I Am Now A Resident of Virginia

My lease in DC officially ended today. And I am now officially a resident of Virginia. I built my new dresser (from Walmart instead of Ikea for the first time) that seems sturdy. And I have started to unpack. I apologize for not having pictures sooner, but I could not find the batteries in all my stuff to load in my camera.

The following pictures are the semi-before pictures. The dresser is put together but nothing is unpacked yet. And the living room photos are very preliminary seeing as my 3rd roommate has not even moved in yet.

To the left is my bedroom from the doorway. To the right is my bedroom from the window. Unpacking all of that seems really daunting. I've been working on it for about 2 hours now. It looks a little better but I still have an obscene amount of crap to unpack.

Below, from left to right, is my new kitchen, living room, and balcony. The kitchen is pretty basic. The living room, as mentioned is preliminary and since taking this picture I have already moved the love seat against a different wall. I also moved the marble end table to the end of the couch. There is no TV yet, though, so I'm not sure how everything will be situated once there is a focal point. The balcony is really nice and overlooks some woods behind the apartment.

Not pictured is the bathroom (who really wants to see my new bathroom?) and the dining room. The dining room is currently just empty so I saw no reason to take a picture of it just yet. If you'd like some perspective, though, I was standing in the dining room to take both the living room and kitchen pictures.

I hope you all like my new place as much as I do. I will post more pictures after I have unpacked and it looks livable.

Things You Forget You Need

I am 2/3 moved into my new place! While this is a great accomplishment and I am SO close to being done with this horrible process, I have realized that I have forgotten to bring/buy some of the things I use most often. Most of this is kitchen stuff previously shared between 5 people that I only realized I didn't own after leaving. Other things are mine but I didn't think to bring them at first.

1. Wine Opener. I was so upset last night when I realized the one I had wasn't mine and there was none at the new place either.
2. Bathroom trash can. Seems important now that I think about it.
3. Lamp. I had only seen the new place in the daylight, until I moved in. And it was dark.
4. And I had a bed to put together. And realized there was no ceiling light.
5. Pot holders. So small. So simple. So forgettable until you try to drain your pasta.

I have learned my lesson. And will be going to Target tonight to get all of these things.

Moving Weekend

As is my usual style, it is moving weekend and I haven't packed yet. I'm beginning to get really sad about moving. I have been living at Fessenden for 3 years. That's right, 3 years. I never had to deal with the moving drama because we found an amazing house our first time around and just didn't leave. This is very atypical for college students and post grads. I have been in a little bubble of comfort for 3 years.

And now I'm being pushed out of it. And I need to somehow pack three years worth of crap. So far I am failing.

Last night was the last night I will sleep at Fessenden. My bed goes to the new place today. I have thrown my sheets in the washer and took apart the frame.

While I've been in my bubble of comfort I have also forgotten how much work it is to move. The packing, the washing, the cleaning, the disassembling, the reassembling, all of it is very exhausting.

I will update you all during the next break I have in this process. Have a happy Sunday!

Housing Search Etiquette

The entire process of finding a new place to live is difficult and stressful. A new home has several requirements before you can even consider moving in.

1. Location. Is it close enough to where you need to be.

2. Price. Can you afford it?

3. Roommates. Who will they be? Do you like them?

4. Timing. When would the lease start and end?

5. Utilities. Included? Extra? How does affect the price?

Most people include these details in their craigslist post. If they don't, you can ask about it. Those searching for roommates or a house are typically familiar with the process and are very accommodating to needs and questions. But what about those people who blow off meeting you after they already set up an interest appointment?

Sadly something like this occurred to me and my soon-to-be roommate during a search for a third. There was a girl who went to my high school that expressed interest in the last room available in the apartment. She was emailed an application and had told us she was coming into town to see the place in person. This might seem sketchy if it is a random stranger, but I went to high school with this girl so we thought it was legit.

That is until the day she was supposed to arrive. She had texted about when she was coming, and then all of a sudden, nothing. Soon-to-be roommate and I both called, texted and emailed in the days following asking if her travel plans had fallen through and to make sure she wasn't in a ditch somewhere. But we received no response.

If you don't show up to your appointment, you don't get the apartment. Just a word of advice to all those looking.

The Thrifty PostGrad: Brattle Book Shop

Hello Readers! Today we will be giving you a treat from Chelsea Regan over at Post Grad Apartments. Chelsea is about to graduate from Boston College and join the wonderful world of Post Grad. She contributes to several sections of Post Grad Apartments for the Boston chapter including some amazing neighborhoods we plan on checking out next time we are over there. We hope you enjoy her post about thriftiness!

As I’m about to graduate from college, and thinking about going on to grad school, there’s something I’m starting to regret. Why did I sell so many of my books back to the school?

The answer of course is fast cash that always seemed to appear out of thin air. But it started to strike me that in the future the wealth of my book collection will matter more to me than the petty cash I’ve collected at the end of every semester. I posed the question to myself of how I was going to fund replacing the books I should have held onto, and also less academic future buys. Answer: used booksellers.

I found Brattle Book Shop - a bookseller on an understated street that provides a passageway between Boston Commons and Washington Street at the heart of Boston.

The shop houses an impressive collection of rare and out of print books – many which could really cost you. A few steps passed the humble building is an extension of the used and antiquarian book collection within. However, these books are sold at budget-friendly prices.

Rows of aluminum bookcases on wheels line the spacious lot. Books of every genre you can imagine rest on these humble holdings. Fiction from the Renaissance through to present day John Grisham thrillers, non-fiction works from psychology to autobiography, Bibles and Korans; you name it you can find it at Brattle. The costs of the books are clearly indicated by color-coded stickers.

If you’re lucky you can find the signature of a previous owner on some of the older books. On my last trip there I picked up an 1884 copy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth signed by a Mr. George A. Littlefield, and a 1945 hardcopy of Stuart Little that was tagged unsteadily in pencil by a child by the name of Muffy. The combo cost me less than ten dollars.

My humble suggestion to postgrads is to find a bookseller near you like Brattle to build your post-college book collection.