apartment hunting, plus a small kitty update
a lot has been going on in my life lately, so I feel like I should update. mainly what has been going on is: moving.
Kate and I moved into this apartment in 2007 because Nathan and Bridget lived here and we thought it would be cool to live right next to them. (it was!) we also wanted to move back to the east side. living in riverwest was OK but it just doesn't have as much in walking distance as over here, and the bus lines are really inconvenient if you work on the east side of the river. (on the other hand the rents are WAY cheaper.)
this year we decided we are sick of this apartment and want to move out, especially since Nathan and Bridget moved and are now in a mythical place called Married Land where we never see them. :P I'm really sick of the carpet (especially when I have kittens) and the general ugliness of the place, and Kate was kind of miffed that our oven was broken for a really long time and she couldn't bake anything. (it's fixed now and she bakes ALL THE TIME. mmm banana bread.) so I started looking online for apartments.
let me tell you internets, once I saw how high the average east side apartment goes for in terms of rent, I started to wonder if maybe we had been too hasty in turning in our notice of non-renewal of the lease. almost every apartment I found in our price range lacked something that I have here that I wouldn't want to lose--heat included, parking, laundry, garbage disposal in the sink, allowance of cats, etc. and there are a couple more things that we have in this apartment that are really convenient--namely, cable included with the rent and the air conditioner mounted on the wall in the living room. we can get cable ourselves and/or install a window AC, but that means spending more money.
I did find some apartments comparable to ours, but once we visited them, we realized they were basically our apartment in a different building. some of them had nice touches, like a dishwasher or a breakfast bar or a walk-in closet, but most of them were carpeted and boring and very similar to our current place. they didn't seem like an upgrade so much as a side-grade. (what else have I said that about recently? oh yeah--my phone.) I crave hardwood floors, but the ones we saw with those were really old and lacked modern updates like a garbage disposal or grounded outlets. pretty small, too.
we visited one apartment that was kind of horrible, like something out of my apartment nightmares. the ceiling was barely above our heads, the "living room" was basically a place where the hallway widened a little more, and everything was wood-paneled and carpeted like we had stepped into the 70s. the price they were asking was ridiculously high for such a crappy apartment, and when I went online I saw that the company had been given awful reviews on uwm's off-campus housing site, so I'm kind of glad we didn't like either of the apartments they showed us.
I bookmarked practically everything on craigslist that remotely fit our criteria and looked at a few more sites like forrent.com, and many apartment management companies have their own websites where they list apartments available, so I looked at plenty of those. one company that seemed really promising was Eastmore--they seem to own half of the buildings on the east side and all of them look really nice. I even scheduled a showing for one, and was all excited about it, but then I read the fine print on their website and found out that they have a STRICT NO-PET POLICY. I had assumed they'd allow cats, because some of the buildings say "small dogs allowed," and who would allow small dogs but not cats? I DUNNO BUT APPARENTLY THEM. so I canceled that showing and was really frustrated for a while, because that meant I had to cross off several of the nicest-seeming apartments on my list.
but then the other day during one of my obsessive craigslist trawls, I found a listing for an apartment right around the corner from where I grew up--the heart of the east side, a couple of blocks from uwm and right down the street from one of my favorite local coffee shops. it fit all our basic criteria--price range, cats allowed, heat included, etc. and it had JUST been posted, so I was like MUST MAKE APPOINTMENT BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE TAKES IT. I was kind of nervous that it would be horrible, though, because I really like the idea of living right around here and it's really hard to find a nice place that's cheap enough.
so we saw that one today, and we were both immediately charmed by it. all of the rooms were painted different colors (the manager said we can paint the walls any color we want), and there's a small built-in bookshelf, and the bedrooms both have windows on two sides (advantage to living in a small building) so there was lots of light. and it has HARDWOOD FLOORS, which is basically the main reason why I wanted to move. (it's either that or buy a 300-dollar vacuum.) the kitchen was small but not TOO small, and it had a gas stove (Kate's preference) and a garbage disposal (mine). also, the free storage lockers are HUGE.
the building also seemed kind of... home-y. there was a lot of stuff in the hallway, people's shoes and such, so apparently everyone trusts everyone else not to steal things, which is nice. the smallness of the building and the friendliness of the people we saw made it seem like people actually interact there, rather than ignoring each other in the halls like we do here. it wasn't a huge impersonal building with few distinguishing characteristics, like many of the apartments we'd visited.
there are a few drawbacks. it's basically the same price we're paying now (I was hoping to pay a bit less, as we're basically too poor for this neighborhood but we love it anyway), and cable's not included in the rent like it is here. there's no air conditioner, although we could put in a window unit. it's right on Locust, a really busy street, and it would never be really quiet even at night. there's laundry in the basement, but only one washer and one dryer.
those are all relatively little things though. what's really making me hesitate about this apartment is the lack of off-street parking. the manager said he hasn't heard any complaints, but parking on the east side can be really difficult when UWM is in session, especially if you want to park during the day. (like I said, my parents live just around the corner, and I've often had trouble finding a place to park when visiting them on a weekday.) you can buy a night parking permit from the city (cheap), but a lot of the streets around there are two-hour parking during the day, and I'd rather just have a place to leave my car where I don't have to worry about moving it. plus, the super-busy street makes me feel kind of vulnerable, especially after coming from the locked garage we have here. not to mention I don't relish the idea of digging my car out of the snow every winter.
but the apartment IS really neat. we have a showing and a couple of open houses to go to tomorrow, but I think both of us are already mentally moving our furniture around to see how it would best fit in that place. unless we REALLY love something we see tomorrow, we've probably found our apartment.
the manager emailed us the application (INTERNET AGE HOW I LOVES YOU), and he said the one we looked at today had been rented, but there was another one available on the first floor (easier move-in) that had the same layout. I told him we'd have to take a look at that one before signing anything. I'm hoping we can do that tomorrow and get things finalized as soon as possible.
I'm pretty anxious about moving, since I'm kind of a weakling and can't do a lot by myself so I either have to ask people to help (and I don't know a lot of people, plus my dad's getting kind of old for it), or hire movers (which I don't think we really have the money for). Kate says she can get some family members to help. I also want to use the moving opportunity to take a bunch of furniture I don't particularly like to Goodwill and get new stuff from Craigslist or rummage sales. especially if we end up getting a uhaul truck like we did last time, since my car is tiny and I don't know anyone with a truck, so moving large furniture items is hard (which is pretty much the only thing that keeps me from entirely redecorating my apartment with Craigslist finds every year or two).
I want to pare down my possessions a LOT for this move, since every fewer box means that much less stressful of a moving experience. I'm going to give away a lot of books through paperbackswap and a lot of clothing to Goodwill, and my never-used desk is not coming with us either. I always end up moving somewhere and then having a lot of boxes that never get unpacked because they're filled with things I never use. there's still going to be some stuff I don't use, like keepsakes and my old writing notebooks, but I can keep them in the storage locker of the new place. (in a plastic bin. I love plastic bins.)
OKAY END BORING MOVING STUFF HERE, ON TO KITTENS!!
The kittens are doing pretty well! They've all learned to walk and use the box and eat solid food, although they do still nurse often. The mama and at least a couple of kittens have diarrhea, which my Special Kitten Food Cocktail (with slippery elm, extra fiber, and probiotics mixed in) is doing nothing to cure, although it might be keeping it from getting worse. I take them to the vet on Wednesday for their first checkup, so I can ask about it then. In the meantime I am cleaning out the box VERY often because otherwise my room constantly smells like poop. WHY DO I DO THIS KITTEN THING AGAIN.
Oh right.
Basil is becoming a real sweetheart. (For some reason I keep wanting to call him Rufus.) He curls up next to me and goes to sleep and I go awwww. I'm kind of flattered that even with his mama and four siblings available, he still wants to sleep on me. I love sweet kittens.
Cinnamon, who was initially the sleepiest cat, is growing into a little monster. She attacks the other kittens mercilessly and has recently learned to growl. Maybe there's some truth to what they say about the fiery calico spirit. cffgc d ddddddddddddddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH11111111DYYYYYYYYYYYY HYYYYYYYYYADDR
I went to go get my laundry and that's what I came back to. I think I will end my entry on that note. because KITTENS.
Kate and I moved into this apartment in 2007 because Nathan and Bridget lived here and we thought it would be cool to live right next to them. (it was!) we also wanted to move back to the east side. living in riverwest was OK but it just doesn't have as much in walking distance as over here, and the bus lines are really inconvenient if you work on the east side of the river. (on the other hand the rents are WAY cheaper.)
this year we decided we are sick of this apartment and want to move out, especially since Nathan and Bridget moved and are now in a mythical place called Married Land where we never see them. :P I'm really sick of the carpet (especially when I have kittens) and the general ugliness of the place, and Kate was kind of miffed that our oven was broken for a really long time and she couldn't bake anything. (it's fixed now and she bakes ALL THE TIME. mmm banana bread.) so I started looking online for apartments.
let me tell you internets, once I saw how high the average east side apartment goes for in terms of rent, I started to wonder if maybe we had been too hasty in turning in our notice of non-renewal of the lease. almost every apartment I found in our price range lacked something that I have here that I wouldn't want to lose--heat included, parking, laundry, garbage disposal in the sink, allowance of cats, etc. and there are a couple more things that we have in this apartment that are really convenient--namely, cable included with the rent and the air conditioner mounted on the wall in the living room. we can get cable ourselves and/or install a window AC, but that means spending more money.
I did find some apartments comparable to ours, but once we visited them, we realized they were basically our apartment in a different building. some of them had nice touches, like a dishwasher or a breakfast bar or a walk-in closet, but most of them were carpeted and boring and very similar to our current place. they didn't seem like an upgrade so much as a side-grade. (what else have I said that about recently? oh yeah--my phone.) I crave hardwood floors, but the ones we saw with those were really old and lacked modern updates like a garbage disposal or grounded outlets. pretty small, too.
we visited one apartment that was kind of horrible, like something out of my apartment nightmares. the ceiling was barely above our heads, the "living room" was basically a place where the hallway widened a little more, and everything was wood-paneled and carpeted like we had stepped into the 70s. the price they were asking was ridiculously high for such a crappy apartment, and when I went online I saw that the company had been given awful reviews on uwm's off-campus housing site, so I'm kind of glad we didn't like either of the apartments they showed us.
I bookmarked practically everything on craigslist that remotely fit our criteria and looked at a few more sites like forrent.com, and many apartment management companies have their own websites where they list apartments available, so I looked at plenty of those. one company that seemed really promising was Eastmore--they seem to own half of the buildings on the east side and all of them look really nice. I even scheduled a showing for one, and was all excited about it, but then I read the fine print on their website and found out that they have a STRICT NO-PET POLICY. I had assumed they'd allow cats, because some of the buildings say "small dogs allowed," and who would allow small dogs but not cats? I DUNNO BUT APPARENTLY THEM. so I canceled that showing and was really frustrated for a while, because that meant I had to cross off several of the nicest-seeming apartments on my list.
but then the other day during one of my obsessive craigslist trawls, I found a listing for an apartment right around the corner from where I grew up--the heart of the east side, a couple of blocks from uwm and right down the street from one of my favorite local coffee shops. it fit all our basic criteria--price range, cats allowed, heat included, etc. and it had JUST been posted, so I was like MUST MAKE APPOINTMENT BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE TAKES IT. I was kind of nervous that it would be horrible, though, because I really like the idea of living right around here and it's really hard to find a nice place that's cheap enough.
so we saw that one today, and we were both immediately charmed by it. all of the rooms were painted different colors (the manager said we can paint the walls any color we want), and there's a small built-in bookshelf, and the bedrooms both have windows on two sides (advantage to living in a small building) so there was lots of light. and it has HARDWOOD FLOORS, which is basically the main reason why I wanted to move. (it's either that or buy a 300-dollar vacuum.) the kitchen was small but not TOO small, and it had a gas stove (Kate's preference) and a garbage disposal (mine). also, the free storage lockers are HUGE.
the building also seemed kind of... home-y. there was a lot of stuff in the hallway, people's shoes and such, so apparently everyone trusts everyone else not to steal things, which is nice. the smallness of the building and the friendliness of the people we saw made it seem like people actually interact there, rather than ignoring each other in the halls like we do here. it wasn't a huge impersonal building with few distinguishing characteristics, like many of the apartments we'd visited.
there are a few drawbacks. it's basically the same price we're paying now (I was hoping to pay a bit less, as we're basically too poor for this neighborhood but we love it anyway), and cable's not included in the rent like it is here. there's no air conditioner, although we could put in a window unit. it's right on Locust, a really busy street, and it would never be really quiet even at night. there's laundry in the basement, but only one washer and one dryer.
those are all relatively little things though. what's really making me hesitate about this apartment is the lack of off-street parking. the manager said he hasn't heard any complaints, but parking on the east side can be really difficult when UWM is in session, especially if you want to park during the day. (like I said, my parents live just around the corner, and I've often had trouble finding a place to park when visiting them on a weekday.) you can buy a night parking permit from the city (cheap), but a lot of the streets around there are two-hour parking during the day, and I'd rather just have a place to leave my car where I don't have to worry about moving it. plus, the super-busy street makes me feel kind of vulnerable, especially after coming from the locked garage we have here. not to mention I don't relish the idea of digging my car out of the snow every winter.
but the apartment IS really neat. we have a showing and a couple of open houses to go to tomorrow, but I think both of us are already mentally moving our furniture around to see how it would best fit in that place. unless we REALLY love something we see tomorrow, we've probably found our apartment.
the manager emailed us the application (INTERNET AGE HOW I LOVES YOU), and he said the one we looked at today had been rented, but there was another one available on the first floor (easier move-in) that had the same layout. I told him we'd have to take a look at that one before signing anything. I'm hoping we can do that tomorrow and get things finalized as soon as possible.
I'm pretty anxious about moving, since I'm kind of a weakling and can't do a lot by myself so I either have to ask people to help (and I don't know a lot of people, plus my dad's getting kind of old for it), or hire movers (which I don't think we really have the money for). Kate says she can get some family members to help. I also want to use the moving opportunity to take a bunch of furniture I don't particularly like to Goodwill and get new stuff from Craigslist or rummage sales. especially if we end up getting a uhaul truck like we did last time, since my car is tiny and I don't know anyone with a truck, so moving large furniture items is hard (which is pretty much the only thing that keeps me from entirely redecorating my apartment with Craigslist finds every year or two).
I want to pare down my possessions a LOT for this move, since every fewer box means that much less stressful of a moving experience. I'm going to give away a lot of books through paperbackswap and a lot of clothing to Goodwill, and my never-used desk is not coming with us either. I always end up moving somewhere and then having a lot of boxes that never get unpacked because they're filled with things I never use. there's still going to be some stuff I don't use, like keepsakes and my old writing notebooks, but I can keep them in the storage locker of the new place. (in a plastic bin. I love plastic bins.)
OKAY END BORING MOVING STUFF HERE, ON TO KITTENS!!
The kittens are doing pretty well! They've all learned to walk and use the box and eat solid food, although they do still nurse often. The mama and at least a couple of kittens have diarrhea, which my Special Kitten Food Cocktail (with slippery elm, extra fiber, and probiotics mixed in) is doing nothing to cure, although it might be keeping it from getting worse. I take them to the vet on Wednesday for their first checkup, so I can ask about it then. In the meantime I am cleaning out the box VERY often because otherwise my room constantly smells like poop. WHY DO I DO THIS KITTEN THING AGAIN.
Oh right.
Basil is becoming a real sweetheart. (For some reason I keep wanting to call him Rufus.) He curls up next to me and goes to sleep and I go awwww. I'm kind of flattered that even with his mama and four siblings available, he still wants to sleep on me. I love sweet kittens.
Cinnamon, who was initially the sleepiest cat, is growing into a little monster. She attacks the other kittens mercilessly and has recently learned to growl. Maybe there's some truth to what they say about the fiery calico spirit. cffgc d ddddddddddddddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH11111111DYYYYYYYYYYYY HYYYYYYYYYADDR
I went to go get my laundry and that's what I came back to. I think I will end my entry on that note. because KITTENS.