Apartment to House

If all goes as planned we’ll close on our first house Wednesday afternoon and we’ll take possession on the first of February. I’m getting all giddy. Somebody pointed out that if we are planning on doing any painting then we’re better off painting before we move. Damn it, I want to move NOW! Unfortunately, there is wisdom in waiting especially since our apartment lease lasts through the month of February giving us an entire 28 days to move. I wasn’t planning on painting diddlysquat for year or so. You know, see what kind of furniture we amass and plan the color schemes around that; hence, we won’t be painting the kitchen of living room. However, we know exactly what type and color of furniture is going in each bedroom so we can comfortably paint our room and El-Sea’s room prior to filling them with beds, dressers, and sex swings/harnesses. And therein rests the solution: We can still move but we just can’t fill the bedrooms with crap. We can still sleep, eat, and reside in our new abode… just not in the bedrooms. Am I making this more difficult than it should be? Rest assured I’m taking a chunk outta my day to look at color schemes on the internet. Anybody got any good sites that they’ve used?

The other thing on my “to do” list is a formal written letter to our current apartment manager, Kate, that will identify our last day of residence as February 28. I’m getting kind of pissy at Kate, too. Yeah, our lease doesn’t officially expire until the end of March so Kate could make my life unpleasant by chasing me around for an extra month’s worth of rent. I’ve kept her in the loop throughout this entire home purchasing ordeal and at every critical juncture she assured me that I could get out of my lease a month early. For god’s sake I’ve been in this apartment for the last seven years and I’ve been a model tenant. The apartment I’m in now is in dire need of remodeling. Last year I inquired about moving into a newly remodeled two-bedroom apartment and Kate was more then willing since she could charge us an additional $100/month in rent. Once I learned about the increase in rent I declined the dwelling swap. It’s in Kate’s best interest to get me out as soon as possible so that she can remodel and up the rent on our unit. Per the lease, I am responsible for any lost income if Kate can’t immediately find new tenants. Okay, that’s one month’s worth of rent that I might have to shell out. Here’s the kicker though: It takes a whole month to renovate these apartments. Precedence has been set on this timeframe. When the people in #201 moved out last summer, Kate and the handyman (Nick) were pounding away until midnight of the last day trying to get the unit livable. Using this timeline, there are no financial repercussions for neither me nor Kate since she won’t be able to rent out the unit for a month due to renovations and I’m not paying rent to let them renovate on my dime. It all makes sense. The problem is that Kate is wussing out on her previous statements and giving me shit about breaking my lease.

Look, woman, I already conceded my measly $200 damage deposit. Just take the $200 and go away. The more crap you give me about breaking my lease the less likely I am to lift a single cleaning finger. I know you’re ripping out the carpet and repainting so I don’t have to worry about washing/shampooing, but what about the other stuff that’s not getting junked? If you keep pulling your juvenile power trip shit on me you’ll be cleaning a spackled toilet, a sticky tub, and stained sinks. Be careful, Kate. We’ve always had an amiable relationship and there’s no reason to screw it up now.
...and so it was written, shenry at 1/27/2003 02:02:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .