Let the apartment hunt begin...and then come to a screeching halt

On day 2 of our search, we found the perfect apartment:
http://boston.craigslist.org/abo/180003176.html
Make sure you click to look at the "to see more pictures" link.
Yes, those are granite countertops in the brand new kitchen, a marble bathtub, and the owner was even gonna throw in the decorations and plates you see in the breakfast bar picture.
We ended up not taking it. If you note the rent cost, we found out how much my loans will be and figured out that we couldn't afford it. We're definitely heartbroken about that, but we just can't afford something that nice quite yet. I told the owner that if it comes up for rent again 2 years from now to definitely give us a call, but at the moment it's just out of our reach.

We did find our new apartment today though:
http://boston.craigslist.org/fee/179972918.html
There's the link for it. It's a little fuzzy, the realtor got the lens wet before taking the pictures, but you get the idea. The description is in with the link. It's really cute and charming, and the neighborhood is great, very close to lots of little things to do. It's also a very friendly neighborhood, we had been told that the owner (who lives upstairs in the place, it's a 2-family one, not like a shared house space) knows everyone on the street. Cue the "Cheers" theme song here (Where everybody knows your name...) We met the owner too, and she seems really really nice. Rent is actually 1100 per month, since there are 2 of us renting (TJ and me), but that's good considering I talked her down from 1200 per month that she would've charged for there being 2 of us :o) Look ma, I can barter!

We get to move in at the end of August. I'm very excited to do so. Here's where I get to describe the place we're dwelling in now:
In my last post, I put quote marks around the word "apartment" for a reason; it's definitely not your traditional setup. We arrived to discover that our basement apartment, that we had come to understand it to be, was actually moved to the 3rd floor. By 3rd floor, I mean a renovated attic of a rather large house (I wouldn't hesitate too much to call it a mansion). It's actually a larger room than the other option for us in the basement, so I was happy to see the size upgrade. The downside to this happens to be the 86 degree days we've been having here, which translates to about 212 degrees in our attic oven-room. (Yes, I am aware that that temperature = boiling.) The devil would be quite comfortable here. The fact that we've had 2 windows open and a fan running 24/7 doesn't seem to do a darn thing. I wake up at 3:30 every morning sweating my ass off and can't get back to sleep.
We share this hell-turned-attic floor with another PhD student. He lives across the hall. In between our rooms is a bathroom that the 3 of us share. Aside from the constant smell of urine and lack of covering on the window that points at construction work/workers on the house behind us (makes for an interesting shower prep/dry off attempt), it's a decent looking bathroom.
Our kitchen is in the basement, so we have to run down 3 flights of stairs just to grab a pop. The owners didn't want us using their kitchen, so they set up a fridge, oven, microwave, and toaster (that has only a jagged metal stub for a handle to push the toast down, and the exposed handle doesn't stay down so you have to hold it there until your finger bleeds to make a poptart) for our usage. Can we say "pain in the ass?" On the bright side, it could lead to some toned thighs. I'm certainly thinking twice before running down to make my ramen, so weight loss certainly isn't out of the question.
I'm looking forward to our new place...