I can’t say this will be the name of the newest category but I do like the ring of it.

It’s a quiet Sunday here and I have only 1 more box to unpack. I still have to get some items to make the bedroom look how I want it to, but the kitchen and bedroom are essentially done. The bathroom has the upgrades and still needs some decorating. I am pretty much moved in though. There are still echoes in the living room because I haven’t yet gotten living room furniture but baby steps.

When I walked into Godfrey this was not the case. I was fully stocked so to speak with all the rooms full of furniture. I can’t say I ever enjoyed Godfrey the way I am enjoying this unit.

I really like this apartment even with all the chaos that went down the day I arrived. I don’t think I shared the details of that.

The Daddy person did a walk through the day we got keys. Well, after we got the right keys. Yes they gave him the wrong keys after the exchange of the deposit. What he noticed in that first walk through was the garbage disposal and dishwasher didn’t turn on. Okay not a great thing but surely something that simply needed a quick maintenance review to alter right? Not precisely.

He came back 2 days later to do the ‘official’ walk through because I was still on the road. Even though the 2 kitchen appliances were still not working, when he turned in the sheet to the leasing office he was very clear to them what needed to occur.

Saturday I arrived. We walk into the apartment and the lights don’t turn on.

It was curious to us both and we could not quite figure it out. We did eventually get the ceiling fan lights on and he went to go find a day laborer to help him unload the truck. I opened up the sage while he was out to hit the apartment. That was not something I’d ever done before, sage my space. I was a witness though to how it can move the negative energy away so I imagined that it would not hurt to start my space off with good energy. I was struggling with the lighter and the stick so I went to utilize the stove to get the stick lighted and when I turned on the burner, the lights we’d been trying to get turned on came on. Yes….turning on the burner of my stove turned on my overhead lights. Now I have no formal training as an electrician but I was positive that those 2 things do NOT go together. Off to the rental office we went when he returned to explain the weird wiring.

We spoke to the assistant manager over the phone who stated it was not an emergency. While I disagreed there was little point in arguing. We returned to the unit. Bless him he unloaded the truck pretty much all by himself. I carried 2 boxes and helped him with the mattress.

He assembled the bed frame and got it up for me.

By the time he was done we realized that not only was the wiring in the apartment off but the thermostat was not adjustable, and there was no way to light the hot water heater. Speaking of hot water the steam coming from my ears was likely visible on the East Coast but I was here now, and the lease was signed and with the holiday weekend being a thing I could not hope for immediate resolution. There was also the curious quirk that my dryer turned OFF the lights that my stove turned on.

So I didn’t get to sleep in my apartment right away. I stayed in a hotel the next town over until Tuesday.

Monday I did arrive to unpack some things while there was good light and weather. The electrician they said could not arrive before Tuesday showed up and fixed some of the issues. The stove no longer turned on the lights and for about an hour the kitchen appliances worked. Then I heard the breaker flip and no more dishwasher.

Tuesday I checked out the hotel and came to the apartment. Boxes still everywhere and no hot water, but more electricians came out. Maintenance also came out and realized I needed a whole new water heater.

My anger was still on fleek but by the end of the day I had hot water, the thermostat was operable again so I opted to not spend more money outside the house and slept here.

With all that craziness why do I like this unit so much?

It’s location is great. Ground floor, corner unit at the end of the complex. I have no neighbors to the right and the upstairs neighbors are pretty quiet so far.

This unit gets amazing light in the living area all day long but without the direct sun beams into the unit.

Because it’s a corner unit I have an outside storage closet which is huge. The patio is covered to the outside and the top and is barely visible from the street. By the time I am done decorating it, it will be like a bonus room.

The bedroom is a good size and my closet is almost as large as the one on Limekiln Pike. Did I want a 2br? YES I already had plans for making it my office but the living room here is large enough for my desk and that is where it shall go. I thought about putting it into the bedroom for the days he is here but no. I’ve confined myself to the bedroom of the house since Pottstown and that is no longer my reality.

The washer/dryer is small as hell, but it is IN UNIT.

There is a ton of cabinet space and pantry space and if needed it can roll over to the outside storage.

The kitchen is open so I’m never cut off from my guests….when I have guests eventually. There is a ton of counter space even with the appliances on the counter.

Those still aren’t the best things about my new home though.

Both the Daddy and the little one feel comfortable here. You can see it in their faces and how they move about. I am creating a space for them where they can retreat when life outside these walls gets odd.

It is my place. Just my place.

It’s not Godfrey which I created for a man who would never live there. It’s not Duval or Kimball or Tasker or Manheim chosen for its utility to host a mother and son. It’s not the prison of Limekiln Pike.

It’s a complete and total new start.

I am fully aware of how quickly that could change but with the conditional job offer letter in my inbox it doesn’t have to change. I can be here for as long as I wish.

While I once told myself I would never make this move if I could not live with the Daddy, I better understand now how much I needed my own space. The eventual plan to merge households will happen, but in the interim, making a space just for me is a reward I did not think would taste as sweet as it does.

It’s juicy as hell though and apparently I was thirsty