We moved in late June to a new apartment. Our previous apartment was almost 100 years old and lovely: hard wood floors, deep windowsills, radiators, built-ins, and crown molding. There were also space issues (small/no closets), lead paint issues, and who knows what was going on with the pipes. In the winter, we'd always get hot water before cold from the taps. I presume this is because the radiator and water lines were near each other. Oh, and the radiators controlled the whole building with a thermostat in the hall, so our temperatures would fluctuate between 60 and 80F. Still, we loved our little place. It was cozy and lovely. The hard wood floors were amazing, especially since they'd been covered by carpet for quite awhile and thus were still in great shape.
However, our apartment was just two bedrooms and one bathroom, and space was getting tight. I haven't blogged about it, but we added a second child this past spring (a boy named Paul). We just weren't fitting well for a whole variety of reasons. We could have made it work, but we were given the opportunity to upgrade. We are now in completely new construction with four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. To be honest, that's about one bathroom too many, but that's better than one bathroom too few.
I've noticed some interesting things since moving, which is why I want to write. First, laundry has become more challenging. Previously, we had laundry in our kitchen, and I loved doing laundry. It was so easy. I could hear the machine from anywhere in the apartment, so it was simple to know when to switch a load. Everything in the apartment was, gosh, maybe 20 steps away? I'm not sure, but whenever I needed to add steps at the end of the night, I had to do an entire lap of the apartment to get 100 steps. I could grab laundry, throw it on our bed, fold quickly and put right away. Now, our apartment is three levels when you consider our basement laundry. I do a lot of going up and down stairs, and I can't hear the machine running. I have started using the timer on my phone to remind me to go get loads. Laundry doesn't bother me, and I don't mind doing it, but it's not as simple as it used to be.
Another thing is trying to figure out where to put jackets. Our bedroom was steps away from the front entryway, so we had outdoor jackets in the entryway and things like cardigans hanging up in our closet. Again, I'm doing a lot of stairs now as I run upstairs last second to grab a cardigan before heading to school. Ditto on shoes; I'm actually getting close to just putting all our shoes in the front closet, since we don't wear shoes unless we're moving the house. I don't think I have space for all the cardigans and shoes, but we'll see as I reshuffle.
We also have a lot of stuff. I have no idea how we fit it in a smaller space. We did get a few new things, like a second desk and a second bookshelf. But, mostly, we've just unpacked what we had. We do have more floor space now. I am working on finding a place for everything, and then my next goal will be to start parting with items.
On the whole, I like our new place. It's good to spread out and be able to take stock; we definitely didn't have room to declutter before, which is perhaps how we still own so much. But on nights like tonight where I'm cleaning and doing laundry while running up and down the stairs, I get nostalgic for our tiny spot.