Friday, March 6, 2009

Snowstorm 2009



Alas, now the snow is mostly a melted pile of mud and sludge, with alot of green mixed in. Sidewalks and roads are dry, snow replaced with huge chuck-holes and sidewalks to chopped up cement from too much salt. We had no power part of Sunday and most of Monday last, but just when we were cozying up to the idea of a candlelit evening on Monday, the power roared back on, with heat, television, lights and yes, hot water for the bubblebath. :D I like roughing it for about a day, then I need my comforts again.

Since then I've been at work, and my parents stopped by to drop their little dog off on their way to vacation in the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida. So we have a very small, 10 pound furry dog to spice things up a little for the next few weeks.

The weekend will find me busy at my jeweler's bench putting finishing touches on a commissioned piece and some magazine submissions that may/may not be up to snuff. Also the neverending pile of laundry and housecleaning awaits yours truly.

Adding to the mix is a look-see at a new apartment. We've lived in this building since 2003 and frankly are tired of it after a change in management and ownership, it's kinda gone downhill in perks and uphill in rent. Anyone know this scenario? Ain't it great? To put it simply, we have issues with this place now and management isn't doing enough to make things right for a long time, usually-pay-rent-early tenant.
Looking at Craig's List this morning I spied an unbelievable listing-- an apartment about the same size as this one, second floor, with (get this!) two balconies, front and back! hardwood floors, about five blocks from where we currently reside. We have been dying for balconies for years, or at least I have, where we can have plants and tomatoes and herbs and cute hanging ornaments and chimes. *sigh*.

My radar goes up, however, at the much lower rent. My husband looked at the place this morning and said the landlord was a laidback hippie kinda guy (good news) and only required first month rent as deposit (also good news) but he could hear a guy playing guitar through the wall (hmmm... could be good, could be bad) and the apartment only has ONE closet. Potential problem there... but I also think it's a good opportunity to put creativity and willpower together and throw lots of stuff out or donate it or sell it to pair down our current apartment. I could not tell you hardly one thing that is any of the four closets here. So tomorrow, ten a.m., we are both going to take a look and (oh, I hope...) sign a new lease for April 1. At any rate, in this economy, even with me working now and all, it would be very nice to save almost $400 a month in rent from where we currently live.

Hopefully Monday I'll have lots of good jewelry photos to post. I'm dying to put my ideas from paper into moving motion.

2 comments:

Gberger said...

How exciting! Let us know what happens/how it looks/how good the guitarist is! And I hope you have a wonderful weekend at the bench. Looking forward to your photos.

Cindy said...

Best of luck with the apartment hunt. Your words make me want to give some unsolicited advice ;-). Your perfect apartment is out there somewhere...listen to that voice that says beware, don't gloss it over because of the balconies and the lower rent. Make sure it all fits and feels good before you sign that lease. You probably already know this, but maybe you'll get carried away with the possibilities and forget.

Maybe you can meet the guitar player and see how friendly/cooperative he (or she) is.

I hope it all works out for you.

Looking forward to seeing what you make. I know that feeling of needing to put those ideas into form, I hope you get to do lots of that!