The Latest on the Move to Champaign
Jun. 2nd, 2009 12:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookofmirrorsOK... Last week, I drove up to Champaign (Illinois) to look at housing/jobs for our upcoming move. Pretty much everything relating to the move was on hold until then, since I couldn't know before having a new place to live when the lease would start and whatnot. But, I know all that now, so here's the scoop.
Our new lease will begin August 20. Our last day of work will be September 3. We plan to go to DragonCon. After that, we're moving. Our lease at our current apartment in Atlanta ends September 30, so we have to be gone by then, but plan to move the week after DragonCon.
All the cats will be going with us. Once again, with a huge deposit ($150 per cat refundable, $150 per cat non-refundable) and extra rent ($10 per month per cat), we have found a place that's OK with us bringing all 5 cats. If I couldn't have found such a place, we couldn't have moved. Period. But my convictions that animals are not expendable when they're inconvenient continue to work for me, albeit it takes some extra work. /soapbox
We will be moving into the 88 West Apartments in Champaign, Illinois. If you look at the 88 West website, we're going to be living in a 3-bedroom floorplan apartment. Personally, I highly recommend the website. These apartments ROCK. They're designed for the college students, which
BlckwngdOrcl and I aren't (yet), but you don't have to be a student to live there. All utilities (water, sewer, trash, cable, high-speed internet) and amenities (see website) are included in the rent, except phone (and we have our cells for that) and there's a limit on the electric bill ($35 per bedroom in a 3-bedroom for $105 total in our place), and we have to pay any overage. The cable is less than we have now (and I've never heard of the cable company), so I'm REALLY going to miss my DVR, but there's always Hulu and NetFlix. Plus we can upgrade once we get settled/can afford it. High-speed internet is cable, not DSL. No gas, since everything's electric. Location is great - literally walking distance to the mall and a bunch of big-box stores, and 3 miles from campus. I'm not a big fan of the big-box stores, but nice to have them around.
Our rent went up a whole dollar, but we'll suddenly be saving at least $500 a month on utilities, which will ROCK. I'm pretty sure the square footage is comparable, and you totally can't be the amenities. (Have you scoped out the website yet? You should. SRSLY.)
Pics below the cut. Keep in mind that these are pics of a furnished apartment (which they offer), and we'll be getting an unfurnished apartment, so it'll look different when it's us. Gives you an idea of scale/layout, though.
This is what you see when you first walk in. The door at the end goes to a bedroom, and there are 2 doors to the right that go to other bedrooms. I think there might be a linen closet to the left at the end, but I can't tell/remember. To the left, when you're here, is the dining room/kitchen; to the right is the living room/balcony.
This is the living room, which, in the apartment I toured, was directly to the right when you walked in the door. The sliding glass door opens up onto a balcony, which I've been told I can screen in if I want. Our apartment will overlook the pool, which is gonna be awesome. We'll be putting our couch in here, and the TV, and I'm not sure what else. I'd like to put our IKEA chairs on the balcony, butBlckwngdOrcl doesn't think they'll stand up to the weather, since they aren't technically designed to be outdoor chairs. We'll have to think of something. Mostly, we'll decorate this room in shades of green and cherry-colored wood, same as we have now.
This is the dining room, which is directly to the left when you walk in. We almost got a 2-bedroom, but the bedrooms are small, so we needed 3 to fit all our furniture. I noticed right away when I saw the 3-bedroom that the dining room was bigger, which was also a relief, because I had doubts about fitting my enormous dining room table that
Dai_Syn got us in the dining room of the 2-bedroom.
I originally took this picture just to teaseBlckwngdOrcl... to show him the candy, and to point out that I didn't bring him any. It does, however, show the kitchen-to-dining-room view. Also, the guy who did all my paperwork (Max) pointed out to me that they have candy every day in the office/clubhouse, and that BlckwngdOrcl could come and get as much as he wanted, whenever he wanted. Oh, well...
This is the kitchen, which is just beyond the dining room, and overlooks the living room. It's doesn't look as big in this picture as it seems in person. I mean, it's not huge, but I think all my stuff will fit in it, which is saying something. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is my grandfather's buffet that I got when he died. I'm crossing my fingers on that one, but it could also be put elsewhere.
This is the laundry room, which is just past the kitchen (the door you saw in the kitchen pic leads to the laundry room. This is also bigger than it looks, and has a couple of little nook areas, where I can put the vacuum, or cat stuff, or something.
This is the maintenance closet, which is basically in the laundry room, across from the washer/dryer. I'm not unconvinced that I can't put a few of my own things in there. It has extra space. Probably not what they had in mind, but....
This is the first bedroom on the right. We can either make each spare bedroom our own private office/spiritual area, or have one bedroom be an office, and the other a spiritual/meditation room. I truly think we can't get all our office furniture in one bedroom, which is why I ended up going with the 3-bedroom instead of the two. If we do the one-office thing, this room will be the office; if we do the two-office thing, it'll be my office, and I'll probably put my spiritual area in the little nook (which you can see better in the second picture of the second bedroom on the right).
This is the closet of the first bedroom on the right. It's the only picture I went out of my way to get of the closets. They're all the same, anyway. This is my biggest concern. Personally, I HATE that thing where people put some clothes in one place, some in another, etc.. I want all the clothes in the same place, thankyouverymuch. And the closets (again, since they're designed for students) are clearly designed for only one person. They're California closets, so that'll help, but I don't think any amount of good design and Wonder Hangers will allow both of us to keep all our clothes in the closet in the master bedroom. I'd like to be able to use the closets in the spare bedrooms for storage. I'm not holding my breath.
This is the bathroom for the first bedroom on the right. Since it's the closest to the living room, this will be the bathroom that guests use. I'll likely use my fish-y decor in this bathroom. Since we'll never be using that shower (if someone needs the shower, they can use ours), I'm seriously considering putting one of the litterboxes in the bathtub. Easy cleanup, and keeps the kicked-up litter off the floor. Plus, the cats sometimes use the bathtub, anyway.
This is the second bedroom on the right. This will either beBlckwngdOrcl's office, or our spiritual/meditation room.
This is another picture of the second bedroom on the right. This shows the little nook area that I was talking about as using for a meditation area in my office, if we have separate offices.
This is the bathroom for the second bedroom on the right. We have no use whatsoever for this bathroom, but since it's designed for students, each bedroom gets its own private bath. I also only have decor for 2 bathrooms, so we'll have to decorate this one from scratch. If this room becomesBlckwngdOrcl's office, he gets to pick how it looks. If we use this bedroom for a spiritual/meditation room, I'll likely do some sort of soothing/zen motif. Ditto for the litterbox in the bathtub, regardless, though.
This is the bedroom directly at the end of the hallway (you could see the door for this in the hallway pic above). We'll use this as our master bedroom, and keep the celestial decor.
This is the bathroom for the bedroom at the end of the hallway. We'll use this as our master bathroom. Again, celestial decor.
As of now, we're not planning any going-away bashes (well, one, but VERY limited attendance, and it won't be talked about on this LJ!), but wouldn't turn down any that are thrown on our behalf. Ditto for going-away presents. ;) Our schedules have now become finite, so if you want to see either of us before we go, definitely get in touch with us. If you don't have any contact info for us, just use BookOfMirrors@LiveJournal.com or BlckwngdOrcl@LiveJournal.com.
I'll post our new address in a friends-locked post, and may talk more about the trip up north in general later.
Wish us luck!!!
Our new lease will begin August 20. Our last day of work will be September 3. We plan to go to DragonCon. After that, we're moving. Our lease at our current apartment in Atlanta ends September 30, so we have to be gone by then, but plan to move the week after DragonCon.
All the cats will be going with us. Once again, with a huge deposit ($150 per cat refundable, $150 per cat non-refundable) and extra rent ($10 per month per cat), we have found a place that's OK with us bringing all 5 cats. If I couldn't have found such a place, we couldn't have moved. Period. But my convictions that animals are not expendable when they're inconvenient continue to work for me, albeit it takes some extra work. /soapbox
We will be moving into the 88 West Apartments in Champaign, Illinois. If you look at the 88 West website, we're going to be living in a 3-bedroom floorplan apartment. Personally, I highly recommend the website. These apartments ROCK. They're designed for the college students, which
BlckwngdOrcl and I aren't (yet), but you don't have to be a student to live there. All utilities (water, sewer, trash, cable, high-speed internet) and amenities (see website) are included in the rent, except phone (and we have our cells for that) and there's a limit on the electric bill ($35 per bedroom in a 3-bedroom for $105 total in our place), and we have to pay any overage. The cable is less than we have now (and I've never heard of the cable company), so I'm REALLY going to miss my DVR, but there's always Hulu and NetFlix. Plus we can upgrade once we get settled/can afford it. High-speed internet is cable, not DSL. No gas, since everything's electric. Location is great - literally walking distance to the mall and a bunch of big-box stores, and 3 miles from campus. I'm not a big fan of the big-box stores, but nice to have them around. Our rent went up a whole dollar, but we'll suddenly be saving at least $500 a month on utilities, which will ROCK. I'm pretty sure the square footage is comparable, and you totally can't be the amenities. (Have you scoped out the website yet? You should. SRSLY.)
Pics below the cut. Keep in mind that these are pics of a furnished apartment (which they offer), and we'll be getting an unfurnished apartment, so it'll look different when it's us. Gives you an idea of scale/layout, though.
This is what you see when you first walk in. The door at the end goes to a bedroom, and there are 2 doors to the right that go to other bedrooms. I think there might be a linen closet to the left at the end, but I can't tell/remember. To the left, when you're here, is the dining room/kitchen; to the right is the living room/balcony.
This is the living room, which, in the apartment I toured, was directly to the right when you walked in the door. The sliding glass door opens up onto a balcony, which I've been told I can screen in if I want. Our apartment will overlook the pool, which is gonna be awesome. We'll be putting our couch in here, and the TV, and I'm not sure what else. I'd like to put our IKEA chairs on the balcony, but
BlckwngdOrcl doesn't think they'll stand up to the weather, since they aren't technically designed to be outdoor chairs. We'll have to think of something. Mostly, we'll decorate this room in shades of green and cherry-colored wood, same as we have now.This is the dining room, which is directly to the left when you walk in. We almost got a 2-bedroom, but the bedrooms are small, so we needed 3 to fit all our furniture. I noticed right away when I saw the 3-bedroom that the dining room was bigger, which was also a relief, because I had doubts about fitting my enormous dining room table that
Dai_Syn got us in the dining room of the 2-bedroom.I originally took this picture just to tease
BlckwngdOrcl... to show him the candy, and to point out that I didn't bring him any. It does, however, show the kitchen-to-dining-room view. Also, the guy who did all my paperwork (Max) pointed out to me that they have candy every day in the office/clubhouse, and that BlckwngdOrcl could come and get as much as he wanted, whenever he wanted. Oh, well...This is the kitchen, which is just beyond the dining room, and overlooks the living room. It's doesn't look as big in this picture as it seems in person. I mean, it's not huge, but I think all my stuff will fit in it, which is saying something. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is my grandfather's buffet that I got when he died. I'm crossing my fingers on that one, but it could also be put elsewhere.
This is the laundry room, which is just past the kitchen (the door you saw in the kitchen pic leads to the laundry room. This is also bigger than it looks, and has a couple of little nook areas, where I can put the vacuum, or cat stuff, or something.
This is the maintenance closet, which is basically in the laundry room, across from the washer/dryer. I'm not unconvinced that I can't put a few of my own things in there. It has extra space. Probably not what they had in mind, but....
This is the first bedroom on the right. We can either make each spare bedroom our own private office/spiritual area, or have one bedroom be an office, and the other a spiritual/meditation room. I truly think we can't get all our office furniture in one bedroom, which is why I ended up going with the 3-bedroom instead of the two. If we do the one-office thing, this room will be the office; if we do the two-office thing, it'll be my office, and I'll probably put my spiritual area in the little nook (which you can see better in the second picture of the second bedroom on the right).
This is the closet of the first bedroom on the right. It's the only picture I went out of my way to get of the closets. They're all the same, anyway. This is my biggest concern. Personally, I HATE that thing where people put some clothes in one place, some in another, etc.. I want all the clothes in the same place, thankyouverymuch. And the closets (again, since they're designed for students) are clearly designed for only one person. They're California closets, so that'll help, but I don't think any amount of good design and Wonder Hangers will allow both of us to keep all our clothes in the closet in the master bedroom. I'd like to be able to use the closets in the spare bedrooms for storage. I'm not holding my breath.
This is the bathroom for the first bedroom on the right. Since it's the closest to the living room, this will be the bathroom that guests use. I'll likely use my fish-y decor in this bathroom. Since we'll never be using that shower (if someone needs the shower, they can use ours), I'm seriously considering putting one of the litterboxes in the bathtub. Easy cleanup, and keeps the kicked-up litter off the floor. Plus, the cats sometimes use the bathtub, anyway.
This is the second bedroom on the right. This will either be
BlckwngdOrcl's office, or our spiritual/meditation room.This is another picture of the second bedroom on the right. This shows the little nook area that I was talking about as using for a meditation area in my office, if we have separate offices.
This is the bathroom for the second bedroom on the right. We have no use whatsoever for this bathroom, but since it's designed for students, each bedroom gets its own private bath. I also only have decor for 2 bathrooms, so we'll have to decorate this one from scratch. If this room becomes
BlckwngdOrcl's office, he gets to pick how it looks. If we use this bedroom for a spiritual/meditation room, I'll likely do some sort of soothing/zen motif. Ditto for the litterbox in the bathtub, regardless, though.This is the bedroom directly at the end of the hallway (you could see the door for this in the hallway pic above). We'll use this as our master bedroom, and keep the celestial decor.
This is the bathroom for the bedroom at the end of the hallway. We'll use this as our master bathroom. Again, celestial decor.
As of now, we're not planning any going-away bashes (well, one, but VERY limited attendance, and it won't be talked about on this LJ!), but wouldn't turn down any that are thrown on our behalf. Ditto for going-away presents. ;) Our schedules have now become finite, so if you want to see either of us before we go, definitely get in touch with us. If you don't have any contact info for us, just use BookOfMirrors@LiveJournal.com or BlckwngdOrcl@LiveJournal.com.
I'll post our new address in a friends-locked post, and may talk more about the trip up north in general later.
Wish us luck!!!
