Delta y

I've moved a lot of stuff down to the new apartment already.  I'm making another run tonight, with some of the dishes, the dining room chairs, and some other bulkier stuff (like my M:TG cards, which I still haven't gotten around to selling yet but are now apparently worth $3000-$6000).

This weekend is the big one: a coworker is (supposed to be) helping me move my bed and dining room table, and I'll move my computer chair and the rest of the dishes as well as whatever clothes and such I have left (I've been wrapping the dishes in shirts and such, since that seemed like less of a waste than using newspaper or buying packing material).  After this weekend, I'll be "officially moved" and living down in Westwood, even though I'll still have some clean-up and such to do at the old apartment.  Like, I still have to make an e-waste run to Good Will.

Tomorrow will likely be my last day taking the train into the office (I'm planning on driving on Friday).  That feels a little weird to me.

A whole lot is obviously about to change, and I'm starting to get nervous about it.  It'll work out - beyond that, it'll be great - but change is always disruptive and anxiety-inducing, even when we're looking forward to it.  The things that I'm spending the most time thinking about are dumb things, though.

Like, I've gotten into a routine for the last few months where I hit the same few restaurants on weekends.  There's a place I go for nachos by work, and a couple of burger joints I hit at various points.  I'm obviously not going to be getting those nachos much any more, though there appears to be a location in the same chain to the south of the new place.  And the Village has a lot of restaurants that are great, including more than a few that I've been to in the past.  Beyond that, it wouldn't kill me to eat at home more.

But that's the kind of thing my mind latches on to, generally.  I'm good with the "big stuff"; it's the little details that I stress about.

Like, one thing that has been going back and forth in my mind: I have a regular bedspread, but I also have a hand-knitted blanket my mother made as well as an electric blanket.  I obviously don't use all of them at any point and only use two when it's pretty cold in the dead of winter; generally speaking, the ones not in use are just piled in the corner of my room.  I don't have that much space in the new place, so I need to come up with a different way of storing them.

But storing which?  The electric blanket is harder to take on and off, obviously, because it's got the cables (though I usually just leave those plugged in).  The spread is bulky, and anyway, I think that's the one I'd most like to keep on the bed (as it matches the decor best).  But my mom's blanket is just awesome and, lately, is what I've been using most (as it's been generally too hot for either of the other two).  Again, it's a silly thing to worry about and it'll get figured out, but it's annoying me.

Anyway, I notified one bank and the DMV of my address change; I'm doing the other bank today.  I've already re-registered to vote in the new address, so that's handled.  I need to set up my internet service, which I'll probably start today; the complication with that is getting to a place to pick up the modem, but I'll manage.  Gas and electricity are already on.  And I've already got a couple of my text books for the quarter.

Oh, I also got a scholarship from the state for about $1700 a quarter, which is awesome.  That's just under 40% of  my costs, which means less pulled out of my IRA.  I got *that* part set up as well, so when I'm ready to transfer the funds, it should be easy.  The market's been doing better, and of course pulling out less means less of a long-term impact.

It also means that 1) I may be able to get away with not withdrawing anything else from the IRA after this quarter (if I behave) and 2) I can probably get the notebook PC I really need to have for school (which flies a bit in the face of (1), but is really something I ought to do).  I've found one I like through Costco, so it's not as expensive as it would be otherwise, and with staying at full-time hours in September but already being at the lower rent, I'll have extra funds that I wasn't planning on for the month.

All in all, things are (so far) working out pretty well.  I just need to get through this weekend.

Lay of the land

So, here's a rough plan of what my new place will look like:

The bathroom, closet, and kitchen aren't exact; I didn't measure those out, as there's no furniture going in them.  But the rest is pretty close to the plan, including the colors.  Most of my stuff right now (furniture, sheets, etc.) is blue, grey/silver, or black, hence the colors.  The existing carpet is that typical light-tan used everywhere, so it won't clash.  Even my dishes are a blue/black.

Entryway is on the right in that little hook area there.  It steps into a (probably fake) wood area that is 4 feet wide by about 4.5 feet long.  As you enter, off to the right is the bedroom area.  Right now, I'm only planning my bed (with its headboard), a small leaning shelf, a larger but short media center table, and my rowing machine (the weird pointy thing there; it'll be folded up most of the time, probably, but I wanted to check for spacing).  The large grey shag rug I already have; it's in my dining room at the current place but is too large for the area in this one  The striped runner rugs I've just purchased; they'll essentially line the right side of the place.  I'll have to get some bathroom rugs later, but those are easy (come to think of it, I bought one for the guest bathroom; I can just use that for one at least; I did that bathroom as a kind of sea foam blue/green, so it should mesh with the fixtures in the new bathroom).

You step down two steps to the living room area, which is why the runner here is divided a bit.  Straight ahead is the gas fireplace.  I just bought the big "circles" rug as well, so that'll be getting delivered maybe by the end of the week.  In the living room, I'll put my computer chair near the top; it's hard to describe, but it's a brushed-steel pipe frame "lounge" (no, I didn't pay that much for it) that I've mounted my monitor and such to using movie-set clamps.  The case itself is black and glows blue.  Behind that, along the left wall, is my bookshelf, which I also already have (basically, two of these with shelves between them, so it's one long unit).

The big area will, at some point, probably have a small table and a couch or chairs.  I haven't exactly decided yet.  I've actually got a coffee table that C&D gave me; it's two wooden levels with black supports on the sides.  It's a little worse for wear, but if I can figure out how to disassemble it, paint it, and maybe put a glass top on it (replacing the center wooden panel), it would be suitable.  I have an idea to recess some lighting in it, but I don't even know if I can take it apart easily yet.

Passing the fireplace, there's a little "bar" type divider to the kitchen, then the "dining room" (which leads to the patio).  I was worried that my table wouldn't fit, but it should be fine.  I only have the two chairs, and I don't exactly entertain much.  So, for now, I'll probably have it like shown; if I need to, I can pull it away from the wall for more friendly dining.  I'll want to get a rug for this area and a mat for the kitchen too, but again, those are pretty easy to do.

I've got three big lamps I can bring, one of which matches with the bookshelf pretty well (which is why I have it and where it currently stands).  The other two are those "branch" kinds of lamps with bulbs and shades at the end, one in my bedroom and one in the guest room.  I'll probably just bring one, though I'm not even sure if I'll use it.  I also got a new lamp for my birthday from my mom's friend; that actually fits the style/decor pretty well too.  It can't really be on a switch, though, as the way it turns on is a little weird, so I'll probably try replacing the light over my bed with it.

I didn't draw out the patio.  It's not terribly large.  I'm probably going to look into getting some "fake grass" as an outdoor rug for it, then maybe use some of my planters.  I'd *really* like to get some kind of climbing ivy or something for the railing, especially a flowering variety, but that would mean taking care of it.  There's always fake stuff, but that  fades/gets dusty.  I may see about some kind of screen or something.  I don't want to block airflow through the railing, but I also don't want to scandalize the neighbors across the way if I'm walking around naked in my place, and a bit of a screen or partial covering of the railing would do the trick (they're actually slightly below me, so I don't need much).

I'd also like to get some artwork for the walls.  My current place doesn't have anything in it, but there are a few of my shots I'd like to print out.  I've got a gorgeous panorama of Mt. Shasta that would look great as three (or even five) separate panels - I think I figured out once that at 2 feet high, it would be about 20 feet long.  But I've also got others that would look great in various areas.  I also want to get more plant life in the new place; it'll be more temperate in general, so there'll be less of an issue with extremes, even if I'm leaving the door open for airflow.

I've got the keys and may will start moving stuff down this weekend.  I'm actually tempted to see if I can get the dining table apart and moved myself; I just need to be careful of the glass.  I have to see if it'll fit in my car with the hatch down (just a matter of measuring).  If not, I'll probably stick to boxing up my books and moving them and the shelf down.  That would probably be at least one trip and maybe two, but it would also be the first big chunk out of the apartment.  If the rugs show up, I'll probably move them instead (or at least first) so that I have them in place for later.  Those *will* fit in my car, even the 9x12; heck, the corners for the bookshelf are over 7 feet and rod iron, and those fit without much of an issue if I lean the seat back.  That's how I got it home in the first place, though granted that was just a couple of blocks away.

One concern is the closet.  I don't have all that much stuff to go in there, since I've basically just got the two closets at my place.  But part of what does need to go in there is my camping gear, and that's kind of bulky.  I've also got my emergency water tanks, which aren't tiny (and I have two of them).  I think they'll all fit without problem, but it may take a little bit of shuffling.  Clothes-wise, I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff that I haven't worn in ages.  Most of that hangs anyway (the rest goes in the drawers under my bed).

UPDATE: So, took the small table mostly apart last night.  Turns out the center section I want to remove is held in place by all the sides, and I'm not entirely sure how to remove them.  It looks like a slot joint, with a kind of plug hammered in at one end, but it's really hard to tell.  I may see if I can remove the plug from the one side without doing too much other damage; I can always fill in that area with epoxy or something later (I know there are clays or such for this purpose, and it's a small little spot).  Otherwise, I may just end up repainting it and leaving it at that.

Go West

There are a lot of apartment-for-rent sites out there: a handful of big-name places, a few social media kinds of sites that also offer housing listings, and then a whole crapton of no-name smaller sites which usually just link back to the bigger names.

Places like Aparments.com, Rent.com, Trulia, Zillow, and Craigslist have most of the listings.  Others like radpad or padmapper just aggregate those together.  So, searching multiple sites usually means seeing the same places over and over in different formats.  Then, of course, you have all the major apartment complexes with their own websites and listing information.

I don't even remember how I got to it, but for some reason I ended up on a random, no-clue-who-this-is rental site.  Something like aparment-homes-rental-listing-for-you (not the actual name).  I shrugged and just looked to see what was there, which was about 99% what I'd seen before.

And then one place that I hadn't seen.  You see, after you look at the maps for days on end, you get to recognize the listings just by locations.  "Oh, that's Tiverton Court.  That one's Gayley Manor."  This was off to the side, near everything I recognized but in a spot I hadn't seen before.

I clicked on the ad, and there was a listing for a studio for $1400.  Okay, that's pretty good pricing; usually means a 300-400 sq ft place with no parking, often with only an efficiency kitchen, but it was worth looking at as it was about a half mile from campus.  I went a bit deeper: not only does it have a full kitchen and including parking, but it's 600 sq ft and has a fireplace.

... Seriously?  A fireplace?  And that size for that price?  Okay, what's wrong with it?

To put this in perspective, I have a 1050 sq ft 2b2ba in Pasadena.  Market rate is $2600 for my place, about $2.50 a square foot.  A 2b2ba in Westwood, within a half mile of campus, is usually 3400-3800 for1000 sq feet - about $3.40 or more a square foot.  Studios I've been looking at have been even more, usually $4+ a square foot.  At $1400 for 600 sq feet, this place is cheaper than my current apartment and anything I've seen in the area at all.  So what's the catch?

I started looking for reviews of the building.  There were a lot on the UCLA student sites, mostly stating that the building was okay, the apartments were great, and the manager was hell on wheels.  Reading more, I read various lists of complaints about mistreatment and strict rules and such, with a handful of people saying, "He's really not that bad - he was actually really nice to me and quick to fix things."

The common factor in the good reviews was that they were written by older people or non-students.  The common factor for the bad reviews was that they were almost all written by younger students.  Okay, so the guy may have a problem with young college students; that's understandable, even if it sucks.  But it meant I should keep an open mind on it.

I was still really worried about why it was only advertised on one podunk website with low traffic, but I held that to the side and contacted the leasing office.  Yes, the place was available; yes, the listing information was correct.  So I scheduled a visit the next day.

The manager was actually really nice to me - a bit abrupt, sure, but he's also foreign (the reviews mostly said "Arab"; I think he's actually Slavic of some kind, maybe Russian or eastern European, but I haven't asked).  The apartment was almost exactly as pictured (the layout was half-reversed; everything else was the same).   Sure, the elevator and hallways needed from TLC - a scrubbing, maybe a paint job - but the inside of the apartment was pretty good (the rug has stains, but I'll be covering that mostly anyway).

He walked me down to the garage and talked about his "rules".  They centered around the fact that it was a "quiet building" - "No one rents here to party; if they want that, they can go two block that way" (waving towards Frat Row which was, in fact, two blocks away).  "I have a lot of students, and 99 percent of the time, mom and dad pay the rent.  That's fine.  If they want to have people over to watch football, fine.  Enjoy the game, enjoy your drink, enjoy your pizza, but half an hour later, it's quiet time again."

Most of the rules that people were complaining about made total sense to me.  One was a no-sublease clause: a lot of students sublease their places for quarters when they aren't in class and go back home, but that makes it a lot harder for management to know what's going on in the building.  Similar for parking spaces: yes, it may seem weird to restrict parking, but a lot of students don't drive and then rent out their spaces to other students, which also makes it hard for management to know who is coming and going from the building.  And the "quiet building" restrictions weren't actually any worse than I heard at my current place, which is mostly young professionals.

I told him a little about me, handed over copies of my pay stubs, and he looked a little surprised.  But from that point on, he essentially treated me as if my moving in was a done deal.  I paid the holding deposit (which goes towards the security deposit), got the formal application to fill out, and let him know that I'd be moving in "piecemeal" since I didn't have to be out of my place until 9/15.  "Is okay," he said, "Come by next Friday and pick up your keys.  You can start whenever; the place is empty anyway.  I'll get you a temporary parking spot near the elevator so you can unload more easily."

The final price for the place is actually $1500 a month.  When he was typing up the receipt, I noticed it said $1600.  "I thought it was $1400," I said, and handed him the ad.  He looked at it, said that it shouldn't be correct - "they're losing money" - but then kind of shrugged.  As he started re-typing the receipt, he paused and said, "How about $1500."  I agreed - it's still an amazing deal.  Heck, if he'd insisted on $1600, I would have gone with it.  I did pull up the ad on my computer to show him where it was listed so that he could take the info back to the leasing company.

So, that's that.  I've got a place in Westwood, my own place for less than I was expecting to pay.  I dropped the application off on Saturday, and I'm supposed to call him today or tomorrow and let him know when I'll be coming by on Friday (probably 3:30-4; I'll take a half day off of work, since I need to hit the bank and get a certified check for the remainder of the deposit and first month's rent).  My official move-in is 8/15, but when I visit Friday, I'm supposed to get the keys and remote for the garage.  I'll also take my tape measure to figure out the exact dimensions of the place (I have a rough idea, but I want to start planning furniture and rugs and such).  I'll also take some photos, for documentation of the condition as well as my own interests.

7 weeks and counting until school starts.  I'm actually doing this.