My new apartment
As most of you know, I recently moved to a studio apartment in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood. The circumstances behind the move are worthy of its own post. Suffice to say that it was a long, exhausting process - literally exhausting.
Getting settled took a while. As anybody who's known me for a while will tell you, I don't tend to respond well to change (which make my left-leaning, liberal convictions that much odder). But once I had a chance to get acclimated, I found that there is actually a lot to like.
The apartment is located in Edgewater, one of the several working-class Chicago neighborhoods that serve as entry points for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. As the result, Edgewater tends to be pretty ethnically and racially diverse. This is especially evident in crowds that gather on the streets in the afternoon, when kids come back from school, commuters come back from work and most of them are out looking for something to do.
The apartment is located in an eight-story building about two blocks from the lakeshore, less than a block east of the Red Line - the 'L' line that forms Chicago's public transportation "spine," running from the city's far north to the depths of its South Side. the proximity to several local and nation-wide chain stores, not to mention a few eateries in varying price ranges, doesn't hurt, either.
Here is what the building looks like from the outside:
Hunter Properties have worked to turn the building into an ideal abode for starving artists, and honestly, what they pulled off wasn't too shabby. The building includes a rehearsal room:
A smaller rehearsal room that doubles as a common room:
And even a small computer lab. The computers are slow and dated, but they will suffice if you need to check the e-mail or write something up:
The building also includes some ordinary amenities, such as a smallish laundry room:
And a bike room:
Now, as I said - the apartment is a studio. Would I prefer something roomier? On the long run, yeah. But for now, given the finances involved, it's actually not that bad.
Not at all:
I've got a TV with a working DVD player. Thanks to an antenna, I get some local TV channels. Because the antenna is cheap, the connection is a bit temperamental, but getting the best TV reception isn't exactly the highest priority right now. And, if nothing else, it reminds me of watching television at Grandma Tanya's house back in Russia.
It's roomy enough to for my purposes, it doesn't have any real structural issues, and it's just big enough to receive guests, and thanks to a borrowed table from the campaign my sister ran, I have a decent workspace.
My bed is an IKEA futon I sort of inherited from my mom. It can function is a couch and as a bed. I decided to drape it in bedsheets and leave it in the couch position. At night, I take off the blanket and sleep. I don't see the point of unfolding it into the bed - it's not like I need much room. If that changes, I
I haven't had to use gas stoves since Russia. I'm still trying to figure out how to cook on it, but I'm getting better. If all else fails, I do have a microwave :)
And, just for the sake of comprehensiveness, here is the shot of the bathroom
Overall, I'm... I can't bring myself to say that I'm "happy" in this apartment, but I'm far from miserable. Let us put it this way. I am satisfied. I could see myself becoming fond of it. And the fact that the building has so many creative sides is, if nothing else, a bunch of networking opportunities waiting to happen.
I guess we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.
Getting settled took a while. As anybody who's known me for a while will tell you, I don't tend to respond well to change (which make my left-leaning, liberal convictions that much odder). But once I had a chance to get acclimated, I found that there is actually a lot to like.
The apartment is located in Edgewater, one of the several working-class Chicago neighborhoods that serve as entry points for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. As the result, Edgewater tends to be pretty ethnically and racially diverse. This is especially evident in crowds that gather on the streets in the afternoon, when kids come back from school, commuters come back from work and most of them are out looking for something to do.
The apartment is located in an eight-story building about two blocks from the lakeshore, less than a block east of the Red Line - the 'L' line that forms Chicago's public transportation "spine," running from the city's far north to the depths of its South Side. the proximity to several local and nation-wide chain stores, not to mention a few eateries in varying price ranges, doesn't hurt, either.
Here is what the building looks like from the outside:
Hunter Properties have worked to turn the building into an ideal abode for starving artists, and honestly, what they pulled off wasn't too shabby. The building includes a rehearsal room:
A smaller rehearsal room that doubles as a common room:
And even a small computer lab. The computers are slow and dated, but they will suffice if you need to check the e-mail or write something up:
The building also includes some ordinary amenities, such as a smallish laundry room:
And a bike room:
Now, as I said - the apartment is a studio. Would I prefer something roomier? On the long run, yeah. But for now, given the finances involved, it's actually not that bad.
Not at all:
I've got a TV with a working DVD player. Thanks to an antenna, I get some local TV channels. Because the antenna is cheap, the connection is a bit temperamental, but getting the best TV reception isn't exactly the highest priority right now. And, if nothing else, it reminds me of watching television at Grandma Tanya's house back in Russia.
It's roomy enough to for my purposes, it doesn't have any real structural issues, and it's just big enough to receive guests, and thanks to a borrowed table from the campaign my sister ran, I have a decent workspace.
My bed is an IKEA futon I sort of inherited from my mom. It can function is a couch and as a bed. I decided to drape it in bedsheets and leave it in the couch position. At night, I take off the blanket and sleep. I don't see the point of unfolding it into the bed - it's not like I need much room. If that changes, I
I haven't had to use gas stoves since Russia. I'm still trying to figure out how to cook on it, but I'm getting better. If all else fails, I do have a microwave :)
And, just for the sake of comprehensiveness, here is the shot of the bathroom
Overall, I'm... I can't bring myself to say that I'm "happy" in this apartment, but I'm far from miserable. Let us put it this way. I am satisfied. I could see myself becoming fond of it. And the fact that the building has so many creative sides is, if nothing else, a bunch of networking opportunities waiting to happen.
I guess we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.