In which I prepare to move.
I know that if I have an 8 am lab (which I do on Thursdays), if it’s snowing (which it will do this semester), and if I have to drive 35 miles, I won’t go to class. I’ll stay curled up in my warm bed and I’ll sleep the day away. That just won’t do. School has to come first. The solution? Move to Stevens Point.
Work will be more inconvenient if I commute and the rising gas prices don’t thrill me. I am going to see if I can arrange for some telecommuting or putting in some hours at the Wisconsin Rapids or Auburndale locations. But it seems like moving is the best way to ensure that school is my main focus.
Pat heard that I was moving to Stevens Point. He was looking at buying a house. Having a roommate would make it a lot easier for him to make payments. I figured that having one roommate in the same house was about equally as annoying as having to live in an apartment complex with dozens of neighbors. However his house purchase fell through. We looked at renting a house but we couldn’t find anything suitable. In the meantime I found a nice little one bedroom apartment for $403 per month. It was better than my current place in almost every way and it was $2 cheaper. I was filling out the last details of the application form and getting ready to head to Point to drop it off when Dawn sent me an IM. She wanted to know if I had found a place. No? Well, was I interested in a two bedroom house for $425 that he mom’s neighbors just put up for rent? I sure was.
I took a look at the place. It’s a cute little single-story house. Two bedrooms, living room, old kitchen, bathroom, unfinished basement, and garage. It’s a short drive from the university and it has easy access to the highways that I’ll be driving. The downsides are that it has no real shower, no dining room, I would have to mow and do some shoveling, and I’ll have to swap screens and storm windows. But the lure of a house proved to be too much and I told them I’d take it. I should be signing the lease on Tuesday and moved in before the end of the month. All hail the great and powerful Dawn!
The bathroom has a tub with no shower head. The landlords said that they understand that people want a shower head and they were talking about putting in a new temporary shower head (or, as my brother calls them, dog washers). I told them that I had recently replaced a kitchen sink and wouldn’t mind taking care of the problem. They said that they would pay for materials as long as I ran it by them first. I have been pondering the problem and I think that my proposed solution will be something like this free-standing add-on shower. There are some added complexities, but it could be a very fun project… In any case, I get a shower and they get a house that’s more rentable when I leave. Everyone wins.
In the meantime, I have to start seriously preparing for moving now. I’ve been sorting and putzing so far. Now I need boxes and cleaning supplies. But the thumping bass coming through the floor (at 2 am) is a really good motivator. The next couple of weeks should be interesting.