New digs
At just over two weeks in my new apartment, I’m a happy man.
While not quite as large as I thought it was, the new place is larger in the right places. Before, my largest room was the bedroom. It was also my least-used room.
Here the bathroom has a full-sized tub. I have two closets, not just one. The living room is two feet wider, and the kitchen has a full five feet of additional counter and cabinet space, plus the table space.
But the bedroom, well legally it’s not a bedroom because it doesn’t have a window. Thus, it’s a “sleeping alcove”. But my bedframe didn’t fit the way I wanted. Turned the other way, then the dresser didn’t fit. So I junked the bedframe, flopped the futon on the floor in the direction I wanted, then fit the dresser in beside it. Perfect fit.
Miracle of miracles, I’ve discovered that it wasn’t the futon giving me backaches at all. It was the bedframe. Flat on the floor, I sleep just fine on the futon, so no more sleeping on the couch.
The sleeping alcove merges with the dressing area defined by the closet, dresser and, opposite the dresser, a wall where I’ve put a row of clothing hooks. The bathroom is off that.
In my mind, the living room was four feet wider instead of only two. (Actually, in the studio apartment without the sleeping alcove, it is four feet wider.) This didn’t cause any real problems, it’s just that the desk didn’t fit the way I’d imagined on account of the windows, and the bikes don’t fit the way I’d imagined on account of the French doors to the sleeping alcove.
So I put the desk in the table space in the kitchen, and I ordered two new racks, so I can hang the bikes separately. As a result, the living room really lives large. Large enough, that I “floated” the couch in the middle of the room. Well, off-center to about the two-thirds line. The point is, I can walk all the way around the grouping of couch, end tables and coffee table.
The outside wall has three huge windows. There’s nothing on that wall right now, (except a bike locked to the radiator). I can walk right up to them to look out. The view isn’t all that magnificent—but there’s a line of trees along the property line, and if I look out and not down, all I see are branches and leaves. And squirrels. I’ve looked and looked, and I can hear them, but I just can’t see the cicadas.
One of the bikes will hang in one corner by the windows, and I’m thinking about a reading chair for the other corner by the windows. Then again, I like the openness, so maybe I won’t get a chair.
Having the desk and bookcase in the dinette space isn’t bad at all. I’ve worked in smaller cubicles, and this cubie has windows and an attached kitchen. Besides, for the past ten years or more, I’ve eaten at the desk, so that’s nothing new. Plus, I don’t have to buy a dinette set.
What has really worked out well in the kitchen is that the stove had no range hood over it. This made the perfect space for installing a microwave shelf. My dad took some measurements and went home to fabricate it.
I took some measurements and went to Sears to buy a new microwave. As you may recall, my old one died the day before the move. Besides my required “potato” button, the new nuke has a “rice” button. It works perfectly, and will save me from buying a Japanese-style rice cooker.
In any event, with the microwave mounted over the stove, I freed up even more counter space. The new kitchen actually has separate areas for food storage and prep, cooking, and cleanup. There is space on both sides of the stove and both sides of the sink. It’s almost heaven.
My only apprehension about the kitchen was the single-bowl sink and absence of a sprayer. I’ve always found dishpans too small and shallow, but on a feathering-the-nest shopping trip with my mother, she found one that’s extra deep. I like it a lot. And I’m learning to manage without a sprayer.
I have more kitchen storage than I have stuff. So I’ve moved other stuff to the kitchen. My two non-bike toolboxes for instance. I had stored my circular saw in the credenza, but it’s under the food prep counter now.
What’s working best now is making coffee and toast. These tasks should not be a chore, yet in the old kitchen, they were. There was no counter space to dedicate to the appliances. It’s pretty rough not even having space to leave the percolator.
I’d had to slide the toaster out from its hiding space on top the microwave, balance the butter dish on the edge of the counter in front of the microwave, and while buttering, keep the toast plate from teetering into the sink.
Here, the bread lives on top of the fridge, which is right next to the toaster and the perk is next to it. Butter, coffee, sugar and chalkdust all live in the cupboard above. I only have to turn around to fill the perk at the sink. If I feel in the mood for jam on my toast, it’s not at the other end of the room, but right next to the toaster in the fridge.
This is characteristic of the differences between the old place and the new. Until I was relieved of them, I didn’t realize how much those little daily frustrations bothered me.
I’ve also been relieved of dozens of sirens every day. Yes, I live next-door to a firehouse now, but that’s nothing compared to Goodman St. That section of Goodman where I lived was the major emergency vehicle route between the north and south sections of the city, here on the east side. Day or night, I don’t think a half-hour went by without one.
I have yet to hear a neighbor through the walls or floors. I hear the door from across the hall when she enters or leaves, but nothing else.
There are no domestic quarrels across the courtyard. There are no drunken idiots making noise in the courtyard. And best of all, there are no dogs.
I’ll have to see how things are in the winter and in the heat of summer, but so far, I’m very happy here.
Pics in due course.
