Well, December 1 was a significant day as I notified my landlord that I would not be renewing my lease. I had been renewing my seven month lease for a couple of years because I was not sure how long my past roommates were going to stay. Darcy's and my decision to live together, combined with my lease renewal notice. My fourth roommate, Ceejay, was understanding about it. So I will move out the end of January. A two bedroom, one bath apartment became available across the street from Darcy's place. The timing was uncanny so we met the owner and looked at it. Floorplan was the same as Darcy's with the exception of an additional room. It was cleaner and better maintained. There are several complexes that house between four and eight units in the neighborhood. Many are run by different people and one can tell how better kept some are.
The drawback to this one was that it was still on the small side (about 840 square feet), no storage space, parking right underneath the bedroom window, noisy a/c units from other apartments and a lack of amenities. It was a simple, no frills apartment and, I think, a bit steep for $800.00 a month. But it was on the ground floor and would have been an easy move. So we had to make a tough decision Monday night and say thanks but no thanks.
Darcy needs to give her 30 days notice before we leave for Edmonton on December 22. The worst case scenario now was that we would not be able to find a place by the end of January and we would have no place to live. We looked at a place where a friend of mine lives and it's in a decent location (close to where I work and only a few miles east of where Darcy is now). I had called them on Saturday and they had a two bedroom one bath (837 square feet) opening for Feb. 1. It was perfect so I said I'd be over Sunday or Monday. We both visited Monday morning but it was taken. The complex was large with probably a hundred or more units and the grounds were well maintained. A nice pool and deck but no work out facility. The unit was a simple no frills place like the one by Darcy's.
So we drove around the area and north towards Nova (where I work) but had no luck. The offices were either closed for no reason - their loss, not ours. Darcy decided she would look for places online and she quickly found two nice one. She contacted one and we have an appointment this Saturday at 10:00 am at the Atriums of Plantation. It looks quite nice and a hell of a better deal than what we've seen so far and the units are huge. Darcy drove by the complex last night and was impressed with the grounds and amount of privace. They have vacancies so we may be able to get something this weekend to move into in January!
Can't believe we will be home in three weeks! Have not done much Christmas shopping and don't know what to get people. Work continues to be busy as I, and a few others, grapple with the Herculean task of cutting tens of thousands of print journal subscriptions. I'm trying to finish the book Paris 1919 but don't seem to have enough time in the day. Also brought out the works of Edgar Allen Poe and have read two stories: Fall of the House of Usher and Cask of Amontillado. Obviously well written but I find he tends to be a bit verbose. He can have one sentence become the length of a paragraph. Since I don't have a literature background I'm sure other legendary writers follow this characteristic. I'd like to read some Hemingway at some point - just add it to my pile of other books I want to read!
Thanksgiving Day last week was fun as we were invited to a friend's place. The husband's brother showed us some neat websites. One is thinkgeek.com - it has some really neat stuff such as a dual 15 inch computer screen and a player that plays tape cassettes and converts them into audio files! I need to go but I'll list the other websites next time - stay tuned.....
posted by Michael at 7:02 PM
