Tag Archives: condo

Some Real World Results From My Workouts (or Only Moving A Few Heavy Things)

Posted on April 14, 2022 | Comments Off on Some Real World Results From My Workouts (or Only Moving A Few Heavy Things)

Even though it would be cheaper for me to move things to the condo on my own, I know that it will be much easier for me to hire movers. I’m not planning on using movers for everything. As I mentioned before I have started to move things over and store them away so that they are there when I finally move. And because I have quite a bit of an overlap of when I can move, it’s easy enough for me to take a few boxes of things each day, empty them where I can, and then repeat the next day. So that’s been my life for this week and will probably continue to be through the rest of this month.

But for the heavy furniture, I have hired movers. This is just going to make my life easier because I know that it would be hard to move my couch, dresser, or furniture like that. And because my move isn’t that far and I won’t be having the movers take too much, I know that it’s very likely that I won’t have to spend more money than the minimum for the moving company (the standard seems to be 3 hours and I feel like my stuff should be moved within that amount of time).

But there have been a few heavy things that I had to move ahead of the movers being there. The heaviest was my new bed. I found a nice bed that I wanted to get and because I ordered it a few weeks ago it was delivered to my current place. I also got a new mattress since I decided it would be something nice to have when I’m living somewhere new. But the boxes that those things came in were very heavy. The bed was about 150 pounds and the mattress was about 120 pounds. And they were giant boxes so I couldn’t put them in my car even if I wanted to.

The original plan was for my parents to help me out, but that didn’t work out since they didn’t come to LA. And I knew I wanted to get them to the condo before I had movers so I could set up my bed and sleep there the day I move without having to put everything together that day. So I had to see if I could think of someone who was strong and had a big enough car to help me out. And I thought of one of my workout coaches who I know drives a truck. So I asked him if he’d be willing to help me, and he agreed. I was so grateful he could help me and we were able to move those boxes this past weekend.

I don’t know if most of my other friends would have been able to help me. These boxes were so heavy and awkward and even with having someone as strong as my coach help me they were not easy to move. But we got them into my room and hopefully I’ll be able to build the bed with a friend before I have the movers there. I’m still working on that.

But besides moving the heavy boxes that I was expecting to move, I had one other unexpectedly heavy box I moved on my own. Although it shouldn’t have been unexpected if I really thought about it. I moved all my workout stuff to the condo the other day and they all fit really nicely into one box.

I knew the box would be heavy, but I didn’t think too much about it. But it was a tough one to get in and out of my car. And even though I have a little hand cart to move things, even using that was really difficult. I finally got it inside and was thinking about it and I realize how heavy this one box was. I had 2 adjustable weights (that were 25 pounds each), 2 hand weights that were 10 pounds each, and a medicine ball that was 12 pounds. The other things in there weren’t that heavy and didn’t add that much weight to the box. But for just the weighted things, that’s 82 pounds in that box! That’s even heavier than half of the box that had my bed!

I did regret moving this heavy of a box after because my arms were really sore, but I am glad I got it moved and that’s done with. And I know that it wouldn’t have been possible if I wasn’t working out as much as I do. I don’t get a lot of chances to see my strength outside of my workouts, but moving all these heavy boxes made it really obvious how much stronger I am now compared to before. I never could have moved a box that was over 80 pounds without my workouts. And I did feel really accomplished after getting that done.

I don’t think there will be any other extremely heavy things I need to move on my own. There will be things like my dishes and pots and pans that will be a bit heavy and probably awkward boxes to move, but there will be nothing close to these crazy boxes that I thankfully am done with.

It’s getting closer and closer to when I’m moving and I can’t wait to share with you all what my place looks like after the renovation is finally done!

 

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Moving So Much Yet So Little (or Continuing To Decide What I Really Want)

Posted on April 13, 2022 | Comments Off on Moving So Much Yet So Little (or Continuing To Decide What I Really Want)

I feel like I’ve been cleaning out my stuff for so long. As soon as I knew I would be looking for a new place, I started to see what I had and wouldn’t want to take with me. It’s been a slow process, but I’ve been getting it done bit by bit. And as I’ve started to pack things, it’s another chance to reevaluate everything that I have and make decisions about what I will bring with me.

I’m honestly surprised by how much I’m getting rid of. But this is probably very overdue since I don’t get rid of a lot of stuff that often. And after living in my current place for over 12 years, I’ve accumulated a lot of things. Just recently, I packed up all my shoes except what I think I will need to wear for the next week or so. And while I was doing that, I feel like I got rid of about half the shoes in my closet. If there was a pair I know I won’t wear again, I didn’t keep it. If they were damaged beyond the point that I would want to repair them, they were gone. And for all the shoes I said I would keep, I tried them all on just to make sure I like how they all fit. There was only 1 pair that I got rid of because of how they fit me, but I’m glad I at least confirmed that all the shoes I kept are ones that are comfortable. And I do know that I have a few gaps in my shoe wardrobe that I will need to fix, but I’d rather look for a new pair than wear a pair that I’m unhappy with.

I’m slowly taking things over to the condo. As I’ve mentioned before, there aren’t a lot of places to store things right now that won’t be in the way. The only place I’m currently storing things is in my closet (as soon as the guest room closet has the new door on it, I will probably store things in there too). Right now, I have all of my artwork except for the piece that is too big to fit in my car, shoes, purses, DVDs, files from my filing cabinet, and books.

I know I got rid of a lot of physical books since I mainly read things on my Kindle. I kept the books that mean something to me, but looking at the pile in my closet feels like I don’t have that many books. But again, I know that I can buy new books that I want to have in the future and that not moving the ones that were just taking up space was the right thing to do.

My current place feels really weird because in one way it feels like I haven’t moved anything yet. But also it feels like I’ve moved so much. I think this might be because I am not moving everything and most of the things I have moved over were inside of cabinets and not super visible. So my entertainment center or desk still look the same as they did before, but they are empty inside since things are now piled up in my closet.

I am taking advantage of having a few weeks to move everything so I am also storing things around my house that I want to think about and still need to decide if I want to move. I know that I need to start picking up the pace because I do need to make arrangements for some things (such as having Habitat for Humanity come to get furniture that I haven’t found someone else to take). And I’m sure once I have movers take my big furniture pieces and I can really see what is left, I’ll be making a lot of choices about what is going to move and what is going to go. I’m lucky that I am only moving a few blocks away so it’s very easy for me to bring things over when I know I want to take them with me. And that’s what I’ll be doing a lot of for the next week and a half!

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Starting To Move In (or Taking The Roadrunner To The Condo)

Posted on April 12, 2022 | Comments Off on Starting To Move In (or Taking The Roadrunner To The Condo)

The renovation of my condo is still finishing up, but we are finally to the finish line! There were some delays that made it last longer than expected, but almost all of those delays have been resolved and most things are either done or scheduled to be done in the next few days. And there will probably be some things on a touch-up list to do, but as of now, the plan is for me to move most of my stuff to the condo this coming weekend!

Because of all the renovation work, I want to get my place cleaned by a cleaning service before I really move in. I want it to feel fresh and clean before I start setting things up. I’m working on the timing of it all, but I hope that I can schedule a cleaning for Saturday, and then I’ll have the movers on Sunday. And then I’ll have about 2 weeks of being able to move the rest of my stuff over. I’ve been working on packing up my stuff and I have a lot in boxes and bags right now, but until the other day, I didn’t really start bringing anything over. I don’t want to have a ton of stuff that cleaners would have to work around.

But the closet in my room is pretty much a safe space for me to put things right now. Yes, the floor probably needs to still be cleaned, but I think I can clean that on my own if I need to. So I’ve been slowly putting things into my closet to store so I can get them out of my current place. So far, I’ve only moved the hangers from my closet, my shoes, my purses, and most of the artwork that I have had hanging up in my house. But having my artwork over there has been something that really made it seem real that I will be living there soon.

Nothing is hung up on my walls yet because I still need to decide where most things will go and my parents offered to help me when they are in LA next. But there are a few pieces that I have a good idea where they will live. One is a canvas that has been above my desk and I know that it will go in my new office (maybe above my desk but maybe somewhere else. And the other is a piece that I have always called The Roadrunner.

This piece was something that was in my grandparents’ kitchen for most of my life. My brother, cousins, and I called it The Roadrunner because it reminded us of the cartoon character. I don’t think everyone saw that, but it has always looked like that to me. When my grandpa died and my grandma moved to assisted living, she couldn’t hang all of their artwork up so a lot of pieces went to different family members. I didn’t get this piece originally, but my parents were going to store it and I noticed it and asked if I could take it home. And it’s lived next to my dining room table since I got it.

But as soon as I knew I got the condo, I knew I wanted this piece to be in my living room above the fireplace. So when I moved my artwork to the condo, I put everything into the closet at first except this piece. I haven’t hung it up, but I wanted to see how it would look in the spot that I thought it should go in.

And honestly, I think it’s perfect there. It will be much more centered when it’s hung up, but it’s really the exact size of what should go up there. And it will be a focus of the room, which I love. I didn’t pick paint colors around the art that I have, but I think if I had done that, this would be the wall color that I would have picked.

I love all the artwork that I’ve had in my current place and I’m very happy that I will be able to put them all up in the condo soon. But having this piece leaning against the wall, even if it was only to take a photo before I had to put it into the closet to keep it safe, really made this feel like my place and the start of the condo being mine and not just a construction zone or something that will be mine eventually.

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A Few Delays With My Monthly Challenge (or This Month, I Will Be Moving)

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Comments Off on A Few Delays With My Monthly Challenge (or This Month, I Will Be Moving)

When I set my monthly challenge last month, I said that I thought I would be either moving or close to moving during March. And that’s why I wanted to set my challenge to be about getting back onto a cleaning schedule. As I have started to pack things up in my house, it has also been getting messier. There are a lot of things making cleaning tough, but I also know I was using that as an excuse. So I wanted to try to clean things as much as I could.

And I think I did a good job with getting back to doing speed cleans every day. Some days I was able to do more than one speed clean in a day. Even though my house is getting crowded with boxes and things all over the place, I am still trying to pick things up when I can and try to keep the craziness as organized as I can. I am also still anxious because my house feels messy with the clutter, but at least doing some of my regular cleanings helps with that feeling a bit. I was hoping that this past month would somehow help me feel like the boxes all over weren’t making it as messy as it felt, but that was just a feeling I couldn’t get over.

This month, I am for sure moving! I submitted my 30-day notice to my landlord so I will have to be out of my current place by the end of the month. I’m also working on scheduling cleaners (I want to clean the condo before I move in because of all the renovation dust) and movers. I think I’ll be able to move in around the middle of the month, so I’ll have time to clean up my current place after everything is moved out before my landlord takes my keys.

And because this month is going to be busy with packing, moving, and cleaning; I’m going to make the monthly challenge one that isn’t really too hard for me. My challenge for April is going to be to move out of my home for over 12 years into my new condo. Obviously, this is going to have to happen because of the notice I gave. But it’s going to be a challenge no matter what. I’ve been going through things that I have and seeing what I really want to move with me. It’s hard to pick through 12 years of a place and really consider if I need it. I’ve held on to a lot of things over the years, and I don’t need to take stuff that will just be put into a drawer and never needed.

I am hiring movers to help me with some of my big furniture, but I also plan on moving a lot of things myself. I don’t have a ton of boxes, but I have a few and I also bought some moving bags that are similar to Ikea shopping bags. If I pack up all the boxes and bags I have, I can drive over to the new place, unpack them without necessarily organizing everything, and then drive back and pack them up again and do more than one carload in a day. I will have to be flexible with how I move, but my idea is to do 2-3 carloads one day after work and then the next day not bring anything else over and just put away everything that I moved the day before. I have no clue if this method will work or make things more stressful, so I’ll just have to see how it goes.

When I have the movers, I will be moving all the big things and then I will probably be living over at the condo more than in my current place. But I will have some flexibility because I am selling the bed I have now and already purchased a new one for the condo. So if I moved all my furniture but for some reason needed to not stay there for a night or two, I will be ok doing that. It won’t be convenient, but it’s an option. But that’s why I want to move as much as I can as soon as I can so my things are over there by the time my furniture is.

I can’t be sure that I will have everything put away and organized by the end of this month, but I’m going to try my best. I know how stressed I am living in a disorganized space, and I don’t want to extend that more than I need to. But I do know that I will have to complete this challenge because there is no other option for me. I will be moved to the condo by the end of the month and I will need to clean my current place as much as I can so my landlord doesn’t deduct cleaning fees from my deposit.

I can’t wait to be in my condo and I can’t believe that I’m almost living there. This has felt like it has taken so long since I knew my current place was going to be sold back in August. I know that it really hasn’t been that long considering everything, but I’m ready to be done with this in-between time and onto the next phase of my life in LA!

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A Transition Of What Feels Like Home (or Getting Even Closer To Moving)

Posted on March 24, 2022 | Comments Off on A Transition Of What Feels Like Home (or Getting Even Closer To Moving)

It feels like I’ve been getting ready to move for months now. In a sense, that is accurate. It’s been almost 5 months since we closed on the condo. But the renovation is only been happening for about 7 weeks now, so it hasn’t been as long as it feels and we are still somewhat on schedule. I think things won’t be done exactly on time, but that is to be expected and it should only be maybe an extra week longer than what we were hoping.

But I have been preparing to move pretty much since we have closed on the condo, and that is just continuing to ramp up. I have been getting rid of stuff as often as I can and I have started to list things for sale that I know I won’t be taking with me. Some of the sales are taking longer than I would like, but I know that I have time. And there are other sales that I have to delay, like selling my current mattress, since I am still using those things. But there has been progress and I also have had progress with getting the stuff for my new place. Right now, I have boxes of things all over my house. My new bed is in a box next to my mattress. My new mattress is in my living room. I have my new barstools next to my dining room table. I don’t love having all these boxes all over, especially because it’s making it tough to clean, but I know it’s temporary and it’s a sign that I’m getting closer to moving. But as I add more boxes and box up my current stuff, my home for the past 12 years doesn’t feel exactly like my home anymore.

But as my current place feels less like my home, my condo is feeling more like the place I have helped to design. There are still some big things that need to happen. But this week they have been painting and the guest bathroom has been getting all the tile installed. And the kitchen cabinets are coming in soon too! The list of things that needs to still be done isn’t too long, but it’s a lot of the stuff that will make the biggest impact.

As I see more things coming together, I am getting more excited about moving and feel more certain that everything I decided on was the right choice. It was overwhelming picking things like tile and paint, but when I thought I found the right thing I felt pretty good about what I picked. But until it was put up, you never know. But as I watch things happening, I know I picked the right stuff and that this is really going to be the perfect home for me.

I’m really getting antsy to move, and it will be coming up next month. It will have to be next month since I’m putting in my 30-day notice to my landlord! I’m getting closer and closer to the end of this transition and I can’t wait until I’m done and can just look back at this time instead of living through it.

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Seeing My New Home Come Together (or This Feels Like We Are Starting The Last Renovation Stage)

Posted on March 16, 2022 | Comments Off on Seeing My New Home Come Together (or This Feels Like We Are Starting The Last Renovation Stage)

Going through my first renovation (or at least my first renovation as an adult) has been an interesting experience. It started off really great with so much happening within the first week. We were ahead of schedule at first, but then we had a few setbacks that put us back to the original timeline. Nothing horrible happened, but because of the timing of when we could do certain things, there were delays where we had some days where very little progress was made.

I think I had high expectations for seeing a lot of change all the time after the first week. Seeing all the demolition happen in a single day was a huge change. Seeing all of that removed from the condo was another huge change. But there are a lot of little changes that also needed to happen and those weren’t as obvious to me. For example, changing out some valves for water and gas needed to be done, but it didn’t seem like a lot of change when I looked at it. And even though adding lights to all the rooms is a big change, it didn’t feel as big as some of the other work I had seen happen.

I know that there were also probably some days where a lot of work wasn’t happening, but I do know they were taking steps toward completing the renovation each week. But it has felt for a bit that we were stuck at a standstill and nothing was really happening. Finally, that seemed to change this past week.

I know there are still other big things that need to happen and the renovation might not be done for a few more weeks, but I finally have new floors!

The floors are the same vinyl planks throughout the entire condo except for the 2 bathrooms. For my bathroom, we are keeping the tile that was in there already and for the guest bathroom, we are doing a basic gray tile. But everything else is now the same flooring! Before, there was carpeting in the bedrooms and 3 types of laminate around the rest of the condo. It wasn’t bad, but it needed to be repaired. And since so many sections needed to be repaired and it didn’t match, it was easier to just redo all the floors.

Seeing my floors really makes it feel like it’s becoming a home and not a construction site. There are still a lot of things to do and I know the next few big changes will make it feel even more like it’s my home. I can’t wait to see the new paint colors, which should be happening soon. I don’t hate the current color, but with the floors in now it seems even more yellow than before. I’m excited to see the colors I picked out and for it to feel like it’s the space I helped to design.

I feel like I’m starting to see the end in sight now. I still have to wait a bit longer before I can start moving things in, but I’m starting to really get ready for it. I’m slowly boxing up things in my place and I’ve started to order things I want to have with me when I move into the condo. My current place is feeling a bit cluttered and crazy, which I don’t love. But at least I see the progress in the condo happening and I can think about that when I’m getting anxious in my current place. And I’ve said this before, but I’m getting more and more excited about my move as I see this progress happening!

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2 Busy LA Days (or Getting More Renovation Planning Done)

Posted on February 23, 2022 | Comments Off on 2 Busy LA Days (or Getting More Renovation Planning Done)

After my parents were in Santa Barbara, they came to LA next to help me with some things with the condo. Even though the contractor we hired is really great at being in communication with both me and my parents, I know it’s been tough for my parents to help as much as they would like to without being here in person. Plus, I think they both enjoy seeing things come together and they wanted to see the progress in person.

They were only going to be in LA for two days and we had a lot of things to get done. The first day they were here, we started at the condo so my parents could see everything that has been done so far. It’s very different seeing it in person compared to photos and on FaceTime, so it was exciting to see how happy they were with everything that has happened. And we had a few little projects we wanted to get done at the condo that the contractor wasn’t going to do, so we worked on those. Then, we had another trip to Home Depot to get a few materials we needed. Fortunately, everything we needed were things we already had planned on, so we could quickly go and get the exact items we needed. We did decide to change the hardware in what will be my bathroom to match another thing we picked, but those were easy to find too. I know there are always a few more things to add to the list, but I think we’ve made pretty much all the decisions we need to make related to the remodel (just not the decoration) phase).

The next day, we started at my current place. I have made my current place my home over the past 12 years, and part of that includes putting holes in my walls to hang paintings or other decor. So my dad and I went through the things that were hung with screws (since nail holes will be easy for me to spackle over) and we took them down and worked on covering up the holes that were left behind. I will need to keep working on this to finish the project, but we at least got started. We also took down the window a/c unit that I have really loved since I got it. I’m working on selling the a/c and a few other things in my place right now. I’m not asking for much since I’m not trying to make a profit. But there are things I have that I won’t be moving with me and I’d like to find people who could use them.

After the work in my current place, we went back to the condo to meet with the contractor. We had a few things we wanted to go over that we had questions about, but they were all easily answered. We also had to go over how we wanted each type of tiles to be laid, but that also was pretty easy to figure out. I won’t be able to move in as soon as I was hoping, but it should still be pretty soon that I’ll be moving in and out of my current place. We’ve had a few delays, but nothing too bad. And it should still be completed within the timeline we were originally given.

And the last condo task we had to get done was to get some ideas for some furniture that I knew I would want. We went to one store that was a bit overpriced, but we got some great ideas of what I would like and what would fit into different spaces. I knew I wanted to find a chair for my living room, but I couldn’t find options that I liked that were within my price range. Then we decided to go to the store where I got my couch 8 years ago. While I didn’t find my dream chair like I found my dream couch, I figured out exactly what I want. I’m going to go back with a friend later to double-check the color, but we are going to order a chair that is in either teal or blue velvet that has a slightly different arm shape than my couch and then also order a matching ottoman. It will be significantly less expensive than a lot of other places I looked at and I already know I like the quality of their products. I don’t know why I didn’t think of looking there earlier, but it seems like a no-brainer now.

The two days my parents were here were pretty busy and full with things we needed to get done, but it was a lot of progress toward me being able to move out and that’s one of the biggest focuses in my life right now. And the next time my parents are here, the condo might be done and I might be moving in!

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12 Years At One Place (or My Last Anniversary At My Current Place)

Posted on February 15, 2022 | Comments Off on 12 Years At One Place (or My Last Anniversary At My Current Place)

Exactly 12 years ago today, I got the keys to my current place. I set up my lease so I would have 2 weeks to move from my last apartment to my current house. I remember how excited I was to move here. When I was searching for a new place, I really wanted to find an old bungalow that would be the perfect size for me to live alone. At my last apartment, I was in a 2 bedroom place and had a bunch of different roommates. But I was excited to live alone and wanted to find the perfect place to do that.

I felt so lucky when I found my current place. It was exactly what I was looking for. The rent was a good price for me and even though it was pretty small, it was going to just be for me and I knew I could make it look like it was much bigger.

And for the past 12 years, I have been pretty happy here. There have been times when it wasn’t perfect and sometimes I wished I had more space for things I wanted. But considering the goals I had for a place, this place fit exactly what I had really asked for. I love having my own space and no roommates, I love how my place has character and doesn’t feel like a generic apartment, and I love the neighborhood I’m in. And for a long time, the idea of leaving here for another place really made me sad.

But things have changed over the past few months. Obviously, I’m so excited to move into my condo when it’s done. We had a small setback that may delay my move by a week or two, but nothing too bad. But things are moving along and I should be moving pretty soon. And with my new landlord and the issues I’ve been having at my current place, I’m counting down the days until I start my move!

I do still have some sad feelings about leaving this place soon. It’s been my home for almost 1/3rd of my life! The only place I lived longer was the house I grew up in. I love a lot of the features such as not sharing any walls with any neighbors. I will have to get used to that when I move, but I will be gaining a lot compared to the things I will need to adjust to. I’m also sad knowing that it seems like my new landlord will be tearing down this place in the near future and turning it into something else. I don’t like thinking about that because this place has been so special and I would love for someone else to be able to live here for a long time and also know how amazing this place will be.

But I know that is out of my control and I understand why the new landlord would prefer to have 15 upgraded apartments compared to 8 tiny and outdated ones. So I’m just going to be grateful that I’ve been able to spend the last 12 years here and I will be moving to an amazing place that I’m really turning into my home. And even though I’m not moving right around my house anniversary, I do love that I did make it to my 12 year anniversary here. Something feels just right about that idea. Like how there are 12 grades in school before you graduate. I have 12 years of renting here before moving on.

And maybe I’ll be at my condo for 12 years or longer! You never know. I didn’t think I’d be at my place now for 12 years, but at the same time, I couldn’t imagine moving before now. So I guess I will just have to wait and see.

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Default ThumbnailA House Anniversary (or A Decade In One Place) Default Thumbnail19 Years In LA (or The LA Anniversary Between Two Big Milestone Anniversaries) Default Thumbnail8 Years In (or Another Blog Anniversary) Default Thumbnail15 Years Later (or Reflections On LA) Default ThumbnailAlmost Forgot My Hip Surgery Anniversary Again (or 15 Years Down) Default ThumbnailMy LA Anniversary! (or 13 Years Have Gone By Quickly)

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Into The Next Stage Of The Renovation (or Seeing Things Come Back Into My Place)

Posted on February 11, 2022 | Comments Off on Into The Next Stage Of The Renovation (or Seeing Things Come Back Into My Place)

The renovation on the condo has only been happening for about 2 weeks, but so much has happened in that time. I’m still shocked how quickly the demolition took as well as how fast all the things they tore out were removed. And it seems like almost every single day, significant changes have been happening. For most of last week, I think most of the work was about removing the things we are not keeping and getting the condo ready to be put back together. And while this week hasn’t necessarily all been about getting the new things in, it’s starting to be like that!

Even though I have lived through renovations when I was little when my parents fixed up their house, I really don’t remember too much about how things went. My main memories of those renovations are really weird things, like when a contractor was on the roof (I’m not exactly sure what they were doing there) and they stepped in the wrong spot and fell into the bathroom and broke the toilet. It’s an interesting memory, but it doesn’t help me know what the process would be like in the condo.

I’ve been lucky that my parents have gone through renovations before so they can tell me what some of the timeline would be like or what things have to be done before other things. And the contractor we hired is also great about communicating about the process and letting me know when different things are happening. For example, the contractor let me know when the tile would be picked up so I could take another look at what we picked and I could finalize what I wanted the paint colors to be. I was pretty sure I knew what colors I wanted for each part of the condo, but I still wanted to test it against the swatches on the wall that I did a few months ago.

And as exciting as it was to see the demolition and changes being made in the past week, I think I’m even more excited to see the things coming in that will be a  part of my new home. There haven’t been too many things added yet, but the biggest change so far has been adding the lights in the ceiling. Originally, there were no ceiling lights in the living room or either bedroom. I know I could do floor lamps, and I will probably do the for the living room anyway, but having lights in the ceiling will be nice too. And for the bedrooms, I will have bedside lamps in my room and probably a desk lamp in the office, but I still like the option of having more lighting.

I’m also seeing the bathroom start to come back together. We are keeping the bathroom with the same footprint with everything, but we are freshening it up. So far, the work has mainly been things you don’t see, like the plumbing. But also my new bathtub was installed this week!

I know this isn’t a big change, but it feels like we are done with one phase of the renovation and are starting another phase. And that just brings me that much closer to being able to move in! And as more things are added or brought back in, I have a feeling I will be more and more excited about it!

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Default ThumbnailNow Things Are Feeling Real (or So Far, We Are Ahead Of Schedule) Default ThumbnailOne Step Closer To Moving (or My First HOA Meeting) Default ThumbnailStill Preparing To Move (or Getting Rid Of Some Things And Buying Others) Default ThumbnailAnother Busy Condo Weekend (or A Working Visit For My Parents) Default ThumbnailStill Waiting To Get Things Started (or Continuing To Work On Patience) Default ThumbnailI’ll Have A New Home Soon (or The End Of The Condo Hunt)

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Having Issues At Both Places (or I Know These Are Small Problems, But They Add Up)

Posted on February 8, 2022 | Comments Off on Having Issues At Both Places (or I Know These Are Small Problems, But They Add Up)

At my current rental, I’ve had a series of issues that have come up. I think this is to be expected considering I live in a house that was built about 100 years ago and I’ve been here for almost 12 years. But I feel like I have had so many random things that have gone wrong and needed to be fixed. I’ve had multiple flood issues from my water heater, bathroom pipes, garbage disposal, and toilet. And I’ve also had a gas leak before or have had gas appliances not work. With my old landlord, things were fixed pretty quickly and they were on top of telling me the status of things being repaired.

Well, last week at my house, the gas company came out because there was a suspected gas leak on my street. They came over to let me know my gas would be off for maybe a few hours, but they would let me know when it was back on and they would relight the appliances. This was a minor inconvenience, but obviously, a gas leak needs to be fixed.

It turns out that the gas leak is in the pipe that provides gas to half the units where I live. My current place has a driveway in the middle and each side of the driveway has one main gas pipe. The pipe on my side was repaired a few years ago. This time, it’s the pipe on the other side.

Normally, this wouldn’t affect me much, but when the gas company came back to turn on my appliances, they said they could not turn on my heater. I guess it needs to have a major cleaning because it’s a carbon monoxide risk. I don’t think it was causing issues for me before because my carbon monoxide monitor is only about a foot from the heater, but the risk isn’t good so I can’t use my heater. I’m glad I have a little space heater, but it gets cold inside my house at night and it’s been tough. I’m hoping my landlord will fix this soon (and legally he has to because heat is a required thing to have in a rental), but I feel worse for my neighbors across the driveway. Not only do they not have heat, but they also don’t have hot water or gas appliances. And over the weekend, we all discovered that the dryer in our laundry room is a gas dryer. So none of us were able to dry our clothes after washing them. So I had to hang up all my clothes around my house and hope they will dry soon.

While I was dealing with the issues at my current place, I was also dealing with a minor issue at my new place. I am trying to get things set up for me so that they will be ready when I move in. And this includes making sure I will be able to set up internet when I move in. There were a lot of cables that looked like they could have been for the internet, but none of them seemed to be in the right place. So I set up an appointment this past weekend to have a technician come and help me see what I might need to do.

This should have been an easy appointment, but just like the issue with the gas leak, nothing is as simple as it appears. The first technician showed up, was looking at some of the wires in my walls (fortunately, we are in the part of the renovation where the walls have a lot of holes in them), said he was going outside to look at things, and then 5 minutes later I got a call saying my appointment was canceled. The technician just left and never told me! I called back and the customer service person I spoke with was shocked that happened and said they set up another appointment. Nobody can explain what happened, but the company canceled and reset my appointment multiple times within 6 hours. And because I was always told they were always on their way, I spent about 7 hours waiting for someone to show up.

Finally, someone showed up who was able to do the work I needed to have done. And because of all the weirdness that happened with the appointments, the supervisor for the technician and the manager for the service department also arrived to make sure everything was completed. What should have been a 1-hour thing ended up being about 7 hours, but at least it is done. There is a bit of additional work we have to do to make everything work the way we want it to, but it’s minor compared to what we thought we might have to do.

I know that having no heat in my current place could be worse (while it does get cold here, it’s nothing compared to most of the country). And I know spending 7 hours for an appointment isn’t horrible either, just annoying. But I think having everything at one time was just a bit overwhelming for me and really made me have a bad weekend. But hopefully, I will have heat again soon and this is one of the last bumps in the road for my renovation!

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Default ThumbnailUnexpected Problems (or This Is Why I’m Glad I Rent) Default ThumbnailAnother Test Of Being Grateful (or Again I’m Glad I Rent) Default ThumbnailAnother Leak In My House (or Testing My Patience) Default ThumbnailFinally Doing Some Job Training (or I’ll Find A Way To Add In More Hours) Default ThumbnailWorking Through General Panic Issues (or Dealing With Lack Of Control) Default ThumbnailShould I Stay Or Should I Go? (or More Day Job Issues)

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