Monday, July 25, 2005

Moving right along

Well, the apartment is now ours. The tenants left yesterday, and they have their whole security deposit back, and even though there were things we could have taken out of it, we didn't, because I always hated it when landlords did that to me. And when I went over there late last night to get the keys, I was pleasantly surprised to find the two of them in an almost empty apartment with scrub brushes and Windex, cleaning out the apartment before they left. So that was nice.

We still have plenty to do, but not as much. MHH is over there now, observing the installation of the new water heater and furnace, and waiting for the locksmith, who will be there this afternoon to rekey the front door locks and install a Shabbos (keypad) lock on the back door. Bit by bit. The painters, alas, did not show up, though I am told that the paint has been purchased and they will be there tomorrow at 8 am to start all of the extensive prep work. I am also assured that they will be done before we move on Monday. I am trying not to think too much about what will happen if they're not.

My mother said once, on the subject of home improvements, that the more you do, the more you notice everything that still needs to be done. Once the kitchen walls are painted, the floor is going to look even more awful, and I think that will be the next thing on the list. The kitchen cupboards aren't going anywhere anytime soon, even though the wood is literally peeling apart in laters on some of the doors, though if I get ambitious I might paint them. Of course, then I would want to replace the counters...

It occurred to me last night that I have been so busy with everything else that I haven't even thought about where the furniture is going to go. I had thought I would have sold my loom by now, and I haven't, so that's one thing to work out. Also, I don't think our current dresser will fit in our future bedroom, though I could be wrong about that--I need to go in there with a measuring tape and work all that out.

And we need a loveseat. Okay, "need" is a strong word, but I do want to get one. One of the things I don't like about the apartment is the way the public and private space are split--the living room is all the way in the front, and the kitchen almost all the way in the back, at the end of a long hall. So there is no obvious hang-out spot. I would prefer the hanging out to happen in the kitchen, since that's where I spend most of my time at home, and since there is an empty wall where the tenants once had a breakfront, I think some nice comfy seating is in order. Unfortunately our current couch is too big--I would rather put our not-so-nice one in there and get a nice new one for the living room, but oh well. This is not, in the scale of things, a major problem.

All right, back to packing. Further bulletins, as always, as events warrant.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For furniture placement, may I suggest the room planner at Jordan's? You can adjust sizes down to the inch, move stuff around, and save your rooms to mess with later.

We are having the "it never stops" problem, but eventually cut ourselves off when we started discussing gutting the kitchen so we could put in nicer cabinets and re-arrange the appliances. It's just not worth it now - things are functional and look decent. Maybe if more money magically falls into our laps in five years, but for now what will make it "home" is us living there. Same for you. You can't know exactly where the "hang out space" will be until you've been there for a little while - things will develop on their own. I promise.