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Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Home Sweet Home (For Now)
Since I got a job working on the east side of Cleveland, Johnathan and I have talked about the possibility of moving east. It makes more sense to move closer to where we both work, after all. Saves on gas! Part of the process of moving is, obviously, finding somewhere to live. The idea of vetting apartment complexes and neighborhoods kind of makes me sick to my stomach, especially when we realized that there is one not-so-reputable company that seems to own at least 75% of the properties on the east side of Cleveland. Well, crap! We didn’t want to rent from them, given their reputation and BBB rating. There were a few properties that got thrown out for rigid pet policies, and others that just didn’t fit our price range. We managed to narrow down to a few properties, but only one was actually closer to work for both of us.
Enter the protagonist.
We found a place on the east side of town that had two-bedrooms available for a little more than what we are paying at our current place. The apartments were bigger, though, and all came with balconies! We would have a bigger kitchen and living area, and the bedrooms were sensibly sized. We toured one and we were very impressed with not only the size and appearance but also the other amenities. There was a workout room in one of the buildings, open to all tenants, a party room in each building, and a billiard room in each building. The place has a heated garage (which I don’t foresee us paying for), a bike cage in said garage, and a big swimming pool – bigger and deeper than at our current place. We put our names down on a waiting list to be called if there was a vacancy that came up around the time we needed to move.
Johnathan called them in late June out of curiosity, just to see if they thought they would have any coming up soon. As it turns out, that waiting list meant absolutely nothing. Nada. They had a couple of apartments available, but none that fit our request (two bedroom, one bathroom in the main building – where the fitness center was). Well, actually, they did. But they had promised it to someone who would be bringing the deposit the next morning. They followed that up with, “Whoever gets here first gets the apartment.” Bzuh! Okay, so we bit. Hard.
We spent that evening figuring out how to acquire the money necessary to make the transaction happen. We withdrew cash from one bank account, then went to our local bank to get a money order (as we had neglected to ask what name to put on the check). We showed up bright and early that morning. Excessively early. The office didn’t open until 10AM, but the lady had said that they would be there starting at 9:30. I thought that meant they could let us in starting in then, but Johnathan insisted it meant that they were saying we could show up at 9:30 and be fine. The other person wasn’t schedule to get there until 11AM, so I thought it would be polite to at least wait until they were actually “open” to go in. One minute to 10, Johnathan knocked on the door. It turns out I was wrong – she was inviting us to show up at 9:30.
It didn’t matter, though. The person who had been promised the apartment came back the night before, just before the office closed for the night, to put down her deposit. She didn’t want to miss out on it! We had gone through all that, only to end up disappointed. “But,” she said, “I have another that you might be interested in.” She gave us the details. It was a two-bedroom one-point-five bath with an L-kitchen instead of a square one. Hmm. It was $40/month more, but it also had more square feet. We said okay, we’d look at it. The advantage that I could see to this one was that it had an air conditioner in the second bedroom – something I desperately wish we had now. It was also on the eighth floor. Well, heck yes!
Oh, the apartment was wonderful, especially compared to our current abode. It has four ceiling fans – one in each bedroom, one in the dining area and one in, of all places, the kitchen. It has a pantry. It has a big storage closet and a linen closet, a coat closet, and of course closets in both bedrooms. The bathrooms are nothing really special, but I didn’t expect anything special. It has lots of windows, and a 32 foot balcony. 32 feet! There are two doors out onto the balcony – one from the smaller bedroom and one from the living area. I am just amazed by the apartment. It’s a lot more than we’re paying right now, but after juggling numbers, we can easily afford this move, and still arrange for some savings as well. Heck. Yes.
There are some downsides to the apartment, though. The kitchen is… dated, I think, is the word I’m looking for. The floors look old, and the counters and cabinets look worn. They were maybe stylish 30 years ago! The hallway is narrow, which leads to some worries about fitting furniture down the hall into the bedrooms. The master bedroom closet is a bit on the small side, which means we’re going to need to get some additional bedroom storage, I think. (Our current dressers are falling apart; they weren’t well-constructed when they were built years and years ago, and are obviously not meant to last forever.) Other than that, I ‘m pretty excited!
We asked for a new stove if they’re able and willing, and we got to pick our carpet color from four different colors since they were going to replace it anyway. We ended up picking the color they were planning on using, but it was definitely the best choice, I think. Not too dark, but certainly not white.
I am really looking forward to living on the top floor. Living in a new place where we can settle in with a little more sensibly-organized space, with thing that will hopefully not fall apart after regular use (our “brand new” refrigerator in our current place had the door come off within about a month of moving in – we fixed it ourselves because the manager couldn’t be bothered to remember). I look forward to being able to cook without tripping over the other counter, and being able to have two people in the kitchen at the same time without being stuck. Some days I feel like Sims in the kitchen, putting up protest because yet again there’s another Sim– erm, person… in the way.
We’re moving! … In the middle of September! The first day of our lease is September 15, and Johnathan and I are like-minded in that we want to make sure our stuff gets moved that weekend. I’m not sure when we’re going back to sign the lease, but I can hardly wait. A new chance to make a place into home!
Speaking of making places into home, we have big plans for this place, and many of them involve IKEA. We have built an entertainment center with many bookshelves, and a place to mount our TV. We have come up with a good sewing table for Johnathan, which will have more storage. There’s a kitchen cart for extra workspace. There’s a wardrobe for bedroom storage. There’s a couch to go with my modern/minimalist idea of what our living room should look like. There are vases and dishes and silverware — okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. The priority is going to be the entertainment center and sewing desk, and possibly the kitchen cart if we don’t find one locally that we like. We’re going to drive to Pittsburgh, possibly with Johnathan’s mom’s van, and pick up everything that we put on a very restricted wishlist to make this place into home. I am hoping that we can make this look like the home of two adults rather than two young twenty-somethings who are struggling along with whatever they can. We had our bookshelves fall apart lately, so I don’t want to deal with that again.
I can hardly wait to move in to our new place and make it home.
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