On Tuesday, we signed a lease for a new and better apartment. A partial list of improvements:

• a balcony
• a second bedroom (guest room, office, degus, chest freezer?)
• a half bath in the master bedroom
• closets everywhere
• a dishwasher and a motherfucking garbage disposal
• a half flight up instead of a half flight down (i.e. no mold or centipedes to the face)
• double the kitchen storage
• room for a big dining/gaming table
• on the quiet/shady side of the building
• a parking lot and possibility for a garage space (for the car we’ll get if I get the job)
• outdoor storage to serve as bicycle garage
• a/c in living and bedrooms
• closer to Snelling
• could reach Whole Foods in a blizzard
• more and bigger windows
• cheaper washer and dryer
• front door buzzer
• no “smoking area” at the front and back doors

Complete list of drawbacks:

• half a block further from the bus stops

When Michael got the new job, we started thinking about getting a bigger place – I can’t nag my out-of-town friends to come visit, and when we have people over to play board games, they have to sit on the floor.  The problem was, we wanted to stay in our neighborhood, and being right between two college campuses (campii?), apartments are in high demand.

Also popular with dogs.

So we were really excited back at the end of February when a sign went up at a building just down the street. And I mean just down the street.  This afternoon, I walked out of our current building, across the street, and took this picture:

Arrow indicates new building.

No arrow to indicate bunny next to new building; you’ll have to find that one yourself.

New lease starts on June 1, old lease ends on June 15, so we’ll even have plenty of time to wrap up the move and clean without going frantic.  I’m really excited, and haven’t even started to freak out about packing.  Yet.