Reasons to move.
Oct. 23rd, 2007 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusReasons to move:
5 - I'm sick of listening to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wildernessguru whine about how we don't have enough space.
4 - We don't have enough space, as evidenced by WG's outdoor gear all over the place.
3 - I'm sick of listening towildernessguru whine about the noise in the park.
2 - They raised the rent to a level that's just not worth it to me.
1 - Tonight, my downstairs neighbor pounded on my door complaining about water coming through her ceiling.
Yes, I had the lovely experience of meeting my neighbor in my underwear, then, minutes later, the joy of having my landlady arrive with the plumber. He suggested not too subtly that I must be lying when I said that, no, we did not spill water on the floor, and that in fact,wildernessguru only just took a bath. My landlady and the plumber ignored me as they examined the bathroom.
"Aha! Wet footprints on the floor," said the plumber.
"That's because [WG] just got out of the bath," said Icarus.
The landlady kneeled, checking the seal at the edge of the tub and the floor. "The water could have gotten through here," she said.
"There was no water on the floor," said Icarus. "[WG] just got out of the bath. Maybe there's a plumbing problem. We did have the entire wall torn out a few months ago."
The landlady looked at the low spot on the floor by the sink. "The water would have gathered over there," she said, then cringed at the plumber. I'm standing right there being ignored, by the way. "They are old pipes...."
The plumber nodded. "It is strange that the water is cold though."
What am I, invisible here?
"That's because [WG] rinses off with a cold shower. Which is strange if you consider cold showers strange. Which I do," said Icarus.
Note thatwildernessguru was standing in the kitchen in a towel, dripping, throughout all of this. Also note that the apartment was a mess and I was very unhappy having anyone in there. I've no time or interest in cleaning my apartment despite the fact that, yes, they will be here tomorrow to fix their plumbing problem.
I am officially pissed off.wildernessguru has been simmering all evening.
I've had it with this place.
5 - I'm sick of listening to
wildernessguru whine about how we don't have enough space.4 - We don't have enough space, as evidenced by WG's outdoor gear all over the place.
3 - I'm sick of listening to
wildernessguru whine about the noise in the park.2 - They raised the rent to a level that's just not worth it to me.
1 - Tonight, my downstairs neighbor pounded on my door complaining about water coming through her ceiling.
Yes, I had the lovely experience of meeting my neighbor in my underwear, then, minutes later, the joy of having my landlady arrive with the plumber. He suggested not too subtly that I must be lying when I said that, no, we did not spill water on the floor, and that in fact,
wildernessguru only just took a bath. My landlady and the plumber ignored me as they examined the bathroom. "Aha! Wet footprints on the floor," said the plumber.
"That's because [WG] just got out of the bath," said Icarus.
The landlady kneeled, checking the seal at the edge of the tub and the floor. "The water could have gotten through here," she said.
"There was no water on the floor," said Icarus. "[WG] just got out of the bath. Maybe there's a plumbing problem. We did have the entire wall torn out a few months ago."
The landlady looked at the low spot on the floor by the sink. "The water would have gathered over there," she said, then cringed at the plumber. I'm standing right there being ignored, by the way. "They are old pipes...."
The plumber nodded. "It is strange that the water is cold though."
What am I, invisible here?
"That's because [WG] rinses off with a cold shower. Which is strange if you consider cold showers strange. Which I do," said Icarus.
Note that
wildernessguru was standing in the kitchen in a towel, dripping, throughout all of this. Also note that the apartment was a mess and I was very unhappy having anyone in there. I've no time or interest in cleaning my apartment despite the fact that, yes, they will be here tomorrow to fix their plumbing problem. I am officially pissed off.
wildernessguru has been simmering all evening. I've had it with this place.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 05:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 09:03 pm (UTC)On the east coast, I seriously started considering giving up my apartment and just living in my car. I ate there. I used it for storage at times. I often dressed in the car. I spent more time in the car than I did at home between travel time to work, errands, and my personal life.
I discovered that although my rent went up, my overall expenses plummeted. It was cheaper for me to pay too much for a small space closer to work, school, and shopping than it was for me to pay a low rent in suburbia and travel, travel, travel.
Not to mention my standard of living went up as I had more free time.
Massive time savings - What did I want to do? Drive? Or play?
I went from an average of two hours per day in the car (just for work, not including errands/temple/volunteer work), which worked out 10-12 hours for myself each week. When you factor in the recovery time from rush hour (I need at least 15-30 minutes to relax after rush hour before I'm useful), it worked out to about 14 hours of useable time for me. That's a lot of time to do things I enjoy more than driving in rush hour traffic.
Improved health - fast food is bad for me, and walking is good for me
Unexpectedly, I started eating better and getting more exercise as well. Walking to and from the bus got me in shape, especially when I loaded up my backpack with books. It was a short walk, but studies show that even ten minutes of exercise twice a day has benefits. With the warning that I was at risk for osteoporosis (at 35 I had the bone density of a 50-year-old), forcing myself to walk with weight every day helped fend off the condition.
Then, with more time each day (getting home at 5:30 instead of 7pm), I started cooking rather than buying fast food all the time.
My food costs dropped by 70%, because I could buy staples -- and buy them on sale. By living close to work and school, the only time I drove my car was when I wanted to go to a special event, and when I needed to fill the back seat and trunk with six months of "supplies."
Although my rent was high and apartment small, the cost of rent only slowly inched up from $695 to $800 over the course of ten years. Meanwhile, the cost of gas almost doubled from $1.39 a gallon (1997) to $2.65 a gallon (2007). The commuting that used to cost me ~$20 a week would cost me ~$40 a week now.
I expected the quality of my life to improve once I chose Seattle to kick the commuting habit. I was willing to pay a price for my time. Instead, I found that my life both improved and I had more money in the bank.
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-24 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-25 12:42 am (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2007-10-25 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-25 12:54 am (UTC)The neighborhoods I'm willing to locate to are: Wallingford, Eastlake, Fremont, Montlake, Ravenna, and -- if I had to -- Ballard. Greenlake is as far north as I'll go because of buses and ease of travel.
If we bought a house, I'd go as far north as Shoreline, prefer say, Greenwood (but Seattle houses are far out of our price range).
I'm not willing to go to First Hill (combat zone), downtown (no parking for WG and bar zone), Queen Anne (snobs), the U-District (party neighborhood), or south Seattle (combat zone).
The price range is from 800 - 1200 mo, and we're looking for a minimum of 600 sq. ft. It must allow cats (with a deposit's okay, kitty rent is not). Generally, we're not finding anything with that square footage close to downtown below $900.
In an ideal world, we would like a balcony and most utilities included. We're in a 1927 building now and are looking at newer buildings because we want a bigger kitchen. Things like garbage disposals, etc., don't excite us, though, okay, a little washer/dryer would be nice.
We're going through Craigslist and Seattle Rentals.com, though we've missed the moving season in Seattle. Everyone moves before the rain starts.
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2007-10-25 01:20 am (UTC)