I wanted to thank all of you who had kind words for me after my stressed-out post last week. Seriously, it means so much that people I’ve never even met are following me and hoping my situation turns out okay. So I wanted to give you a quick update on the apartment situation. I’ve found a place. And oh man, if you know anything about the Vancouver market, you’ll know it was not easy. I went to several open houses where there were literally dozens of people all vying for the place. I responded to so many ads and got no response whatsoever. I walked all through my neighbourhood, up and down every street, looking for “for rent” signs. I contacted rental agencies and building management companies, and only got responses from a couple of them (none positive). I refreshed Craigslist obsessively.
No lie, there was one listing that popped up on Craigslist that I called within 15 minutes of its posting, and it had already been rented.
And as I mentioned last week, it’s this difficult for anyone looking to rent, but it’s even harder with a cat because the pool of available apartments is even more limited.
But I found something. It’s pretty spacious, has lots of closets, lovely hardwood floors, and is bright and sunny with lots of windows. And it’s close to my ideal neighbourhood. But it’s south-facing, so it’ll be hot next summer, it overlooks an alley, and it has no balcony (so I have to get rid of all the plants I have on my deck, which makes me very sad). And it’s off a much noisier side street. It also has a teeny tiny kitchen with a teeny tiny apartment-sized fridge and stove. And I get to pay quite a bit more money for it than I was paying for my old place.
But hey, at least I have a home and can stop panicking. And now I get to focus on downsizing and getting organized for the move. That’s going to be quite an undertaking – I’ve been in the same place for about 15 years now and I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. I’m taking this opportunity to purge and minimize. Partly out of necessity (it is a smaller space after all), and partly because it’s just going to feel good to have a fresh start. Of course I’ll be keeping all my kitchen stuff and cookbooks – those are absolutely necessary. But I’m getting rid of a lot of books that I haven’t looked at in years, all my DVDs and CDs (I’ve digitized everything, why was I holding on to those?), and a ton of clothes that I haven’t worn in ages (most of which don’t even fit anymore). And of course that juicer that I never used after the first couple weeks. And a whole lot of knick knacks that I used to love but now just seem to be taking up space.
I am gonna be brutal.
I’ll try to get a new recipe up as soon as I can, but it’ll be a bit sporadic for awhile. Once I take possession of the new place, I’ll post some pics of the wee kitchen so you can see what I’ll be working with. Fingers crossed that oven is reliable!!
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