No, not THAT time! It’s search for a new living space again time! May 1st is the tentative date and this time I promised myself I would actually look at more than two places before signing a lease. I’ve got two cats who really deserve some space to run around, a deep-seated need to cook and entertain folk on a regular basis and a pretty tight budget (like, less than $700/month, including utilities).
*EDIT: Apparently maybe moving for April 1st now? Guess it’s even MORE that time now.
Weishampel, John Frederick. New and Enlarged Map of Baltimore City, Including Waverly, Hampden, All the Parks, and a Miniature Map of the State. Baltimore: 1876. 75.5 x 62 cm. Johns Hopkins University Libraries.
On the plus side I do have a real (albeit low paying) job (gotta love the nonprofit arts sector), a car and some great friends to help me out in my search. In the 3 and a half years I’ve lived in Baltimore I’ve experience Hampden, Charles Village and most recently Patterson Park/Butcher’s Hill.
My favorite spot on the commute up Falls Road...photo by Fern Shen.
My first apartment here, right on Falls Road, though outside the true bounds of hipster-dom turned out to be too expensive and too small for me and the kitkats. There was also the fact of my oh-so-delightful downstairs neighbors – true blooded, native born hampdenites. It could have been a worse first apartment all by my lonesome experience, but I wasn’t sad to leave it!
I lived next door to this! Delicious and dangerous.
Then it was off to 25th and Saint Paul. A friend from grad school and I moved into the top floor of a double-row home building. As the only residents in a mostly commercial building we had the luxury of making as much noise as we wanted, more space than we actually needed (crazy, I know!) and included utilities. There were, of course, a few downsides – like the two tall flights of twisty, narrow and dark stairs, the lack of level…well, anything and a truly disturbing amount of beige paint. But the kitchen was huge, the bedrooms were huge and there were plenty of windows. But eventually the topsy-turvy window sills became to much for my wanderlust-filled roomie and she decided to move. Not going with her was possibly the worst decision I have ever made. C’est la vie.
Patterson Park, by Nesster
What followed has, to-date, turned into the most expensive lesson of my life. Eventually finding the stairs, slants and such equally annoying, I moved into what seemed like the perfect situation – a beautiful townhouse in a great location – only a mile away from my job, a block away from Patterson Park , with plenty of space for the kitkats to run up and down the stairs, a well-appointed, modern kitchen and a glorious roof-top deck. Yet within days of moving in one roommate got a job in Chicago, the other roommate closed off access to the deck and (long story very short) I ended up paying for an extra 2 and a half months rent out of pocket. (Let me tell you, museum salaries? Do NOT cover that kind of unexpected expense.) After scrambling and scrimping and generally being miserable I finally found a new third roommate. Things were looking up when *bam* she decides she’s moving out. This time around our landlord has decided to let us break our lease, though the details are still in flux.
Either way, I’ve got a little over 2 months to find the right place for me, 2 cats and a WHOLE lot of books. Wish me luck.
bmoreintentional 