What Is New With Us - Round-Up

Today I thought I would make mention of a number of things that we have done recently, what is on tap and some general thoughts and observations that I might elaborate on later.

• We purchased a new computer - Our old Sony VAIO desktop still works, but it has seen better days. We also wanted to purchase a laptop in an effort to maximize space in our new living area. So last Saturday we purchased our first Mac - a baseline Macbook from the Apple store in Pasadena. There was a rebate for a printer as well, nothing fancy, just a normal every day printer. We haven’t had a printer in our home for the last four years but there is the odd occasion when we wish a copy could be made or something printed off for reference. Now if my eBay seller would send me my cable I ordered …
• Moving making in downtown Los Angeles - It is always interesting to see something being filmed and in downtown L.A. there is no shortage of that. When my dad was in last week we stood around for half an hour and watched CSI: New York being filmed. H had to stop on her way home last night (literally stop, they weren’t letting people through) while they filmed a VISA commercial. This morning Carter and I ran into a Nissan commercial out in front of the Met Lofts and we saw signs for Criminal Minds the other day as well.
• Everything is in storage - Everything that needed to be put in storage is in storage. It took me three separate trips by myself one day last week but everything is where it needs to be. I still am not thrilled with the idea of paying $80 a month to store stuff but it is what it is.
• Condo sale - Our place in Chicago still has not sold. Our Realtor is suggesting a price drop and we might follow through on it. We have talked him into dropping his commission 0.5% to begin with but it still isn’t enough. I know the market it tough but I also think he is doing a lousy job in all honesty. Our contract with him is up at the end of May and I think we are through with him.
• L.A. Weather - Something I am still not used to. I love the fact that every day it is warm and sunny, it really is quite fascinating to be honest. At the same time I love the rain, especially a thunderstorm every once in a while and neither of those things happen here very often. On the flip side, it is nice to know that whenever you take Carter out there isn’t a battle with the rain, wind or snow.

Storage Woes Solved, I Think

I think we have solved our storage woes. I am not happy about it but what can you do.

If you recall, we moved from a two bedroom condo in Chicago (with a storage closet in the basement) to a ‘one bedroom loft’ here in downtown Los Angeles,  The short of it all is we have more stuff than we have space to store it.

We tried to be creative and thought we could fit most of it in our bathroom closet and the closet that houses the washer/dryer but there is just too much stuff. H toyed with the idea of partitioning off a section of our room and using it for storage, an idea I wasn’t ready to run with. We lived in just under 900 square feet and the idea of losing some of that just to hide Rubbermaid containers didn’t seem logical to me.

So this morning I am headed to Got Stuff Self Storage to sign up for a 5′ x 6′ unit. Regular cost of the unit, get ready for this, $86 a month. I called around to a few different places and the prices were all relative. Of course some places were giving me the hard sell that they don’t have many units left and while I don’t buy that old sales pitch fully I will concede that there are most likely USC students that rent out the units in the summer for their stuff. The month of April will be pro-rated, and May and June are 50% off. The warehouse is not too far from where we live either so that is somewhat of a plus.

I just don’t like the idea of having to pay for storage, but there is anything else we can do. We have almost six boxes of Christmas decorations alone! Throw on top of that some stuff we want to keep for sentimental reasons or things that we could use in a bigger living space and we really are up against the wall. We’ve tossed a fair amount of stuff we didn’t use/want already and I don’t think there is must more to get rid of.

Of course once this is solved we will have to find a way to store the stuff we have in the house properly.