Today, my housemates and I decided to move to a new apartment. We have a week to pack, get utilities changed over, and clear out of the apartment we're in now.
What kind of fools move in the middle of winter in Ohio? And why do it during a week scheduled for snow and rain and nothing but?
Precisely because of the snow and rain.
Three weeks ago, part of /jen's bedroom ceiling fell in due to a roof leak, which had been caused by water building up due to a heavy snowfall. As it got worse, a previously-patched 2'x3' section of ceiling got soaked and sagged and partially collapsed, sending moldy chunks of sodden drywall everywhere.
The air in her room makes us all sneeze. She can't use it until it's repaired, and we can't let the cats wander around in there. Braunbeck had a cat years ago named Reuben who died after he walked through drywall dust and licked it off his paws. So, between worry over the cats and the mold, we're keeping the room closed off.
/jen has moved most of her stuff down to the basement so as to keep it from getting moldy, and she's camping out on the sofabed in the living room. Since she has a very different sleep schedule than us due to her being a nurse, Braunbeck and I have not been able to use the downstairs -- living room and kitchen -- nearly as much as we used to. Nor have we been able to leave the apartment or go grocery shopping when we've needed to, because we inevitably wake her up.
We've all been hugely stressed out over this. The apartment was cramped before this happened. The management kept saying they'd fix it once the ceiling dried out ... but with the unrelenting rain and snow, it hasn't dried.
We were in the rental office today, trying to find out when they'd get the ceiling fixed and asking for a break on rent due to our apartment being only half as usable as it was. /jen was all ready to move out, either to a friends' house or to her own place. The management had told us they didn't have another apartment to move us all into; the manager reiterated that they were "entirely out of two bedroom apartments".
So, I asked about three bedroom apartments. Turns out they have an empty one right around the corner. It even has a partially finished basement, courtesy of the previous tenants who apparently turned the basement into two separate bedrooms for some of their kids (they had a lot, as I recall).
The only downside is that the place is right on the corner and the patio hasn't a proper fence. This was courtesy of owners-before-last, who instead of properly fixing the decaying fencing around the complex tore down the fences and replaced them with these crappy little half-dividers that provide the barest whisper of privacy. We have a lovely view of an industrial park, and anyone on the highway could see straight into our living room at night if the blinds were open.
So, we'll be keeping the blinds closed, I suppose. Good thing I already bought a plant light.
The move is somewhat complicated by the fact that B. and I have some kind of bug. It's like a really mild influenza: body aches, fever, sore throat, sinus headaches, tiredness, stomach ache, and gastronasties. Nothing to really knock us down, though, but enough to keep us moving pretty slow.