Apartment hunting in Zurich

No 1. It is EXPENSIVE to rent here
No 2. There is almost nothing in our price range with the amenities we want - e.g. laundry in the apartment (or even just the space for us to install our own), not tiny, dog and kid friendly. Apparently, some places hang up a big "NO THANKS" sign when they hear you have kids. Wow. Does this happen in the US?
No 3. It is a classic problem - the trade-off between more expensive for charm but no laundry/elevator in the city, vs. more space an amenities for lower price but way less charm and "cafe culture" further outside the city.

Well, we're going for less intrinsic charm, but closer to M's work, and full of new-baby-easy amenities. Granted, this place has beautiful wood floors, a spectacular living/dining area which I can tell will be the place everyone spends most of their time, and a view (albeit with the industrial buildings as well as mountains). But, it is also in a kind of sterile part of town. Not 1970s concrete apartments sterile, but just not close to great city life. Oh, and there is the "we may not even get it" part.

So in Switzerland, you put in an application for an apartment, and it matters who you are. We may not be Swiss (which I think puts you at the top of the list, just after friends of the owner of the building), but sadly and luckily, we have an okay profile: long term employment, having owned and cared for a house probably helps, Northern European sounding last name helps (this is the sad part), and who knows what else. Maybe even having Dr. before my name on the application will help. Tough crowd these landlords! It makes a difference having a good real estate agent, I guess, for the social/familial connections they have around here.

Since we don't know if we'll get the apartment, I'm not posting photos yet.

What I have noticed is that since we decided to "move to the 'burbs" (ok, not really suburbs, but like I said, a bit short on city charm) I've started looking in furniture store windows much more. It was nice to have a few months off, knowing there was no place to furnish anyway so no point in looking. Oh, and flower shops. This place has a long balcony with a large planter (maybe 6' by 6') on one end where any number of herbs/flowers/berries/christmas trees could be planted. I wonder if we could grow our own tree each year. Or even what edibles we can have in there. Or, forget all that and plant some spectacular grass for the pupper and 6am potty time. Ok, probably not the latter, but I think it is worth at least considering.