Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Ghetto Apartment vs. House-In-Progress

What's been happening while my computer's sat, collecting sawdust? As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words; and now that my computer's back, I have many thousands of words to show you!

Though the first two houses fell through, we had a special feeling about this new place: I'd say the view sold it upon the first visit.

niceview That, and the total absence of traffic noise. And did you notice all the nice houses outside? Rich people live in those houses!

Now, let's compare this with a view from between the bars of our former ghetto apartment: There's a lovely sewage pipe - which broke once when someone threw their TV from the second floor's 'door to nowhere'.

sewerpipeview The stuff around the pipe is what's left of the additional soundproofing tile, originally meant for the new studio. Oh, and there's a painting hanging on the side of the house to keep cats from getting into the crawlspace.

But now, after saving up money by living in this ghetto building for three years, do you think we finally deserve a real place to live?
` Okay, so there was no flooring, and the walls were spattered with cooking oil, and to be honest, much remodeling work needed to be done, but with six people living in a 10x20-foot (3x6-m) apartment, we couldn't wait another month!

Well, with all our personal effort, I sure think we deserve to move in! Here's Director Nate, painting the foyer! (We have a foyer! Whoa!)

natepainting And of course, before one can even properly move in, one must have a floor. Thank you, B-Gangsta!

bradflooring The person who did the most work of all, however, was Lucas (Lou Ryan), but that's a whole other post.

As for the other two roommates (who were going to help us pay rent), they turned out to be total basket cases and we had to let them go. In fact, they didn't even last until we'd gotten the ghetto apartment cleaned out.
` Boy was it small! I snapped this photo while standing at the opposite end of the room, so I was as far away as I could be!

oldroom As you may be able to tell, our house's living room alone is larger than the entire apartment, and I wasn't even standing against the wall! This photo was taken sometime B.F. (Before Furniture).

livingrm Of course, we very soon obtained a variety of furniture - which the cats immediately used to test our leniency.

clawrs Now here's another photo of the old apartment, this time taken from the other end of the room. Like, that's the whole thing - and it didn't even have a working oven!

oldroomagain How's this for a real kitchen? It even has new appliances (pre-hooked up here) including a 'flat' stove and a convection microwave oven!

realkitchen Our dishwasher even works now!

In another photo of the ghetto apartment, taken near the sink, we look down a short hallway toward the broken-down door.

outthedoor This is the frickin' house hallway - and that's Vada, shortly before she disappeared the first time (we found her under the living room floor).

newexploration Yet another ghetto apartment photo: the bathroom. It was taken by moi, scrunched up in the shower stall; we didn't even have a bathtub, nor a ventilation fan, for that matter, and it always smelled like a locker room.

oldbathroom Though it's not finished, this is the only useable house bathroom, and this was just after we'd gotten the white cabinet under the sink!

newbathroom Not only does it have a bathtub and a ventilation fan, but we don't share a hot water tank with nine other households!

There's other perks as well - such as this fireplace:

fireplacetest The backyard is nice, too:

bigbackyard And did I mention the view?

luvsmist So, forever shall we say farewell to the ghetto apartment house. It served us well. Though living there was absolutely insane, we only had to pay $450 in rent, and you can't beat that for an apartment with a kitchen sink and a refrigerator.
` This is the actual outside of that ghetto house the day we moved out:

oldhouse And this is a photo of out new house on the same day. Yes, we have all of that space. Though it recently has been a crackhouse, it's still in liveable condition, especially now that we're fixing it up. (And have wisely boarded up our own second floor 'door to nowhere'.)

newhouse Oh, and one more cool photo; a train cutting through the mist!

traininmist ...Yes, that's our view - through a zoom lens! Did I mention how spectacular it is?

11 comments:

Connie said...

Aw..I'm so happy for you! The new place is fabulous. You must be floating on cloud nine. Oh and by the way, you should look out the window because you really have a great view there! ;D

Thanks for sharing these pictures. I'm smiling big. It's good to hear things are going well for you. :)

Kingcover said...

Nice job buddy!!!
Such a great view looking down the street. It almost looks as if your new house is situated right in the middle of the road, lol. I can see the gaping holes between the windows and the wall but you probably have that sorted out by now because rain water and computers just don't mix! *shock*. Oopsie too late! :-P
It's neat that you appear to have a forest on your back doorstep. Plenty of opportunity for you to spot some wildlife and do plenty of walking and other ermmm more risque outdoor activities if you get my drift.
Did you paint the house blue or is that the original colour of it? Any plans to change it if it is?
And the fire will keep you all warm during the cold winter months and hopefully you'll remember to put it out each time before going to bed otherwise you might pray for it to rain to put the fire out. Hehehehehe ;-)

HA! I swear these word vers have senses of humour! This one is "barbera". (Hanna-Barbera animators - let's hope there's nothing Wacky Races about your new house. Lol. Hey didn't they also produce The Smurfs??? Your blue house! It was fate I tell ya, fate! Hahahahaha)

barman said...

Congratulations. The new place looks wonderful. How on earth so many people lived in that tiny room? I think my bedroom might be as big as your ghetto digs.

I am so jealous of the convection microwave. Those are not cheap as far as I know. I wanted to get one that was also range hood and it was over $600. Yikes. Oh and of course the fireplace... :( I want one too.

The pictures were wonderful and the view even better. Nice, very nice. And congratulations once again.

Anonymous said...

Awesome last photo! Looks like you guys have been doing a lot of work! Congrats on the new place! More exclamation points for no particular purpose !!!!!

1. Wow, that WAS a tiny apartment

2. With a tiny bathroom

3. How did you guys fit in there?

4. Check your email.

G-Man said...

My My My...
You certainly have moved up in the world young lady.
Great before and after pics. Thanks for sharing them...G

AngelConradie said...

wow... its incredible!
i am simply green with envy!!!

Spoony Quine said...

Thanks, all!! Since the cat ran over the keyboard, thus deleting my previous response, and since we're in the middle of evaluating some of Nate's work, I'll make it short:

I do have it pretty good. I mean, a house? With real doors? That I can walk through and close and stuff? WHOA!!
` Not only that, but there's no constant noise and fighting and calling of police for any of the hours of day or night.
` The house still isn't done, and I still don't have a bedroom, and our kitchen floods whenever it rains but yeah, it certainly is no friggin' ghetto!
` And a convection oven?! It came with the house... not to mention the fridge has a water filter and ice dispenser!
` That's why we pay $ 2,200 a month....

How did we do it before? I don't know about everyone else, but it was very stressful each day for me.
` I didn't have a place to put my stuff, I didn't have any privacy, no quiet spot to do homework, no way to cook, or even relax in the shower (especially when someone was washing their dishes and turning the water on and off constantly).
` Now, just being able to walk around in my own home, and having different rooms with doors on them is very different for me.
` I even had to get used to the idea of being more than 10 feet away from the cats - they were a little frightened of it themselves! ("Where's Mommy?")

Oh yes, and I seem to remember typing to Gareth, specifically: That was one of the windows that had to be replaced, so now there's a tiny window there - and no spaces around the edge, thanks to Lucas!
` Oh, we've been doing PLENTY in our backyard! (Upcoming post.)
` It is the original Smurf-Like color of the house, and since we are renting, it is staying that way. (However, the neighbors did re-paint their house!)

Unknown said...

Very, very nice! That's quite an improvement! My blessings to all 4 of you!

Monado said...

Wow, it looks beautiful! I'm so happy for you! And what a fabulous view! Are the cats going to be Roof Cats again?

Devotee said...

Fantastic! This is an amazing pictorial story, and it's my favorite kind of story because it has a happy ending and plenty of sequel potential!

Spoony Quine said...

Thanks guys/girls, whatev! We're so happy, especially now that Lucas/ Lou Ryan is back on track with getting paid properly for doing a bunch of work... oh! I forgot about that one!

He finally finished our bedroom - at least well enough that we've just moved into it today!
` I'll load the newest of those photos up later. For now, I'll complete a different post next!

Sequel potential indeed!

And as for Roof Cats... well, I think they're content with being Basement Drop Ceiling Cats for now.