Moving, Again

Crazy, right? I love the house I live in now. Actually, I love the yard and the location. The house itself is not laid out well, but it has good points too. One bad point is even though it is cheaper than the last place I moved out of, it is still expensive. The place I am moving to is a studio, so it is cheaper, but it is only 2 streets over (and just around the corner from the house I was moving out of when I started this blog.) Therefore, the location is fine.

For the record, after moving out of my parent's house in December of 2002, I've lived in 6 places. This will be the 7th. Actually, I should say I've moved 7 times because as my long time readers know, I lived in the same house twice- the one I'm in now.

My first apartment was a 1 bedroom on a busy street with rude children and no dogs allowed. Second cheapest rent. (Studio is cheapest.)

Second apartment was 2 bedroom (for the price of 1 bedroom, at first) in quiet location that allowed dogs (which is why I moved.) Then the rent started getting too high, so I moved to...

Third dwelling was guest house where I couldn't get my bed upstairs so it was like a studio. Had a yard but was shared with the landlady's million dogs. Yard was woodchips so no agility practice. Landlady was super, super nice. Moved so I could have a grass yard, dishwasher, and more space inside.

Forth place is same place I am now. Yard was worth the move, but since I'm now moving it another small place, shouldn't have cited inside space as a reason for moving out of the guest house. Plus, the dishwasn't doesn't work because the water is too hard.

Fifth place was were I taught agility and obedience group lessons at the house. Rent was way too high, too much inside space- three bedroom house- and water and propane bill was too high, plus, it was the farthest from work I've ever been and I couldn't walk due to lack of sidewalks.

Sixth is back to the duplex with the great yard- where I am sitting as I type this. The one and only reason I am moving is to save money. If I ever want to have a dream job I need to make sacrifices because there is no way any dream job will pay as much as I am making now. My beautiful yard is sacrificed. But I still have a yard at the new place- just not nearly as big. And right now it is just "Potential." Read- weeds, gopher holes and no grass.

Seventh is the studio. Only time will tell how it works out. I think it will be good for us. I hope so.


Unlike most studios, it has a washer and dryer, full kitchen and a YARD! Also a garage which I have never had before and which is also important for storage. What it does not have is a closet. In the garage one wall is all closets and cabinets that close with a magnet catch and seem to be very clean and secure (from rodents.) It also has 3 portable closets in the garage for hanging clothes but only one has a floor, so the other 2 will not be sealed against dirt.

I had some concern (such as are there outlets in the garage) that I forgot to address but I just got the keys today and answered all my own questions. (Yes.)

I paced off the inside today and I think all my stuff will fit great. As I said, the layout of my current place is not good, so I think my stuff might fit even better in the new place.

I paid the rest of the deposit on the studio and got the keys. I think it is going to be big enough with enough storage. I'll find out when I move in! I have the layout planned. I want to get a room divider to make a bedroom. The folding screens they sell are tiny and over priced. I started finding modular room dividers but they are also expensive. I realized the reason they are expensive are because they are designed to be flexible. I don't need that. Then I work I saw we have a welding screen made out of metal tubing. If I wanted to be really cheep I could make it out of PVC, but I'd rather do tubing. I hope to find some that slips together with fittings and doesn't need welding. Then for the material I figured I could make a sleeve like a sleeping bag and just slip that over the whole thing. Now I just have to measure, probably make the frame first, then find decent fabric. The sewing will be the most difficult for me. I go crooked. I'll bribe my mom to do it. (I know you read this mom!)

The garage does have outlets for my outside light and my chest freezer. I'll store their washer, dryer and fridge in the garage, but that will take up a lot of space. I wonder if I can store the dryer on top of the washer?

Of course everyone will be subjected to pictures once I'm all moved in.

I paced the yard and it is right around 50 feet wide and longer than 50 the other way. So enough room to practice obedience and small agility sequences. The bad news is it is full of goat's heads. They are talking about putting grass in but there are gophers. Hmmm... I need to buy some stairs to get into the yard the back way. Any suggestions?

I am taking my jumps and tunnel for practice and play, but my contact equipment is going to K's house. I can use it there. If she does not plan on using it, I can also take it apart and store it at my house. I don't want it cluttering up her area unless she is going to get use out of it.

One more update- we had 2 new dogs in class today! I thought it was a good class because the new dogs are not trained but I seemed to be helping them. A fat schnauzer and a little shizu type. Plus, the cotton de whatever was actually making some progress! The trained, shy sheltie is still trained and shy, so nothing new there.

We had horrendous Santa Anna winds today so I skipped my run and also any dog training at lunch. I didn't even want to be outside. The winds came because I washed my car yesterday, about a once a year event. The amount of flying dirt I drove though this morning blowing off the farm fields coated my car with more dirt than it had yesterday after not being washed for a year!