began our search immediately, as we were unsure when the housing contract was up with our current building. (We found out later that it was only November 10th and that we would have to wait before we could find a place). We looked at several 2 room apartments and found 1 we really liked, and then we found out the news that we would be waiting until November, so the apartment we liked was no longer an option for us, as in Korea, the landlord expects you to move in within 2 weeks of viewing the apartment.
In October we went looking for places again, and we were shown about 10 apartments by a Budongsan (realtor), 1 of them we really liked, and then he showed us a 3 room 'house' apartment. My husband fell in love immediately.
We had to debate and talk about which one would be better for us, a 2 room apartment or a 3 room 'house'.
Apartment Pro's: Veranda (2), standing A/C unit and 1 wall unit, landlady willing to put in large refrigerator, washing machine in veranda off of bedroom, located on the 2nd floor
Apartment Con's: "living room" small, kitchen tiny, bathroom off kitchen - difficult to access during cooking times, bedroom - TINY - would fit only bed if we are lucky, 2nd room strange shape
"House" Pro's: 3 bedrooms - master bedroom HUGE and has a space to convert to wardrobe, LARGE kitchen, landlord happy to provide A/C unit (only 1 wall unit) and refrigerator and washing machine, living room is large, 1 room can be office, 2nd room can be spare room, whole floor dedicated to 'house', located on the 2nd floor
"House" Con's: No veranda, window between master bedroom and 'office' space, walls are thin, 'house' feels like it was office or something else before it was a house, bathroom has 2 stalls but only 1 is usable as a toilet now, other stall is just storage. (A con we would find out later - the bathroom drains are not so good, and so the bathroom floods upon use)
We obviously chose the house as it was the better choice.
The cost:
Apartment - Deposit: W5,000,000 Monthly rent: W600,000
House - Deposit: W4,000,000 Monthly rent: W500,000
Financially, Spacially, Location wise - the house was the better choice.
We told the Budongsan we wanted to take the house, and our Korean friend helping us asked were we sure. She told us the building was 'older' (built around 2000) and so she didn't think it was a good choice, but we were happy. Age of the building didn't matter so much to us, nor did the fact that the walls were thin or any thing else. We liked it, so we were happy.
We signed some papers and put down W1,000,000 deposit to secure the apartment, and asked if we could start moving some things in immediately. We were told that we wouldn't be allowed until we had paid the full deposit, and the first month's rent. We were aware that we wouldn't be allowed to sleep in the apartment until the official day of moving in, We started moving a few boxes over - maybe 1/3 of our apartment things were moved in before moving day, but they had to be kept to one room so as not to get in the way of the minor repairs and things that needed to be done before we moved in.
On moving day, November 10th, we packed up the remainder of our apartment, had a moving service come and help us move from one side of town to the other, and elevator lifted everything into our new apartment via a window in the master bedroom. The moving cost was W500,000 for everything the movers did, their truck was full as was our car, and they even lifted the stuff that was in our car for us so we didn't have to march it up the stairs.
It took us maybe a month to have everything finally unpacked and in a space of its own, and we had to buy only a few things - a sofa, 2 desks, a bookshelf, another bed, wardrobe rails, and a few shelving units.
We had the place finally the way we liked it. It was set up in that way until June, when my husband decided he wanted to move our desks out of the office and into the lounge as in summer it would be too hot in the office... however I think maybe because the window is between our office and bedroom that the AC would have cooled the office a little more efficiently than it does now.
My school now pays me a monthly housing allowance stipend of W400,000 a month, I pay the remaining W100,000 that is needed to fill the monthly rent requirement. We are really happy in our place too.
