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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Settling

Finding a place to live was not what I expected. I thought I'd find a studio apartment in one of the many apartment buildings I had seen on Craigslist. But when I arrived, I found that the decent apartment buildings were fully occupied and had waiting lists. The ones with vacancies were, well, not where I'd want to live. A giant cockroach greeted us at one place where I was shown into an apartment. Not to mention noisy; I discovered every one of them had more noise than I can tolerate. I am too old to want to live with people who have big speakers for their heavy metal or hip-hop.

It didn't take too long to give up on apartments and concentrate solely on rental houses, usually no more expensive than a similar-sized apartment. After a close call with a scammer (whew! got past that one without losing any money), and writer's cramp from filling in several rental applications, I was approved for the one where I am living, and given a move-in date of two days later. Another place I was looking at would have been close enough to walk to work, but it would have been another two weeks before I would have been able to move in. At $100 a night for the hotel, that was a delay I wanted to avoid.

A nice kitchen, two bedrooms, a carport and room to garden. Perfect!

The front of the house

The view across the road

The back yard

African Tulip Tree, Spathodea campanulata in the back yard.

This should clear up my Vitamin Green deficiency!

Inside it already had a few pieces of furniture left by the previous tenants. Best was a bed. And what a bed: a California king size TempurPedic! With these amenities, I hoped my one towel, one plate, one fork, one spoon, and one knife from Target, plus the three suitcases of necessities  I brought with me, would suffice until the movers delivered the rest of my things.

Living Room, laminate floor
Nice kitchen 



 
What I didn't know was that it would be another five weeks until that delivery. In the meantime, it was an interesting adventure living in such a minimalist way. I was able to keep busy snorkeling, reading, writing, and looking for furnishings I'd need but not shipped.

Finally, on December 31, my things were delivered. I am still getting organized...more later!