and we’ve moved
When we started, it seemed that everything that could have gone wrong with moving into a new place, went. Our new landlord was gutting the bathroom and putting in a brand new one (yay!) but they ran into some plumbing problems and by the time we started moving our stuff in, there was no bathroom. The previous tenant, our friend J, still had half of his stuff in the apartment. Construction dust was all over the place. It didn’t look at all habitable. Then it rained the entire time we were loading and unloading the car.
Since the bathroom was not finished, we had to spend the night at the old place and moved the mattress the next day, which started off horribly. After Mark drove the truck to our place, we realized it had a flat tire and was actively leaking air. And this was the first time we’ve ever had a flat tire with a zip car. The zip car rep called a mechanic, who arrived about an hour and a half later and took another half hour to try taking out the flat tire but couldn’t. The truck had to be towed. By that point, it was actually becoming quite hilarious.
Anyway, we ended up getting another truck and the rest of the move was surprisingly fine. The apartment eventually came together in the afternoon. Our landlord and her sister got down on the floor and scrub every inches in the kitchen. The bathroom was usable. Everything we owned is moved in and today we skipped work to unpack and rearrange stuff.
Even though the two places are somewhat similar in size, we manage to have more stuff than could fit in the kitchen and more clothes than we thought we owned. Every time I move, I get rid of clothes when I pack. Then I get rid of more when I unpack. And then somehow, the next time I look through my clothes, there are always more to get rid of.
The new place is cute. We have the top two floors of an old house. It creaks with every step you take and I’m sure our house mate downstairs can track us around the house by listening to sound of our footsteps. The stove is this a vintage Lady Kenmore from who-knows-when still in great condition but all the markings on the knobs are rubbed off and you have no idea how hot you’re turning it to. There was an old wall sconce which we were excited about, but then the landlord took it out and the wall is plastered over. There’s a deck with a view of the CN Tower. There’s a lot of Italian neighbors and cats.
My favorite, though, is the presidential street corner: Clinton & Gore.
(photo from Mike Stroud on Flickr)