It seems that I have been so focused on finding a house, that I am forgetting about the fact that my lease is up in one month. It has been hard getting ready to move since I have been in the suburbs every weekend either looking for a place to move to, fixing my car or the like.
I am proud to say that I officially have one box packed for the move. And it’s a big box- I saved it after I bought a new vacuum cleaner earlier this month. The plan is to start with the smaller things- this box has photos, frames, candles and other smaller decorative stuff. It is amazing how empty my apartment suddenly looks, even with just a few things missing.
Anyway, I got into a packing groove last night but since I only had one box and it was after midnight, it didn’t last long. I have about $30 worth of Staples Rewards points saved up right now- I think I am going to go after work to buy some boxes and packing tape. I know I can get a lot for free from different stores and Brian’s dad, but this will at least get me started tonight. It would be great to have half a dozen boxes or so packed to bring to the suburbs this weekend. The more I can do now, the less stressed I will be when moving day comes- especially now that I found out I am going to be working almost 35 hours in the three days leading up to the move.
Nothing good comes without some bad. This morning I learned that I might not be getting back most of my security deposit. Apparently I did not install my air conditioner properly, between that and the fact that my apartment windows are decades old, my unit has been leaking water into my wall. Now it is soaked through the plaster and top coat and is causing the paint to bubble out.
I called my building engineer up to see the damage this morning. He said that he sees this kind of damage all the time in the building, but there is no way to estimate damage level or cost until the paint and damaged plaster is scraped away. He did say that one of the worst cases he saw was between $400 and $500 to repair, but mine didn’t look that bad- at least from the surface.
The engineer said that I could just leave it- the repairs would be done once I move out and then they will just take the necessary repairs out of my deposit. Or I can start the work myself, scraping the paint away to see how bad the damage is underneath. While I probably couldn’t re-plaster myself, at least I could reduce the cost by starting the process.
The biggest concern here is time. Brian and I are away this weekend and were going to try to go camping next weekend, depending on whether or not we get the Grace House. At this point we are trying to decide if we would be better off saving the money and getting some renovation practice in by doing some of the work ourselves, or if we should just go and get away for awhile. I am completely torn. As much as I want to get away and go camping, I know we could definitely use the few hundred dollars we might save if we spend the weekend scraping paint and plaster.
I really wasn’t expecting this- I was hoping to escape worry free from this place and save the hassle for a house that we can make our own. I guess it is my own fault for being ambitious and installing the air conditioner in ancient windows by myself. At least I tilted the unit too far forward and not too far back- it could have fell out the window and crashed through our building’s lobby. Pretty sure that would have cost a little bit more than some plaster. See? Things always turn around.
