MOVE

WELL!! I'm all moved in to the new apartment. Aren't you so proud of me? Yeah, whatever. I'm just hoping that this one doesn't suck as much as the last one did, and I don't end up moving again a year from now. But I think it will be just fine. Aside from a few little things, most of which are just normal hazards of living in an old building, I am crazy about the new place. Did I say the exact same thing about the last place right after I'd moved in? Perhaps. But when I put it all out in front of me, the new apartment is so obviously superior I almost can't handle it.


THE OLD APARTMENT
Pros:
Location - right around the corner from Brown Line
Vintage - I loved the built-in cabinets in the kitchen
Large living room
Radiator heat - the pro being the fact that it's free
Closet space - tons!

Cons:
Tiny useless kitchen - one square of counter space, not enough cabinets, and a midget fridge
Tiny useless "eat-in" area - my table didn't even fit and had to be put in living room
Vintage - the bathroom hadn't been updated since the Civil War (What is up with separate faucets for hot and cold water?)
Bathroom - no storage, no towel bars, no room to turn around, and a temperamental shower
Tiny bedroom
Radiator heat - the con being the fact that there wasn't one in the bedroom (!!) and I had to rely on a space heater, which drove up my electric bill
Bugs - they had an exterminator come once a month, and when he inexplicably didn't come for a few months, I discovered why he was needed
Smell - there was a weird smell when I moved in, which I eventually just got used to, but for a while I was buying all manner of air freshener to try to get rid of it
Price - yes, it was within my price range, but I never felt I was getting my money's worth - and I happen to know that the new tenant is paying $150 a month more than I would have been, had I stayed - shady...


THE NEW APARTMENT
Pros:
The courtyard building is really pretty.
Location - still very much in the neighborhood I want to live in
Size - it matters
Closet space - I lucked out again in that department
Bigger, better kitchen - granted, the kitchen is still rather small, but it's still such an improvement, and you would not BELIEVE the amount of cabinet space! And counter tops! And a bigger fridge!
Dining room - one that my table actually fits in, with room to spare
Vintage - it has the same built-in cabinets I loved about the old apartment, PLUS a built-in bookcase in the living room, and very pretty arched doorways
Radiator heat - again, free, and this time in every room!
Smell - there's a nice sweet smell in the stairwell and the apartment that I can't place, but I'm actually quite fond of - and they do say that a pleasant smell is a sign of compatibility. :)
Price - only $25 a month more than the old one

Cons:
Old windows - we'll have to see how they fare in the dead of winter - I think the living/dining rooms will be fine, but there are no storm windows in the bedroom, and cold air (and sound) already come through, so that is a potential problem
Hot water pressure - for some reason, the hot water only comes out of the faucets in barely more than a trickle, whereas the cold water is just fine - but oddly enough, the shower pressure is still satisfactory
There's a yucky light switch/outlet in the kitchen that I'm afraid to plug anything into


So that's the long and short of it right there. So far, I'm really happy with the place. Now, the biggest obstacle is finding the time and energy to get everything unpacked and put away! I got a great deal of it done last weekend, especially since I was off Friday as well. But on the weekdays, I just find it so hard to do anything! I still don't have a car, so I take public transportation to and from work, which adds an extra hour or so to my day. By the time I finally get home (I leave the apartment at 5:30 in the morning and return around 6 p.m.), I am so exhausted, all I want to do is eat dinner and crash. I literally have to force myself to do anything productive in the evenings - even just putting a couple things into a closet - just so I know I've accomplished something. And all the kinks I've had to work out due to the move have been overwhelming. Nothing ever goes as smoothly as you'd like it to. For example, I needed to hook up the telephone, so I called AT&T to get the line set up. They said they'd come out last Friday. Well, I got an e-mail from someone last week saying there was already working service at my address, but they'd come and hook mine up on Friday, provided the current service had been disconnected. Well, no one showed up on Friday and yet I have no dial tone when I pick up the phone. Not sure what happened there. Another example, I wanted to transfer my cable service from the old address to the new one. Well, apparently the new address was not in their system, so it was going to take them a day (?!?) to add it. When the lady called me the next day to tell me I'd been added, I missed the call and she left a message. She said she'd sign me up for the next available service date, but neglected to tell me when that was, or who to call to reschedule if need be. So now I have to call the main number again and go through all the rigmarole AGAIN. And that's not even the half of it. Suffice it to say that moving is a bitch.

Which brings me to the movers. I have said that hiring movers was one of the best decisions I have ever made. But this is really only partly true. Hiring movers was indeed one of the best decisions I have made, however, the particular movers I decided to hire was actually a very poor choice. I am a victim of "you get what you pay for." I was all proud of myself for finding a moving company that was charging about half of what the other companies were quoting me, but after all was said and done, I discovered why. First off, they broke a few things, dinged some furniture, and were generally very rough with my belongings. Sure, they wrapped up my couch up tight with cellophane like a Thanksgiving leftover, but I would have preferred they pay that much attention to my fragile (paper) Japanese folding screen instead, which came back to me with the paper separated from the wood frame in two spots. The kicker, though, and the reason I'd never hire this company again, nor recommend it to any of my friends, is that I am missing one of my air conditioners. And when I called the company to ask about it, they were rude to me! They said, "We don't have it. If we had it, you would have gotten a call from the foreman the next morning. I suggest you look through your things again." And that was all the help I got from them. Nice, huh? Well, at least it was the smaller, slightly defective one that I lost. :)