In the On-Going Apartment Wars...

This round goes to my apartment building. At 11:50pm last night, we had a fire alarm. Mind you, the fire department never came. Which means that our building's fire system is not hooked up directly to the local fire station, which is only a couple blocks away. And when we were re-entering, the alarm sort of sputtered on and off a bit before finally shutting off.

Yeah. I feel safe. This is now the second fire alarm we've had in the past five months.

Apartment Watch: Part III.

Previously, on Apartment Watch.

The roof deck is finally open. I went up to go check it out. Really not too shabby. There are a bunch of deckchairs, endtables, and a couple regular tables. It's lit for the nighttime, and there's even soft music piped in. There are no really tall buildings around mine (let alone in DC), so the view is pretty great.

Apartment complex, you done good. For now.

Mail Fraud.

I occasionally get mail addressed to my brother, or my dad, or to "current resident." I don't know how these mailing lists get mixed up. No one in my family has ever lived in my present address, and even I have only been here a couple months.

Today, I got a circular addressed to "James ___." Yeah. There's no James in my family.

Spammers aren't even trying anymore. The economy really is bad.

North Carolina: 1, Northeast: 0.

I just got a phone call from the apartment complex that I lived in during law school in North Carolina. They were letting me know that I received a piece of mail from the North Carolina DMV regarding a license renewal (turns out it's not relevant since I changed over to Massachusetts). It's been almost nine months since I moved out, and they are still watching out for me. Moreover, it's a complex that houses a lot of students, so there is a LOT of junk mail and other flotsam that still gets sent their two, sometimes three tenants afterward. Not easy to pick out the important stuff, let alone care enough to call. That's loyalty, dude.

That would never happen in the northeast. If anything, someone would have stolen my identity and gone on a motorcycle equipment buying spree* with my license. Color me impressed, South, and that's not easy.

*Actually has happened with one of my credit cards.

Apartment Watch: Part II.

Previously, on apartment watch.

-It's winter, and my central A/C is keeping me warm just fine. +2.

-The gym is done and it's actually not too shabby... +2.

-...but it looks nothing like what was advertised. -1.

-The roof and the patio still aren't done. -3.

-I guess it's not such a big deal because it's winter, and I'm busy with work. +1.

-While I like my apartment's location vis-a-vis the hallway, my neighbors are, um, loud... several times a week... at random hours of the day. -2.

-The washer/dryer actually does dry, but it spins so fast that everything comes out the shape of the inner tube. Still, I figured out how to make it automatically go from wash to dry (it's one of those space-saver all-in-one doodads from Bulgaria). We'll call it a draw. +0.

-The dishwasher is half the size of a normal dishwasher, so I can actually run a full load fairly frequently. This is amazing for the environmentally-conscience single person, of which I am one. +1.

Apartment Watch.

You'll recall that I'm skeptical about my apartment. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. So here's where we are to date:

-Today, I called the office because my new "central" A/C system hasn't been working correctly. I'll set it to 72, the air will blow, but the room won't get any colder than 78. So I called them, and asked them to fix it, and they fixed it . . . today. That's the fastest I've ever had an apartment request fulfilled. Ever. +2

-Last night, they were putting a new carpet in right in front of the elevator. During the evening rush hour. Seems like they could have chosen a better time to do that. -1

-The gym, the roof, and the patio still aren't done. -3

-I totally lucked out with the location of my apartment relative to the rest of the hallway, in terms of traffic to the elevators, and traffic to the trash room. +1

-The washer/dryer DOESN'T DRY. -1

-Our building has valet dry cleaning. This means I can drop off a bag of dry cleaning in the morning, and in two business days, it's waiting for me in the same closet that they receive packages in. +1

-The elevators smell like sweat. And not the good kind of sweat. -1

The watch continues.

My Apartment AC Was Just Upgraded to a Digital Thermostat, and I Can Actually Feel Air Coming Out of the Vent.

Also, Alex Trebek knows how to pronounce Concord correctly.

So yeah, good day.

I Caved.

Despite everything, I decided to go with IKEA yet again to furnish my apartment. It's just impossible to argue against the fact that my total bill for two shelving units, a bathroom shelving unit, a desk, a desk chair, a coffee table, and a doormat for under 500 bucks.

Even better, I managed to fit it all in my Elantra. Dude. For reals. This car is the size of a baby bunny rabbit, and I got it all to fit.

A view of the trunk from the rear:



A view from the front. The rear seats fold down to open access to the trunk.



I want to have my car's babies.

Phase III, Part II; or How I Moved In.

I am in Washington, DC.

Sheesh.

It's quiet. Too quiet. My cable and internet isn't coming until Monday. Three. Days. Away. I'd forgotten (a) how many days ahead of time you need to call the cable company when moving to an actual city, and (b) how many hours in a day there are to fill when you're single, in a new city, and waiting for your job/school to start. God bless the stupid for their unsecured wireless networks.

I still can't shake the feeling I'm being snowed about my apartment. I've slept one night here. Here are the good things so far: (1) it's quiet despite facing the street, (2) it's clean, I think, and (3) move-in could not have been easier. Here are the bad things: (1) closer inspection is showing some shoddy work regarding the renovations, like massive holes in the drywall where the sink pipes come in, (2) writing on the elevator walls that mimics what is all over the internet, and (3) a rooftop deck and gym that don't look as finished as they promise.

Aargh. Thing is, I bet had I never read those internet reviews, I'd love my new place. It has everything I need. After all, once I start work, I'll be longing for a free minute, let alone an hour, each day. So really, what I need is a clean, quiet, and safe building, and that's it. I've never been picky about my past apartments. Maybe because I've always managed to find a place less expensive than I was expecting to pay, and so I was always willing to accept a few minor inconveniences... like mice or a roommate who'd fall asleep to the TV blasting at 3am. But this time, I got a place that's fairly expensive. I guess I never realized how many little things I'd notice and care about once I, you know, paid money.

Too many thoughts. This is why I need TV. To keep me nice and numb.

Phase Three.

I chose to name this blog what I did mostly because I'm not creative, but also because I started writing this blog to document a big year for me. We're entering part 3 of the year: where I move to Washington, DC, and actually start work as a lawyer (that's if I pass the bar).

This past weekend I went to DC to find an apartment, and I got one within a day. It was actually the first one that I looked at. I had scoped it out online first, and thought I might like it, so I had scheduled an appointment first thing in the morning. I've done an apartment search in New York, where apartments get snapped up faster than Britney inhaling Doritos, so I was well-prepped.

I liked the place, but I just wasn't sure. I got the leasing agent (who couldn't have been more than 15 years old) to hold the place until 3pm. Normally, you're supposed to put down a deposit of several hundred dollars to keep an offer open for 24 hours or so, but I got him to hold it for a few hours for just the application fee of $50. That turned out to be my saving grace. I noticed as I was walking out the door that the person after me asked the leasing agent whether I had taken the apartment.

So then I looked at a few more places. One had a living room the size of a shoe box with the bedroom the size of Florida. Another faced the back alley where the garbage dumpster was. Both were about the same price as my first place. So yeah. I wanted the first place. But I forgot to mention that that morning, I had actually bumped into a friend of mine who happened to live in that apartment. I couldn't ask her about it in front of the agent though, so I decided to call her later... only I didn't have her phone number. From about 2pm on was a mad dash to call everyone I knew who might know her number, and thankfully, I got it. She gave me the real go ahead, and I took the place.

At 3:01pm, as I'm signing the lease, the dude who had the appointment after me walked in to see if I had accepted the lease. Me: "Sorry, well, not really, but good luck." What else do you say?

So now I'm one step closer to taking over the world. There's one tiny problem: I've been Googling my apartment complex (it's easy - in DC every apartment has an ostentatious and unnecessary name like "The Croydon" or "The Gables"), and there are some heinous reviews of the management company. I mean downright nasty. I wasn't planning on naming my apartment because I don't want you, dear reader, to stalk me and kill me and take my super-awesome DVD collection, but if the internet turns out to be more prophetic than personal recommendations, you can count on me ripping the company a new one. You're on notice, The _____.