Tomorrow, I turn in the keys to my house. I still think I can’t totally believe that because it feels like this move has taken forever. But it’s finally the end of the month and the end of my time renting this house. I’ve been sad about saying goodbye to this house for a while, but I think I’ve finally moved past that feeling and now I just feel like I’m leaving a space and not saying goodbye to my home. As things have been moved out of the space, it has felt less and less like it was mine, so that helps with the feelings.
I still can’t believe I lived there for over 12 years. Almost a third of my lifetime. The entire time I have written this blog has been while living there. I have had so many different jobs while living there, and working from home started for me there. I survived a pandemic in that tiny home. I have made some amazing memories and have had some really sad ones there. I am glad to be leaving behind some ghosts of sad memories there, but I also know that those sad moments have made me who I am today.
Finding that house was honestly such luck for me. Before moving there, I was living in a 2 bedroom apartment and had gone through multiple roommates. There were times I had no roommates and the apartment was so expensive to have just to myself. But I always ended up finding new roommates and making it work. But when another roommate told me they were moving out, I knew I needed to find a new place and couldn’t keep just finding new people every year or so. But it wasn’t easy to find a place in my budget in my preferred area. Or if I did find a place, there was something really wrong with it. But one day, I found my house and it was cheaper than anything else. It turned out they had a rent special for one amount for 6 months and a slightly higher amount (but still within my budget) for the next 6 months. I asked if we could split the difference and keep the rent the same for the year, but the landlord said no. But that worked to my advantage because he never raised the rent for the second 6 months.
And because it was a rent-stabilized building, my landlord was very restricted in how much he could raise the rent. He never raised it for the first few years I lived there. I don’t know if he didn’t bother or just forgot. But even when he was raising the rent each year, it could only go up 3%. The last month I paid rent was only $239 more than what I was paying when I moved in. I know that it was a cheap rental. Most places in my neighborhood went for 2 or 3 times the price. I always said I couldn’t afford to leave until I bought a place. And it’s crazy to think that is exactly how it happened even if the timing wasn’t exactly what I planned for.
I had been looking at condos casually for several years. But when we found out my landlord was selling, things went into high gear and we got serious about condo hunting. And I honestly feel like somehow this is exactly how it was supposed to happen. I don’t know if we would have looked at or considered this condo years ago. I was in a different place then and I was a different person. My condo might have been too overwhelming or too much for me before. And while I do feel a bit overwhelmed, I know I can turn this space into a home and I’m not worried about taking my time with it.
I feel ready now to be moving on from the house I loved so much. That place was where I grew so much and really came into my own. I wasn’t sure of who I was and I was a bit lost when I first moved in there. But I rebuilt my life while living there. My life isn’t perfect and not necessarily where I thought I would be now, but it’s my life and I’m happy with things. And I am so grateful that I have this amazing new home to continue to build my life and my future.
I will always be grateful for my tiny home for 12 years. I learned so much while living there. I learned how to be much more independent and that I could live alone and not feel lonely (this doesn’t count when I felt very lonely during the pandemic). I learned how to really create a home and a space that is mine and makes me happy. I built a life in LA that I didn’t have before and I didn’t let others hold me back or always allow fear to stop me from going for what I wanted or asking for what I deserved.
Thank you to my house for being a home for so long. The 12 years there have been amazing and I know that I will take the lessons I learned there for the rest of my life. I know that when they finally tear down the houses (which we know is the new landlord’s plan), I will be very upset to see that home gone forever. But I hope that someone else can live there before that happens so they can experience that magical place just like I did.
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