Where I've hung my hat.
July 21st, 2003
I am so glad I don't have to go through all the hassles of finding new apartments and moving now that we have the house. My sister Weener is in the process of building a life for herself in Peterborough. She's been subletting an apartment for the summer, but now she needs to find a place for the rest of the year. She's come over today to look for listings, and we are going to go see a place by my house in a few minutes.
* * *
Ok, we're back from seeing the apartment now. It was alright I suppose, a one bedroom basement apartment for $500 a month all inclusive in an old brick house on the edge of town. I think a guy is living there right now, because it was messy, there was a mountain bike and other sports equipment lying around and lots of dishes in the sink. It smelled a little musty in there, but that may have been from the moldy dishes. I think Weener really wants it though. She definitely wants to live by herself if at all possible. I think I will go back and tell him that she wants to take the apartment.
* * *
Well, that was a wasted trip. It seems as though this guy is going to go through all the applicants and pick the one he wants to be the new tenant. Screw that. I know he doesn't think much of Weener because when he asked her if she was working and she told him yes and where, his face changed. She needs a break for goodness sake. How is she supposed to start out on her own without one? She's made some mistakes, heck we all have but she's really trying. As an aside...I rode my bike there and back instead of walking and goodness a week of not riding is very evident.
We've been in the house for almost two years now. I still get a little twinge every May and October because that was when I always moved in the past.
September 1996 - April 1997, 310 London St.
I lived in the Principal's Lodge at Traill College at Trent U. Trent is set up like a British school, so the University as a whole is comprised of 5 residential colleges. I shared the house with 3 other girls. The Principal of the college had bought her own house and moved into that, so that's why the Lodge was open. We each had a bedroom and then shared the rest of the house. Overall I suppose it was ok. I did miss out on a lot of residence life and didn't meet very many people. I didn't have a key to get into the main residence, so I'd have to call my friend to come down and let me in. Then we'd hang out in her room. I didn't really get along with my housemates. They were nice enough, but we had nothing in common, so I pretty much stayed in my room most of the time outside of classes. The water in the house was disgusting. I remember moving in that September, it was very hot and I was desperately thirsty and I got a glass of water from the tap and spat it out all over the floor. It was a combo of the uniquely brackish taste of Ptbo water, along with whatever crap was in the pipes. We got kicked out of residence on the 28th of April, and I couldn't take possession of my next place until May 1st, so I stored most of my things at Chris's parents' house. Chris and I had been dating, oh about 3 and a half months by this point. It was rather tense.May 1997 - April 1998, 222A Stewart St.
This was the fencing apartment for a couple of years. I took possession from two girls on the fencing team who were graduating. It was a 2 bedroom apartment in an old duplex which had been converted into 4 apartments. Originally my sister was going to come to school at Fleming, but she backed out, so I was stuck with a 2 bedroom apartment and no roommate. Fortunately, a guy named Tom from the fencing team who had been on a year abroad was back and needed a place. It worked out quite well, although my room shared a wall with the apartment next to us and the person living there was very loud. My room was an addition off the back of the house over the basement entrance. It was kind of rickety, and not very well insulated, but there was a huge radiator in the room that kept things toasty. Our fencing coach stayed with us. He slept on the couch and paid for cable as his rent. It was at this apartment that I got Tia from the shelter. Tia absolutely adored Tom.April 1998 - July 1999, 237 Bennett St.
Once the year was up, I moved in with Chris at his parents' house. You can read my archives if you want to know about that.August 1999 - October 2000, 229 Crescent Ave.
Chris and I were desperate to move out, so we went looking as soon as we could. I found a place in a 6 plex right on the lake. This apartment was known affectionately as "Hot Enough For You?", "Hell" and other less affectionate sobriquets. It was very pink in there. The carpet was cerise. The kitchen was a weird little galley space and someone had spraypainted the cupboard doors with that granite look paint, which all rubbed off into whatever you were cooking. Our neighbours were pot-heads. We would get woken up by the police every once in a while too because they'd get reports about someone screaming and thrashing around in the lake and would want to know if we had heard anything. We didn't have control over the heat, and the people below us must have been freezing all the time because it was about 35C in that apartment, year-round. We got Rollie when we lived in this apartment. As soon as we arrived home, we'd change into shorts and t-shirts because it was so damn hot in there. The fire alarm went off a few times in the middle of winter, which meant we had to frantically get the cats, put pants on and get out of there. By the third time, we were much more blase about things and only went down our staircase to wait by the door until the firefighters showed up.September 2000 - April 2001, 1223 Richmond St. Apartment 106
This was my little bachelor apartment I rented while I was in the first year of my Master's degree. It was in a low-rise right by the main gates to the university, so I was only about a 15 minute walk from my lab. That was so nice. It was $400 a month, and was pretty cute. The only problem was that it was incredibly dark, and the only ventilation was from a patio door, which I couldn't leave cracked open. All in all, however, it was a good choice and it was kind of fun living alone again. Pretty much all the furniture I had in that apartment now lives in my guest bedroom.October 2000 - October 2001, 1 Stornoway Place
This was a tiny one bedroom apartment on the main floor. We almost didn't get this place, but then the people who had been living there skipped out on their rent, so it was available. It hadn't been cleaned when we took posession and boy was it ever stinky. We had a little patio which was nice. I spent most of the time that we lived there in London in my own apartment, so it wasn't too cramped. We had enough furniture for a house crammed in there though. It was a little tight. After we got married, we had our wedding presents stacked up and somehow a mouse was hiding in them. Tia caught it a bunch of times and paraded around the house with it in her mouth, growling fiercely. I rescued the poor mouse and released it to the field behind the building. I was over by there recently and that field is now a big-box mall. Oh how things change! We stayed in this apartment only long enough to save up a downpayment for a house.October 26th, 2001 - present
We actually bought the house in July. We had been looking online using the MLS listings, found a 11 year old house that was dirt cheap in a new neighbourhood. We arranged a viewing, and took Chris's dad along with us. The house was almost immaculate and pretty much untouched. We laugh because in the ad they were very careful to tell us about 3 times that "the shelf in the kitchen" was not included. It was a tole painted country shelf up on the wall that I wouldn't have wanted to keep anyhow. It was kind of funny that they were so attached to that shelf. Overall, the house was very cutesy country in style. We've been working on changing that bit by bit. Anyhow, we reached a "now what?" moment at the end of the showing. We decided to offer the full asking price, but asked that we get the fridge and stove with the house, and that we didn't mind a long closing date. Then we left, and wondered what the heck we had gotten ourselves into. There was another couple looking at the house, but we got a call that night saying they had accepted our offer and the rest is history.
Approaching Kilter is on a little hiatus because I haven't been on the bike lately due to some knee problems.
Books I have Read Lately:
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)