Moving?
Good morning. This is me. We are here with about 45 minutes to write. Not too long then. There have been some changes, but we’ll need to see what is coming next.Yesterday, I went to work as normal and was “sorta” doing work … I had been working on the Supervision and Curriculum material. I had just finished taking notes/outline and I got a phone call from Dr. Allbright. It wasn’t a real big deal, but it got me out of that work routine. She said she’d been on vacation, but that we might have some kind of poisoning with the medicine I’m taking for the cholesterol. She said something was elevated. She also told me that we needed to make an appointment with both her and the medicine doctor. So, we did that. The appointment is on the 10th. She didn’t mention whether I should stop taking the medicine or not, so we put in an email to Dr. Marvin. Though, he’s probably going to say that we should give her another call. *Sigh* Maybe we can remember that this morning?
Anyway … that’s not the major thing here. We were into personal then and so we decided to give Mike a call … it was around 12-12:30 pm. He was receptive enough about the call. He said that he had a place in mind on the first floor. We had originally made the appointment to see it around 3, but we didn’t want to wait. You know us by now. So, we explained to Sr. Theresa and then left for the day. She was ok about it so that part was good. We called on the way there and asked if we could see it earlier that seemed to work out.
The place was on the first floor and it was also right next to the DesPlaines River. I mean really close … there was one more apartment closer, but not too much separating it from the river. I know this river floods, so even though he stated it hadn’t in 30 years I thought … hmm. I kind of figured out which apartment this was through the mapquest before we left work. And, I knew that after we had driven to it that it was the same apartment we’d called on 7 years ago when we first came up to Brookfield … we called because it was at least off of Harlem Avenue which was just a half mile off the river on the other side. In general Harlem divides the city of Chicago from the suburbs although at this point there were a couple of suburbs between us. The move would have required moving from Brookfield to Lyons even though it was right next door and not so far – maybe a mile.
My first impression of it was that it had too many people living there and that it was overly crowded. It’s one of those places that everyone stores all their extra stuff on the balcony’s, like bikes and odd stuff. At our apartment there is stuff on the balcony, but in general it is tables and such – not cold storage. Walking into the building with Mike – I knew right away it wouldn’t work. The living room faced the back and it was too small and dark. That’s probably the best description of all the rooms. It looked like our apartment in that the counters and kitchen floor were the same as was the yellow appliances meaning the appliances might have been from the 70’s, but workable. I just couldn’t see fitting in my couch … I didn’t even want to try it was such a let down from having the balcony with the double windows and sliding door. Within a few moments we said straight out “No.”
He admitted that the apartment was a little smaller. We figured out he would say anything to get the places rented out. He said that if I could do a few stairs that he had just one more place that was also a two bedroom on the first floor. He had told us that 3 bedroom were very hard to come by and were taken quickly. He said that it was more cost efficient to get storage for the extra stuff. We listened.
The second apartment was back in Brookfield also on our end of town. It was a 3 flat, but didn’t look to be in the same category of nice as our place. Again maybe in the 1950’s – 70’s feel to it. I thought why should I be surprised walking into this kitchen and seeing again the same counters and floors. This apartment inside was an improvement, but in the end I told him that it was just satisfactory. I’d almost given into the idea that I didn’t have to live somewhere I would be proud of. The living room was a little bigger because it had an attached part. It was a sub level though so you looked out straight onto the grass mid-view. The bedrooms weren’t anything to write home about … they were dark and although there was a washer and dryer on the first floor the area looked terrible … Both in the front under the stairs that was supposed to be our space – it was open so that all our “stuff” was exposed to both us and the people from the two floors above. I didn’t like that idea a lot and it seemed not only unsafe, it seemed very messy.
We told Mike maybe and that we’d have to talk to Rich. I thought at the moment that we weren’t going to do any better. I tried convincing ourselves – and almost would have done it that we couldn’t get any better. We stopped by at two different storage places in town. We found out that for about $140 you could get a 10x10 area and for $180 you could get a 10x15 space. The set-up was pretty cool at both places … electronic keypads, elevators and covered space for unpacking a truck in the rain. One was about 8 more, but claimed to be climate controlled where that would have been an extra at the other place. The first place the guy was a druid, where the second place he was at least interactive and acted like a young sales man. I’m not sure if that was good or not, but we would have chosen the second place over the first.
In-between things we were making calls to Rich. I stopped to get something to eat … no comment there, and then we decided to drive around a bit, because in actuality, Brookfield has a number of apartments like ours 4-6 flats going up and down whole blocks. We were just about done looking when we came to one where the landlord answered the phone. We’d left our number at a couple of other spots.
We still haven’t gotten into that apartment, but it seems much more promising. It has the exterior appearance that is much higher quality than the first two. It seems to match ours, but with only a half porch and no private balconies. Because I knew we weren’t getting one on the first floor it seemed irrelevant, but the woman named Helen said that it was for everyone’s use, though no one seemed to use it. I thought is it wide enough and would she allow us to put our bistro out on it. I wasn’t sure. I wouldn’t mind if others used it, but then I was still thinking we are going to need storage and it would be put away for a while, even though that made me sad. I had thought coming from the last place that we would put away as much as possible and live simpler to keep down the clutter. For example we would keep our books and their shelves packed.
This apartment though was a 3 bedroom on the first floor, though the first floor was elevated so you’d have to walk up about 6-7 stairs. I thought if I were going to need walking down, we could just as well walk up. 6-7 stairs is a lot different than 3 flights. She said the laundry was down in the basement, but that translated to me that there was more storage. There was only 4 units in this building and she said the other first floor was only a one bedroom. I liked the tall 2 story white pillars on the outside. I’d seen that type building before and it was nice even though without balcony. That was the part that hit Rich the most was loosing that spot now that he’s gotten accustomed to taking me out on it for a late night dinner, or cards. To be real though … that’s only happened about 3 times in 7 years. Hmm?
We were going to see it last night but the ladies old tenant was going to show it to us at 7:45 and she got in a car accident with her father’s car. She wasn’t hurt, but the car was pretty damaged. She said she’d show it though tonight. The lady talked about new microwave and dishwasher and newly painted walls. So that was interpreted to mean she’d been taking care of the building. The funny part of all this? The building is just on the next street. We’re back to back with it, but its 2 places down. WooHOO!!!
The other thing I did was to check with a mover recommended by the second storage place - “Dave’s Moving & Hauling.” Dave sounded like a hard working but personable guy so we arranged him to come over last night. That way he got a chance to talk with Rich. I already knew that would work out. He said they charged $90 an hour (for 3 guys) and that the truck was $45, and that was that. He said that he had just moved a third floor, but she was very disorganized and it took longer than it should have … 7 hours. He thought ours could be done in 5-6 hours. That’s what it took the other guys last time, so I knew he wasn’t pulling our leg. Rich seemed ok with him, so we told him we’d give him a call as soon as something were set-up.
So, we went from nothing happening to everything happening. The big deal is whether or not we are going to like this next place. With apartments you don’t get the luxury of scouting out many places … when you found the right dimensions you have to grab it before someone else does. The lady sounded real ready do be doing business with us. She’s 30-40 minutes away … probably western suburbs or northern. She’s a little more high strung, but accepted our cats even though they weren’t de-clawed … I think that though was a stretch for her. SOOOO … anyway … 6 am … think we’re going to grab a quick shower. Likely that we’ll have to stay at work today … we’ll go back and see the apartment tonight at 7:15 … wooHOOO!!!
Hmm, this is me again … I’ve got about 10 minutes to finish up. I’m trying to settle down. We just took our medicine and talked to Sweetie Pie for a few. My knee is hurting a lot and I may have to stop in the washroom, plus post. Reason stands that I don’t have really enough time. Ahh … just took care of a couple of those items … especially important was I got ice on the knee … we’re going through that short period where it hurts more with the ice than without, but I know the numbing will feel good in a short time.
We visited Squeaky bear too … he was watching an old video we sent him of a bear dangling over the side of a bridge. Gotta love “da bears.” Ok … though we’re going to need moving … it’s time
posted by Ann Marie @ 10/02/2007 06:57:00 AM
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