the search continues

I am now looking for a place to rent in NDG. I decided to slow down a bit on my workload for the month of April so I could focus on apartment hunting and some medical appointments. My goal- to find a place by some time in May.

Last week I took the 103 along Monkland to see a 4 1/2 and had to get off the bus and walk for 12 blocks when the bus sideswiped a car on Monkland (no one was injured).

Fortunately, I made it on time. The apartment, on the third floor of an 8plex was in good condition, bright and pleasant...but the building was a dump and smelled like the lobby of my great grandmother's apartment building. The location was also iffy. It also faced the graffiti covered backside of another building that looked like a set from THE WIRE.

Today it was a 3.5 and 4.5 in a lovely duplex, lovely exterior, great location, reasonable rent. This was the opposite. The building looked great but the apartments were small and cramped and in poor repair. Doors didn't close, cabinets didn't close, paint was peeling on the bedroom ceiling (probably water) and it badly needed a paint job. The previous tenants had painted the kitchen bright yellow. There was no washer dryer OR connection and no room for any washer dryer anyways. There is a laundromat next block over. It was dark and poorly lit and I knew it would be stifling in the summer.

My own washing machine died two weeks ago. It was at least 15 years old but the transmission died. I had a back load of laundry which had accumulated while waiting for the repairman- I'd assumed it was fixable. I now had to find places to do laundry. One is my mother's apartment building, which I've been to a couple of times. The machines there are huge. The downside is having to explain just about everything in my life including why certain things are in my laundry. The other: my sister who has a washer and dryer in her apartment. However, when I've asked if I could come over, she will vaguely say, "Maybe" or "we'll see". After 40 years, I know this means never. The other option is the laundromat, the very same one where I would be bringing my wash if I lived in that ratty duplex.


I have to lug bags of laundry and head to the laundromat several blocks away. While my clothes wash, I walked around the area looking for rentals. With a huge backload of laundry, it has amounted to a huge time drain while I need to find a place to live. So, until that day arrives, I will make use of their pick up and deliver laundry service. It will make my life suck just a tiny bit less.

The Lucy show

Every once in a while there are those periods where my life resembles an episode of Lucy or the Lucy Show. Last week for instance: my ancient washing machine died. While I awaited the visit of the repairman (who gave me the diagnosis) i knocked a beer glass off the counter and it broke. I had to vacuum up glass. Then my cheap sunglasses fell and broke. This was all in the space of an hour. At those times I simply go WWWAAAAAAAAAAAH! and channel Lucille Ball.

The transmission on the ancient machine is gone and now, in addition to apartment hunting, I now have to traipse around looking for places to do laundry. Unfortunately, my neigbhourhood is not exactly blessed with laundromats. The nearest is several blocks away, which means lugging heavy bags of laundry on a bus. I also go to my mother's and use her machine. This is not exactly how I intended to spend the month of April but after a very busy work month in march, I had already decided to slow down a bit. I am looking for an apartment and now, I have to find a rock on which to beat my washing.

The long, glum winter was also fraught with domestic disasters: a noisy valve somewhere in the building kept me up at nights in January. My phone service crapped out for three days in February. Now I'm a wandering Laundry Jew.

Of course, I could always look on the BRIGHT side, as everyone insists you do when your life just sucks canal water. The machine didn't blow up and flood the place or start a fire (Sitting amidst a flood of suds- that would have been Lucy!). It's not winter so all that shlepping around won't be in the freezing cold. And I have at least three places I can do laundry. Which is what I'll be doing tonight. Laundromat on a saturday night. That's not Lucy, that's the potential serial killer on Law and Order SVU.