Moving, Part 2

If you're tempted to go scrolling back through this blog to find "Moving, Part 1" to make sure you don't miss anything, don't bother. Brandi and I moved from Troy to the Columbus area nearly 2 1/2 years ago, and I still haven't gotten around to writing about that transition. I still plan on it at some point; hence, "Part 2." The next installment will be a prequel.

Recently Brandi and I signed a lease on a new apartment and gave notice at our current place of our imminent departure. So, in early September, we will be packing up all of our earthly belongings (and also our cat) and schlepping them to a new location. On the bright side, unlike our last move, which was a 90-mile trek requiring the hiring of movers and the sedation of Luna, this is a much more manageable 3-mile move that we will likely try to pull off largely by ourselves, with, hopefully, the help of some other amateurs like us. Although other options are still in play.

We have, for the most part, really enjoyed living at our current place. Our main motivation for moving is twofold. For one, the kitchen is tiny and suffers from a severe lack of prep space. Brandi has been making a concerted effort to cook more often, and the kitchen is wearing on her. Secondly, the building is fairly old and, may I say, not especially well maintained, and it's susceptible to water leakage. The basement in particular used to take on a lot of water anytime it rained at all; we've had maintenance performed on it twice in our 2+ years, and while it has gotten quite a bit better, it's still a problem. We've also had leakage in three different spots in our ceiling, and, on one memorable occasion, water from the bathroom was dripping down into the kitchen below.

The new place will definitely take care of these particular issues. For one, it's brand new—Brandi and I will be the first tenants. As of right now, in fact, it's still being built. It's also all on one level, a second floor, with a unit above and below us serving as an effective water barrier (not that a new building should have issues anyway). And the kitchen has counter space galore, and it's open to the dining room and living room, so space in there will not be a problem.

That second-floor balcony is ours. As soon as, you know, they finish building the inside.

What I'll miss most about our current place is its location. It sits just south of Old Worthington, and Brandi and I often take the opportunity to walk to some of our favorite spots when the weather is favorable. Just this morning, in fact, I walked through the weekly farmer's market and to the Old Worthington Library (which is where I sit now, writing this), a Saturday morning ritual I've grown quite fond of. The new place is still in Worthington, but it's in kind of a weird spot between industrial and commercial areas. There actually is a branch of the Worthington Library nearby, but as sidewalks are scarce, I'll have to scout out the walking situation.

I have to admit to a certain amount of apprehension about, of all things, our Internet service. So far as I've been able to ascertain (and I plan on finding out more about this as our moving day approaches), there's only one provider available at our new place for TV/Internet, one that I've not dealt with before, and it looks like all their Internet plans include data caps. I wasn't even aware that was a thing for non-mobile Internet in the data-ubiquitous year of 2016, and it doesn't please me. I telecommute on a daily basis, which involves some fairly substantial data usage, and we're also users of Netlix, Amazon, Spotify, etc., on top of our regular Internet usage. So yeah, I have some concerns about Internet plans with data caps.

On the other hand, there are some creature comforts in the new place that I'm very much looking forward to, not least of which is just the idea of living in a brand new place, where no one has lived before. I also, as strange as it may seem, can't wait to have a freezer with a built-in icemaker. What can I say? I go through a lot of ice, and filling the trays all the time is the bane of my existence (and yes, #firstworldproblems for sure). We will also, as you can see in the photo above, have a balcony, which I plan on using a lot; outdoor options at our current place are virtually nonexistent. We'll have two bathrooms, which comes in handy more often than you'd think for just two people. And while hardwood, which we have throughout our current apartment, looks nice, for comfort's sake, going back to carpet is a plus. Oh! And all of our electrical outlets will be grounded! At our current place, the majority of them are not, which apparently is also still a thing in the year 2016 for some unknown reason.

Our move is still seven weeks away, though—seven weeks of just wishing it was over with, already. I can't say I'm looking forward to moving, but I am looking forward to having moved. Hopefully this will be the last one for a good long while.

(Spoiler alert: It probably won't be.)