I mean, I’m no security expert, but I would assume that scanning your fob at the game room entrance creates a timestamp and logs your apartment number, so if stuff starts going missing they’d probably be able to narrow it down.
The happy hour prices look pretty reasonable. Fish and chips for $9 isn’t bad. Of course, You’re not likely to drink plain water with that…
My parents lived in a building in San Diego that had a pool room and my father proudly had his own cue.
I lived in apartment complex with a game room for 2 years. The cues, billiard balls, & ping pong paddles didn’t seem to walk away. It was advisable to bring your own ping pong balls, though I assume they were lost or broken, not stolen.
Yeah, even if you just get a soda you’re probably not getting out of there for less than $20 or so after the tip, but I could easily pay a lot more for that for fish & chips in downtown Olympia.
I ordered the last of the “big” purchases I’ll be needing for the move-in today - a curtain rod and blackout drapes for the west-facing window (which can be potentially nightmarish in the long PNW summer afternoons when the sun just bakes), shower rod and curtain, bathmat, new litter box, new trashcans to replace the beat-up ones I’ve had for ages (untippable ones since the cat likes to tip them over when he’s bored), cutting board, and a new nonstick skillet and saucepan since the ones I have aren’t induction-compatible. Between that, the move-in fees, my cat’s vet appointment next week, and the Uhaul, I’m pretty much tapped out aside from the food and minor sundries and such I’ll need. Moving is EXPENSIVE.
I’m mysteriously and unspeakably excited for you.
Yeah, ping pong balls do walk away on their own. (Or roll away. Or bounce into something and disappear.) I’ve also used communal pool tables and ping pong tables, and the other stuff generally hangs around.
There could be some peripheral/indirect feline involvement… just sayin’.
Oooo! Muffy would sure like playing with a couple of these…
UPDATE: 4 days until moving day. Most of my stuff is packed except for some of the kitchen, the stuff I use every day, my computer, and some other miscellany. I’ve got boxes stacked up to the ceiling in my room right now. My cat is enjoying his temporary new perch.
I was able to get an ESA letter that’ll actually cover both of my cats and not just the one as I had first expected to, so I won’t have to pay an extra deposit or pet rent. We’re still sticking with the plan to temporarily rehome my older cat with my mom - I hate parting ways with her, but I think she might be happier with my mom, so we’ll see how the next few months go with just Noctis and I in the studio before I decide to move her in.
After starting a spinoff of this thread, I discovered that what I thought was an induction stove is actually just a glass-top electric that LOOKS like an induction top. Oh well. At least I have some new cookware to show for my mistake and I might buy a plug-in single-burner induction top so I can cook that way for the kind of things that are tricky to get right on an electric stove.
I made one more purchase of stuff for the apartment - a new litter box for the cat, a desk lamp (I’ve been told that the corner of the studio where I plan to get my bed gets less light from the overheads than the rest of the room, so it’ll go nicely on my nightstand), and a paper towel holder, which is never a thing I’ve had to own before now. I’m trying to persuade my mom to buy me a new desk chair as a housewarming gift. We’ve decided that once I’ve unpacked and I’ve got my Ikea furniture set up, I’ll be inviting her over for dinner and cooking shrimp scampi with fettucine alfredo (since my current roommate can’t stand the smell of shrimp scampi and doesn’t let me make it when she’s home, which, since she works from home, is most of the time).
Living in one place for 17 years means you get a LOT of opportunities to accumulate crap that you don’t really need but don’t actively feel a need to throw away. Now is the time to get rid of that stuff. I filled up three big boxes full of old books, CDs, and DVDs that I didn’t feel the need to lug to the new place with me, set them on the front lawn, and wrote “FREE” on them. When I came back out three hours later they were all gone. I guess someone must’ve just grabbed the whole things up and is now having fun going through the collection of CDs I accumulated in the early 2000s and boggling at what my musical tastes were back then. I donated two trash bags full of old shirts that don’t fit me anymore to Goodwill. I made $300 selling some Lego kits I bought ten years ago but never got around to assembling. I’m giving my mom my PS4 and my portable AC and some other stuff I won’t need in exchange for her taking in Lunafreya. I have a Coleman propane stove that per the lease I’m not allowed to have in the unit, so I’m gonna take it to a nearby homeless encampment on my next day off and find someone who needs it. I’ve got what feels like a literal ton of shit that I’m just going to haul to the county dump in my Uhaul after I get the stuff I’m keeping over to the studio.
This is both very exciting and very stress-inducing. I had to call out of work one day last week because the anxiety got me to the point where I literally wasn’t able to sleep all night. I have Monday through Friday scheduled off of work next week so I can make the final preparations for the move, do the actual move on Wednesday, make a dump run and clean out this place on Thursday, and spend Friday just decompressing and unpacking. I have Wednesday and Thursday of the week after that scheduled off - my Ikea furniture is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, and I’ll be using the rest of that day and Thursday to assemble it.
Next update will probably be Wednesday night after I’m physically moved in.
AMEN to that, brother!
Noctis has finally achieved the place that he knows he has deserved all along!
Noctis “we’re keeping the pile of boxes”.
Just before I took that picture he was biting the plant hook on the ceiling. 
Renter’s insurance story:
Some friend had an apartment fire this weekend. A bottle rocket hit a dry juniper bush, set it on fire, which then set the side of the apartment building on fire. Due to fire damage the building was condemned, and they have one week to move out all of their stuff. Fortunately for them, their apartment is not on the side of the building that burned, so they have no fire or water damage, and very little smoke damage. Also, the building’s electricity is turned off.
Spent Sunday afternoon helping them pack with the aid of battery powered lights and fans.
The apartment owners have found them another place in a nearby complex they own. It is somewhat smaller, but also has a slightly lower rent. They are transferring over the security deposit. I think they are crediting them one month’s rent.
Now for the insurance. Because they didn’t suffer direct damage, insurance isn’t paying to replace things. That makes sense. They lost the contents of the fridge and freezer, but that probably doesn’t even hit their deductible. Insurance is covering displacement costs, so will pay covered expenses until they sign a new lease.
I think insurance, but possibly the apartment owners (it wasn’t always clear who “they” were in the explanations) has rented them a battery powered “generator” and two sets of batteries so they can power the filters, bubblers, and heaters for their multiple very large aquariums. The logic being this is necessary to prevent additional losses (aka, dead fish) due to the fire.
Insurance is NOT paying for moving expenses or time off work to deal with packing and moving. Even just moving a few blocks away, moving expenses will be significant as they need professional aquarium movers. It’s been a long time since I read a renter’s policy, but these are some pretty significant expenses that might differ between companies, and be worth shopping around for.
This is dead easy. There are online people who can do this for you, but they charge a fee. I went through this when the previous manager was trying to gouge us for a $500 pet deposit, plus another monthly $50 pet rental (she got fired over it). Once you sign on, you get a phone call from some therapist trying to make a living doing this, who will ask you how this animal provides you emotional support, and they will then send you a letter stating that your pet is an ESA.
I did get the ESA through an online therapist. It cost about $150, but I was able to charge it to my FSA so it wasn’t out of pocket.
Update - I’m moved in! It took six hours to load up the truck, bring everything over here, make a dump run, give some things to mom, and drop off my friend who helped me out (and kept reminding me to hydrate, since it was 85 degrees out today and I was sweating like crazy), and after that I was unpacking until about an hour ago. I’m still only maybe halfway unpacked and there’s some stuff I won’t even try to unpack until I get my furniture delivered and built, but I’ve managed to get it into a livable state.
The only casualty of the move was my desk chair, which bent and snapped when my friend tried to sit down on it after moving in. Fortunately I have a big wooden chest which will serve just fine as a bench for now until the furniture comes and I can use one of the dinner table chairs. My mother has agreed to order me a new desk chair as a housewarming gift after the beginning of the month. Surprisingly, when I was unloading my perishables, I hadn’t broken any of the eggs I’d brought with me. The lighting is good and the blinds do a good job of keeping the sunlight and heat out, and with the AC running it didn’t get any hotter than 70 degrees, and it’s a nice cool 63 in here right now at midnight (I like to keep a little thermometer on my desk.)
Noctis was a little angel during the truck ride and didn’t make a single peep, and even rode in my friend’s lap (in his carrier) in the passenger seat. He’s the ONLY cat I’ve ever had in my life that doesn’t scream his head off in vehicles. When I first brought him in and let him out, though, he went into feral goblin mode - he ran into the bathroom, jumped in the tub, then ran out, jumped on top of the fridge, tried to squeeze himself between the cabinets and the ceiling, then came back down and hid behind the toilet. He’s come out a few times to explore and get food and scritches and use his box, but has mostly stayed under the bed, presumably because it’s the most familiar smell to him. This place does have that odd kind of “new house” smell from recently finished construction and dust in odd places.
I’m letting the Roomba map the room right now (though of course it’ll need to relearn things after the furniture comes in and I finish unpacking.) Noctis isn’t quite sure what to think of it and is observing from a distance. That’s going to go a LONG way towards keeping the new flooring clean.
The first thing I wanted to do once I was in here alone was take a shower and get all the sweat off of me, but it took me two hours after I started unpacking to find my new shower curtain. The shower nozzle only has one setting, and it’s not one that I would’ve preferred, but the water pressure is good and the water gets plenty hot. The toilet is one of those low-volume flush models, which I’m not crazy about, but I’ll just have to make sure I keep up on keeping it clean.
It’s a little bit of a walk from my unit to the trash bins. They’ve got two dumpsters and one recycle bin for 200 units. I hope they’re making multiple pickups a week because I’m not sure that’s enough, and predicably the recycle bin is OVERFLOWING with broken-down moving boxes right now. I’m sure they’ll iron out the kinks as the units fill up - the complex isn’t even at 50% capacity yet and they’re still working on some of the renovations.
Imagine my surprise when I decided to check the mailroom and found out I already had some mail waiting for me! The Post Office works fast.
Most of my new neighbors seem to be around my age or younger. I guess they’re trying to make this place appeal to singles and millennials.
I haven’t tried the oven yet aside from turning it on to make sure everything works. It may not be an induction top after all, but the burners heat up FAST - it took less than 10 seconds for them to go from “off” to “glowing hot”. Much faster than with a traditional electric stovetop. I have a maintenance checklist to go over and turn in to management to confirm that everything works the way it’s supposed to. So far I haven’t found any flaws - and as advised I’ve taken pictures to confirm the state of things.
Tomorrow I have to go back to the old house and clean up and clean out my old room before I turn over the keys. I’m utterly worn out and I’m just trying to get some food in me now and unwind a little and get things set up (my unit has its own wifi hotspot!) before I get a good night’s sleep.
Mazel tov!
Congratulations! This is a real accomplishment! I’m a thrilled for you. And for your kittycat, too. What a trooper.
Thanks so much for sharing. Keep the pictures coming.
Congrats!
I once changed the shower head when i lived in an apartment with a shower that basically didn’t work. I kept the original and swapped it back when i left.
I’ve replaced a shower nozzle once before because our old one broke, but this one isn’t terrible or anything - I just prefer a wider spray and this is more of the discrete streams of water variety. Good pressure and temperature, so nothing I can’t live with. My electric bill is a flat rate per month, but for water/sewer they use some sort of arcane calculus that divides the complex’s total usage by the number of residents as weighted by how your average monthly usage compares to the mean, so I’m gonna have to wait until I get August’s bill to figure out how that reflects in the rent.
Spent two hours cleaning up my old bedroom today and got it nearly as good as it was when I moved in, but I still have to go back and scrub the walls tomorrow. There’s been something of a dispute about a dresser and bookcase that came with the room - I told her in my written notice that I was leaving it behind because it wasn’t mine, but she seemed to think it was mine and I was taking it with me, and is upset that I didn’t take it, and it’s now too late for me to take it since I dropped off the Uhaul and won’t have the funds to rent another one for awhile (not to mention I have no place for it with the new furniture I’ve already ordered). If my downstairs neighbor doesn’t want it I’ll see if I can get Habitat for Humanity to take it. I told her I don’t expect to get any of the security deposit back and she can use it on whatever work she deems necessary, but now she wants a copy of the cancelled checks I gave her 12 and 17 years ago, which is gonna require a trip to an actual brick-and-mortar bank since Wells Fargo’s online records don’t go back that far. I really hope this doesn’t turn into a whole drama.
I still haven’t actually used the stove or oven yet - I want to read over the manual and fill out the warranty card that came with it first - but once I do and my “vacation” is over and I can do some grocery shopping, I’ve decided to break it in by cooking “white guy burritos” - I.e. ground beef with taco seasoning rolled up in a flour tortilla with shredded cheddar and some hot sauce. It’s one of my favorite easy meals to make after a long day at work when I want something better than a frozen dinner but that doesn’t require much effort. The microwave works amazingly, though.
Anyway, night 2 in the studio is going swimmingly! Noctis isn’t onboard with being home alone in here yet. I came home from running my errands today and he didn’t show himself when I opened his daily can of wet food. I searched all over for him, getting increasingly panicked that he’d found some way to escape, before I found him hiding under my blanket (I just HAD to get a black blanket and black sheets when I have a black cat, didn’t I?) He’s currently chilling on my desk, though, so as long as I’m around he seems fine.
(Note: the skeletons on the kitchen counter in the background are “Little John” (the full skeleton) and “Big John” (the skull). They’re Halloween decorations I bought at work years ago to decorate the customer service counter with during spooky season and have company nametags that identify them as employees. The lease is kinda ambiguous as to what kind of decoration I’m allowed to do with wall hangings, so that’s the extent of what I’m putting up for now until I figure out if I’m allowed to stick my collection of autographed pro wrestler 8x10s and posters on the walls.)
Awww…I see my avatar up on your screen.
You might need to invest in that Kliban invention, the G.E. Transparent Cat.
As for the unwanted furniture, what we do around here is put that stuff out on the curb and it will be gone by the end of the day.
Love your computer table. I use an old, scarred farmhouse table for my desk, too.