Hello from Portland, Maine! It feels so good to be home! It definitely has been an adjustment to be home in a permanent job. I recently started a permanent job in Portland at a local hospital at the beginning of August. I worked at this hospital prior to traveling. Prior to traveling, I worked in the float pool. I really enjoyed it, and saw a lot of different populations. I am now back in the float pool, but decided to hold off on training in pediatrics, mother baby, and the step down NICU (CCN). I always thought I wanted to do babies, and was definitely surprised I didn’t love it as much as I wanted. If you would have asked me in college, I would have said I wanted to be a pediatrics nurse. How about my other nurses? Did you always want to do the type of nursing you are doing ? It’s been a great transition to go back to the float pool. My only question is, how do people work four to five days a week consistently? For the first three weeks, I was doing 4-5 days of work, consisting of a few orientation days on the floor and a lot of classes (online and in person). I guess I’ve been spoiled with working 3, twelve hour days, and the optional extra day of overtime. It was interesting to go back into orientation on the floor and get the CBO tools done again, and training with nurses, who haven’t been nurses long. Overall so far, I’ve had a really good experience. Orientation is now done and I’m officially back on my own. I’m really happy to see a lot of familiar faces and have had a good experience so far!
The job was really good about relocation reimbursement. They allowed reimbursement for temporary housing, moving expenses, food, and gas for up to 10,000. This made it a lot easier for us to relocate back to Maine. We ultimately want to buy a house. We attempted to buy in 2020, prior to travel nursing, and had a really difficult time. It was like the house and the price of the house were not matching up. Also, who wants to be house poor? The housing market in Portland is atrocious. We are hoping years later… that it will be better. We found temporary housing until we find a house to buy.
Temporary housing was difficult to find. First off, we almost got scammed. When I say almost, we literally were so LUCKY. We found a place on furnished finders with a month to month lease, with relatively cheap rent. The place was beautiful, and we were super excited. It was located in downtown Portland. It was actually located in the old Mercy Hospital, which was turned into condos. Kinda cool right!? Just don’t think about how many people died in your apartment… They sent Nick and I the lease. It was a simple lease, with one error of two addresses not matching up. The person that sent us the lease stated, he rented multiple condos and copied and pasted. We thought nothing of it. They had a professional business website. They requested to send the deposit through Zelle. The Zelle payment was blocked (thankfully). When informing the person it was blocked, they requested Venmo. The Venmo account was brand new, no picture, and also had a different name to the Zelle. At this point, we called them out on being sketchy, and refused to pay. We contacted the company of the condos, and it was truly a scam. Luckily, Bank of America told us we were all set. What a mess though!! Always be careful. We’ve used furnished finders for 2.5 years and have never had issues.
After this series of unfortunate events, I reached out to my old landlord in college. He has a lot of great rentals in Old Orchard Beach. Check out (mroobrentals) for summer rentals, and also winter rentals (great for college students)! He had a winter rental available September to May in Old Orchard Beach. We figured this would allow us to start looking for a house, and not feel rushed into anything. We signed this lease and just moved into this apartment.
After securing that lease, we had to find a rental for the month of August. I started working August 5, so we were in a time crunch. We were able to find a monthly Airbnb for August. It’s located in downtown Portland Maine, approximately 0.5 miles from the hospital and 1.3 miles from Nick’s work. We both have been walking to work, which is nice!
The location is prime, but let me tell you, the parking is not prime. It’s very difficult to park, and we spend a lot of time finding parking, especially in the evening. The reviews and the ad for the apartment, explaining that there were a lot of rules for parking, but reviews didn’t hype on parking . The apartment is cute, but very small. I think it wouldn’t be manageable if it was longer than a month. Check out some photos of the apartment!
Note: The apartment doesn’t have a dining table or closet. The only closet is tiny, and full of cleaning supplies. Honestly, it makes storage difficult. We had to use the area in the kitchen for storage. We are eating dinner either on the bed on a towel, or on the floor. Definitely not ideal. The day we moved in, we were greeted with a nest of fruit flies… this was so unappealing. It was very frustrating, and I couldn’t understand how the cleaning person didn’t mention it to the landlord. They sent the cleaning person back in a few days after moving in with traps and to clean again. They focused on cleaning the grout in the shower, and didn’t clean the kitchen at all… very disappointed about the original situation and the “solution” in general. We paid $3,800 for a small apartment with fruit flies. Some of the reviews touch on bugs… wondering if this is a common issue for them? Should definitely be addressed. The apartment is clean, but not up to standard. I shouldn’t have to do any cleaning when I arrive to an apartment.
Note. Yes, there is no typo on that price… isn’t it absurd??
I’m not sure I would suggest this Airbnb to others. Maybe my answer will change at the end of our stay and I’ll keep you updated. Maybe, I’ll be a little less salty over it. On the happy note, the hospital is paying for this airbnb with relocation reimbursement.
We are feeling settled in our new apartment in our “new” location. We both feel more settled in my new job, and Nick has been going to the office everyday. We settled back into our normal gym routine. This always makes us feel back in a good routine. We are still continuing with Orangetheory 4-5 days a week. I don’t even wanna talk about infinity this week… I’m so sick of rowing!
We have lots of exciting things coming up, one of my best friends is getting married! I recently traveled to Savannah, Georgia for her bachelorette! We did a lot of fun things for this well deserved girls weekend , and I can’t wait to share them with you! I love planning bachelorette parties! It’s such a fun thing to be a part of.
She’s getting married in September in New Hampshire. It should really be a beautiful wedding! New Hampshire and Maine during the fall are truly incredible and needs to be on your bucket list!
I can’t wait to show you our new apartment in Old Orchard Beach! It’s definitely a better find than the last apartment. It’s more affordable also! Stay up to date with all things travel, nursing, and of course Flicks_withNick’s movie reviews. Give us a follow on Instagram or subscribe to this blog!
TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick 
Leave a comment