I’m glad to say that in the end we wound up having to choose between two great apartments — both brand-new, both with nice landlords who care about their properties, both within walking distance of all the major cultural attractions of New Bedford — but getting to that point led us in some interesting directions.

Like the landlord who didn’t show up to open up the apartment, even though I talked to him just ten minutes before. It was OK, though — after seeing the condition of the outside of the building (towering weeds, loose trash in the driveway, peeling paint), I wasn’t exactly eager to see the inside.

Like the apartment with spacious rooms beautifully redone, a gorgeous new kitchen — and puddles on the new kitchen appliances from the leaking roof. Given the smell of mold, that leak in the roof wasn’t exactly new, either.

Like the apartment with the kitchen in the middle of the dining room. I mean right in the middle. You know what a thrust stage is? Well, this was a thrust kitchen.

Like the many people who didn’t answer our phone calls, even though they had an ad in the paper, or a sign in the window saying “For Rent.” (Funny thing, too — many of those ads are still running, and many of those signs are still in the windows.)

It still wasn’t nearly as bad as searching for an apartment in the greater Boston area, or the Bay area. And it wasn’t nearly as easy as finding an apartment in Geneva, Illinois, last year. It’s just a part of the distinctive flavor of this place, from the old buildings that have been reconfigured with greater or lesser sensitivity, to the general wariness of New Englanders when it comes to returning phone calls from people they don’t know.

It’s a fascinating place. Frustrating at times, but fascinating.