Apartment Hunt

It’s that time of year again.

I wish I could say this is the simplest thing to do: pack up your life in a small car, rented or borrowed, and ship yourself a few blocks north. I spent way too long looking for a place but I think it will have paid off. After centering my search around the usual suspects like Zillow, Apartments.com, HotPads, I found a real gem by using ye’ old Craigslist in a sleeper pick of a neighborhood. I was fortunate to find the perfect dump in the high rent district of Lincoln Park. Starting in June I’ll be close to the intersection of Diversey and Clark where there’s plenty to do and options for green grass are abundant.

I’m very happy for the developer who recently erected several overpriced six flats in front of my current home. No one was enjoying those trees and the view of the Chicago skyline was much too pretty for me to look at. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same if presented the opportunity.

This new apartment is going to be a lot of fun – at least in my definition of fun. I’m looking forward to the exercise in cheapness frugality I’m about to undergo. I have in my lease that I’m supposed to maintain a 50 degree farenheit setpoint, which in all honesty is fair. Whether or not the electric baseboard heat or wood burning chiminea are up for the challenge is another story. Likely they will be more than ready to maintain my new home’s aging pipes with no problem, they’ll just demand I donate more to ComEd.

I’m looking forward to the aroma in the hallway that the leasing agent assured me was someone making homemade kimchi and not fermenting garbage. It’ll be nice to be welcomed home by the neighbors dinner, regardless of if it was last weeks or tonight’s kimchi.

All in all, this move is unique in that it will mark the first time I’ll be on my ownsome lonesome. I’ve read that living alone is when you really figure out who you are. Which to me is fascinating, I wonder why we don’t all just start out that way. Hopefully there’ll be enough space for my bookshelves far away enough from my chiminea, because that’d be a difficult claim to make through my renters insurance.

Stay tuned for more updates.

-Nik