We’ve been living in apartments for five years. Prior to that we rented houses. The apartment we’ve been in for the last four years varies from okay to abysmal. The maintenance people do make an attempt to fix things, but it’s pretty subpar. That part isn’t entirely horrible, what really sucks are the acoustics. For the first two years we had two older sisters living above us and aside from the occasional Windows chime of their computer booting, hardly a peep. Sure we heard when they walked around, but thankfully, they didn’t move much.
After they moved out, the apartment was empty for a month or two before a young couple moved in. Again, not a whole lot of noise except on the occasional evening when um…extra-curricular activities were going on. They broke up and moved out separately, and then the apartment lay empty for three or four months. The gods interceded and brought us our current upstairs neighbors. A family of ever-changing number it seems, but we believe there to be at least five of them – two adults, and three children. Sadly, though we prayed for the contrary, they renewed their lease, so we’re on year two with them above us. It’s often like a herd of buffalo and we wonder when the ceiling will fall in. And then there’s the youngest – he wails daily – bloody murder most days and at all hours. And. . .the youngest girl is that point in school where she’s learning the recorder, so we’re serenaded with Hot Cross Buns, Twinkle Twinkle and When the Saints Go Marching In. Good times.
Which brings us to now. We’re four months from the end of our lease, two months from having notify our leasing company if we intend to renew or not. We’ve not wanted to renew for the past three years, but with our large dogs and meager income, there aren’t many other apartments that would accept us (and now we’ve added a cat), and the ones that might aren’t where we’d like to live.
And so began MJ’s talk about full-timing…