Design On A Dime, Part III: I'm Finally Home!!!

It’s been a long and hard process, but I’m happy to say that I’ve finally moved into the new apartment. It’s a great feeling – being on my own, feeling in control and just taking the next step forward in my life. I couldn’t be happier. Although, getting here was no easy task, let me tell you. I worked day and night, night and day and for a while it seemed as if the place would never get done, I didn’t think move-in day would ever come. But alas, it has and now I’m enjoying getting things organized and in place and just feeling great!

I have to say, I don’t think that this was such a normal process – from what I understand, most people move into a new place with ease and light stress – they just move their shit from one place to the next, right? Well, not me, as you know. Unfortunately, the entire ordeal was extremely stressful and distracting, it took over all aspects of my life for about a month and a half and I’m so glad that it’s finally come to a happy end. Now I wake up every morning, grab a cup o’ Joe out of my brand new automatic coffee maker (which I love more than anything because I can’t even begin to function with out at least 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day; it’s a horrible habit) and just look around at what I’ve (along with family and friends who so generously helped) created and I feel content.

Now, I know that I seemingly complained quite a bit about this whole endeavor, and I’m sure my coworkers are pretty much fed up, sick and tired even, of hearing me bitch and moan about some new problem that arises day after day, but I do really think that, in the end, now that I’m good and settled, that it was most certainly worth it. The building that I moved to is a treat – I love that it’s so old and has a great history behind it; it’s a family owned and operated property so it’s nice. Inside, although a bit outdated (supposedly due to be fixed up), the walls and the four very different apartment units are full of character. Every wall in each home has great frame molding throughout, old gas burning sconces here and there, and quirky positioning that makes for an interesting aesthetic (and poses a slight challenge when arranging furniture – you can’t tell in the pictures, but many of the walls are quite crooked). I love that every apartment is different; there’s some comparisons from one to the next, but the actual layout varies from unit to unit, the sizes are all different and the overall feel changes as you walk through each front door; I’d say the place is very eclectic!



So now that I’ve crawled out from under the protective wings of my parents and I’ve forced my self into true “adulthood” I’ve learned a few valuable things about life and about the way things work in the real world. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, an automatic coffee maker is an absolute necessity in anyone’s life that, like me, can’t function without a large dose of caffeine in the morning. Also, food shopping is actually fun, but expensive, and I’ve become partial to the findings at the dollar store around the corner, because there I can buy simple things like soap, toilette paper and paper towels for a much more reasonable price than I’d find anywhere else.

More importantly, though, I’ve finally realized why my parents would get so angry when I’d leave the house looking like a bomb hit it and yell at me to clean up my mess, because now that I’ve put so much hard work and effort, blood, sweat and tears into fixing this place up and making a nice home for my self, I want to keep it nice; I want to keep it clean and I’ve become super anal about tidying up every day – I’m a bit taken-a-back by it; at home with my parents, things just used to “magically” happen. I would leave the house in the morning in a big rush and leave behind a trail of crap, but when I came home it was always clean. Well, much to my surprise, there was absolutely no magic involved; in fact, it was my wonderful parents who would clean up after me every damn day and now that I’m on my own and doing it my self, I can finally say that I understand, and I’m thankful.

I’ve also learned that as an adult, without being able to rely on my parents for every little thing anymore, I’m finding out a lot more about my self and about what I’m capable of. There have been some slight issues here and there and I must say, I’m quite proud of my self for stepping up and not taking anyone’s shit, because out there in the real world, it’s every one for them self, and if you just let people walk all over you you’ll never get by – so cheers to me for putting on my “bitch” hat and letting people know that I’m the boss in my life and if you don’t like it, tough!
My advice to anyone looking to move out for the first time is to take someone with you who’s done it – because landlords can smell fear, they know if you’re new at this and they’ll push you around so show up prepared and with back up!