Homemaking

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One Down, Twenty-Five To Go

I have been living in The Apartment for a full week now and definitely back to as normal a routine as exists for me.  While I am pretty much settled in, I still need to get my really cold weather gear out of Miranda’s basement and figure out how to plug in the rig. The Apartment is surprisingly cozy and looks much better than I would have expected. It’s amazing how I was able to get everything to reasonably coordinate! My colourful bedspread is definitely making a huge difference:

The biggest advantage to living here is that I have so much more time now. Yes, I did stop delivering the fliers, but I’ve also gained the hour I spent commuting every day. The best part of living here is being able to walk to the services, especially the grocery store. I needed English muffins and fresh fruit for the week, so I just ambled on over the Safeway and took in a lovely crisp October afternoon. Coming home, one of my tenants/friends was on her deck, so I stopped for a chat, the first chance we’ve had to talk where I was really off the clock.

Yesterday afternoon, a tenant saw me come out of Miranda as he went to throw garbage in the dumpster and he came to ask me about a non-urgent maintenance matter. I firmly told him that I will see him on Tuesday morning, refusing to even go into the office and write down his query. I have to draw that line right now because word will get out very quickly that, hey, the manager’s living on site and available for the asking! Nope!

 


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Trolling the Classifieds Pays Off!

The flooring issue in the apartment has been vexing. Even if the carpet wasn’t completely gross, I wouldn’t want to leave it exposed because of the cats. All it would take would be one accident and I’d have to pay for new carpeting! So, I bought a plastic drop cloth and laid it over the floor. Worked, but I couldn’t imagine walking on a drop cloth all winter and my idea of laying down runners to make paths sounded positively dismal.

I decided that I had to bite the bullet and buy some proper flooring to put over the drop cloth in the main part of the room and that it would probably be a carpet. I needed something about 8’x10′, which doesn’t come cheap! There was no way I was going to invest in this place, so today I decided to check the classifieds. I scored, big time:

This hideous monstrosity (I’m not a fan of Aztec patterns!) couldn’t have been better coloured for this place. The burgundy, beige, and dark green can be found in my comforter and the pale teal matches the tiling in the kitchen and bathroom! It’s ugly, but it fits right in and in doing so is almost attractive! The guy was asking for $35 but I offered $20. He replied “If you can be here tonight, you can have it.” I got in the car immediately and drove clear across town, making it there just as darkness fell. For $20, whatever happens this winter happens. Tabitha can claw it to bits and Neelix can puke on it all he wants (readers go “EW!!!”) and it will have been worth my twenty bucks!

The carpet felt pretty clean (and smelled great, surprisingly enough), but I still had some cleaning solution in the carpet cleaner, so I gave it a spritz.

Here’s my living room area looking towards the bed, with the lovely chair and ottoman Gary pulled out of storage for me:

And here’s the room looking towards the desk:

I put the carpet flush against the bed so that I could fit a plastic runner around the desk since it will be a high chair traffic area. I consider the apartment setup to be DONE. Now, I just need to figure out what else needs to be brought in based on the potential of damage due to low temperatures.

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Settling Into My Temporary Abode

This has been my second full day in the apartment and I am slowly falling back into my normal routine. I made my first home cooked meal this evening, which meant scurrying down to the rig for onions, a sharp knife, a cheese grater, and a colander. 🙂

Here are some bits of the apartment so far.

First, the bedroom area with the absolutely awesome headboard/bookcase Jody had in storage. Also make note of the little side table next to the bed on which the lamp is resting. It’s the perfect height!

bedroom area (my pretty comforter is in the wash pile!)

Next is the office area. Telus was supposed to send a tech between noon and two to figure out why my hardwired connection wasn’t working. The tech showed up at 11!!! It was a simple fix and now I have 500GB of bandwidth a month! The speeds aren’t actually any better than the cellular connection however. That says a lot about cellular speeds in southern Canada!

office area

The dining area reminds me of a school cafeteria (the floor tiles don’t help!), but the chair is super comfy!

dining area

I like that I have the storage room for the cats. Litter doesn’t get tracked everywhere and the food dishes are out of traffic areas. Neelix was okay with me stepping over him in the dressing room, but Tabitha would bolt if I tried to do that, interrupting her meal.

the cat condo

Here’s Tabitha’s nest under the sink. She’s been going in and out of there since she discovered the spot. I think she appreciates the blanket since she’s moved it around a bit to make more of a nest.

Ms. Bitha’s nest

Finally, I have to say I LOVE having a one-piece pantry. That’s one thing I found hard in Miranda, trying to remember what I had in the various cabinets.

pantry

The pantry is pretty full tonight since today is 15% off day at the Lethbridge grocery stores. I got some awesome deals including two boxes of falafel mix!

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Connectivity, Comfort, and Cats

My high speed internet was supposed to be activated today, but, of course, the plug and play modem didn’t work. I chatted with a Telus rep and he concluded that it’d be best to send someone to check the wiring. I don’t think a single one of my tenants has had any luck with getting the internet to work right off the bat.

What made me laugh is that the tech rep had a hard time understanding that I wasn’t home. I mean, the first thing I asked is “Do I need home phone service to have internet?” (nope). So he knew I had no phone at home and if I was chatting with him, then the fact that I don’t have internet at home should have been pretty obvious. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had this conversation with tech reps from different telecom companies over the years! The tech rep was very good, my joking aside. He acknowledged that I’d done everything at my end and didn’t make me feel like an idiot.

At any rate, no high speed internet till tomorrow afternoon. I’m just grateful that I got an appointment so quickly, that I don’t need to pay for a phone line I have no use for, and that I have my cellular internet access!

I’m also happy to report that my furniture arrived! Wheeeeeeee. I can set up my home office tonight. I don’t think the chair they gave me is going to work, though (no arm rests or wheels) so I may be bringing my chair in from Miranda after all, but I’ll try this one first and see how I like it. Soon as I am set up I will share pictures. 🙂 I have to say that I somehow managed to get stuff that looks good together rather than like a hodgepodge. Geeze, even the curtains that Jody lent me complement the loft curtains! It’ll be nice to be in a lovely place for six months. The only thing left to get now that I have furniture are some more floor mats so I don’t have to walk on the drop cloths all winter.

I have a couple of ‘my cats are amusing’ stories. Before going to work this morning, I put Jody’s curtains in the tub to soak since they smelled strongly of cigarettes. When I came in at lunch, the apartment was very humid and reeked of cigarette smoke. So, I rinsed the curtains and took them outside to dry over the balcony railing, then I left the patio door cracked. Neelix promptly pushed his cushion so it was by the open door and plopped down! As for Ms. Bitha, I came in this afternoon to supervise the furniture delivery and noticed that the undersink cabinet door was cracked open. Tabitha was curled up in there, pressed tightly against the wall. If I catch her there again, I’ll let her know that that can be her safe spot by putting a blanket down for her. I hadn’t planned on using the cabinet anyway.

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A Gentle Reminder

I have received a number of emails in the last couple of days about my temporary move into an apartment. I sense a lot of disappointment and concern from these folks about my current circumstances. While I appreciate that people care about me and are worried, there’s no reason to be!

I would like to reiterate a quote in my about me page:

“I don’t want to come to the end of my life and realize I have lived someone else’s version of it.”

Once again, I’d like to remind everyone that full-time RVing is no different from housebound life. It’s real life with its ups and downs and unexpected moments. Right now, my health is dictating that I spend a winter in Alberta. Last summer in Yukon, my heart had me considering the ramifications of full-timing as a couple, which would have required a new rig suitable for two people. I could end up wanting a baby or find that mythical place most nomads are sure doesn’t exist, the place where I want to put down roots. Anything can happen.

Yes, I have a long-term plan for my life in Miranda, but that plan is not set in stone. It is open to those vagaries of fate I have just mentioned. It is this flexibility that I so desperately craved when I hit the road in 2008 and so regardless of how and where I spend this winter, I am still living my dream life.