Apartment update..

So, I've been living full-time in my apartment for about a week now. I started sleeping in my bed and everything. I've been spending the night here for about three weeks and I was sleeping on the couch most of that time.

The apartment is good. It is, I promise. I'm having a little bit of a rough time at the moment because I haven't started work yet and there isn't anybody around really. So I've been literally by myself for the past week. For a day or two it was nice, but it got really old really fast and now I'm just bored and lonely.

But soon work will start and all that will change... yay, I think.

Anyway, back to the apartment. I've decided to share with you a list of things to consider when apartment hunting. These are things, of course, I thought of AFTER signing the lease and moving in. It's not a bad apartment; I've just learned a lot so far.

1. It might be worth asking if the apartment you're touring has had any major recent maintenance issues. For instance, a leaking roof. My apartment has a leaky roof and I'd bet you a million dollars it had a leaky roof a month ago, too. They told us that when we moved in. "Here are you keys, and by the way you have a leaky roof but we've fixed it. You still might want to put a bucket down or something." We had SO much rain over the next two weeks. And, yes, we put a bucket down. And, yes, the roof did leak. And, yes, I did report it. And, yes, they fixed it. Twice. So far (literally six repairs later) the roof seems to be holding up. But it's still a source of concern.

2. Do you feel like a giant in your bathroom? I recently discovered that yes, I do in fact feel like a giant in my bathroom. The toilet is WAY low to the ground, I need the gymnastic ability of Shawn Johnson to wash my hair in the shower because the shower head is low, and I'm pretty sure the sink doesn't even come up to my waist. Yeah, think about it.

3. Appliances. If they look like Fred and Wilma could have used them, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, as long as they're kept well appliances can last a long time. However, if your oven is so old that it doesn't come with features like a clock, timer, a fancy mechanism to let you know when it's preheated, and emits a strange natural gas smell when you turn it on despite the fact it's electric.... well, those are all things to consider. We also have a big pool of water in the bottom of our refrigerator and have NO IDEA why.

4. Central Air. Roomie and I were going back and forth between this apartment and another one we found that's very VERY similar. This one has central air. That one does not. At first I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal. Surprise, it kind of is. Iowa = central air. Remember that.

5. Management. I honestly think that the complex manager sold this place for us. She was REALLY nice and REALLY helpful and answered all of my dumb "I'm new to this whole apartment thing" types of questions. Roomie and I were not so fond of the other management people at the other place. The fact is you'll have to deal with management staff a lot and it's best to find people you're comfortable talking to and aren't intimidated by.

6. Which way do your windows face? All I'm sayin' is that in the evening, when I'm most likely to be hanging out watching TV, I get the nice, BRIGHT evening sun right into my living room windows. I fell asleep on the couch the other day and have the sunburn to prove it.

7. Kitchen. Can you dance in the kitchen? Wait... maybe that's only important to me. Moving on...

8. Cabinets. I have odd cabinets. I can't fit a box of cereal in them. They're oddly shaped or something. The cabinets, I mean. Not the cereal boxes. Do they have adjustable shelves? I would kill for adjustable shelves. Look for it.

9. Balcony. If you want a balcony DON'T COMPROMISE! I compromised and, again, I like the new place, but the balcony thing still gets to me sometimes.

10. Noise factor. I was standing in my kitchen talking to my roommate who was playing in the bathroom and she couldn't hear me. Whoa. Kind of awesome. DWV's walls are made of cardboard. Really CHEAP cardboard. Someone could sneeze on the fifth floor and I'd hear them.

11. Slanted walls. I walked into our new apartment and I saw that some of its walls are slanted. Like instead of being at 90 degrees and parallel with the floor, they're like at 70 degrees and slope upward. I thought this was cool and interesting and I instantly fell in love with it. Reality? It's a novelty. The excitement wore off rapidly when I realized that my room has two slanted walls, and one wall that's entirely a closet. What does this mean? I means I only have one wall on which it's easy to hang things. And I'm a big fan of hanging things.

12. Water pressure. Yeah, um, you might want to turn on the faucet or something when you check out a potential new place. Otherwise you're in for a year of soapy hair.

Live and learn, eh?