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| In the beautiful park across the street from out apartment |
Not far, but away from the current place we're living. The place where I have lived for 7 years. The place I have lived in longer than any other place before it. It's a tiny bit bitter sweet, but mostly sweet. I love this apartment. It's sunny and warm. Large in size. It's in walkable distance to work, downtown, and the park where the farmer's market is on Saturdays. The price (we are finding) is reasonable for what it is.
So why in the world would we leave?
- Laundry. This place has laundry in the basement, we live on the second floor, the psychological divide from these places is enough to cause me to want to do the sniff test to find the least dirty clothes before actually washing anything. Oh, and it's $3.50 for a load that seems about half the size of an ordinary washing machine. And you have to have cash 5 dollar bill or larger to put into the machine. It's a hassle to say the least. When we have a baby we really need a better laundry situation, if for no other reason than to wash the sweet cloth diapers I already bought.
- Dishwasher. We discussed long ago that in order to succeed at parenting we were going to need a dishwasher. Call it luxury, we call it sanity preservation.
- Parking. Right now we have to park on the very busy street we live on. Ali's been in an accident here. Ali's mom has been in an accident here. It's stressful. We don't need that stress when we are dealing with a car seat.
- Clients. We are less than a half a mile from the homeless shelter where we work. Clients sometimes sit on our front steps (literally) and drink. On occasion there is vomit on the sidewalk It's mostly ok. I once had a really creepy interaction with a client in the park across the street. He was adamant to find out where I lived, the situation followed me back to work....to say it was uncomfortable is an understatement. (Though to be fair, that was one incident in 7 years). Anyway, anywhere we go near here we see clients. We love them, but some space would be nice, especially when we are carting around a tiny human.
- Set up. For some reason I can not imagine having a baby in this space. I'm not really sure why. Maybe because it's not very open. Maybe it's because I've lived here so long without thinking about a baby. Maybe it's because the bedrooms seem super far away from each other and I worry about my child being that far away from me.
I've never searched for a home before, so I'm excited to get to it. Also, I really like new adventures with Ali, and doing so with a baby in mind is awesome. Those who have known me for a long time are probably surprised that I'm not freaking out about this big change. But I'm not. It's amazing, really.
Now all we need is a reasonably priced apartment a bit further away from work, with parking, laundry, and a dishwasher.
We'll have to bring our own baby. We're working on it.
