22 July 2007 - 5:39 pm

Busy Week cont'd:

The property is now in escrow, and will close on August 10th. There have been inspections, reports, and paperwork flying about. Phone calls, information to gather, references to get, forms to fill out and fax. Things are progressing. And yet, at the same time, until I take possession, there is very little I can do. I really want to measure the place and start getting estimates on building a loft in the bedroom, bookcases on the entire wall in the living room, and stripping down the plasterboard on the window wall and exposing the light colored brick. Do I get to keep the curtains or not? The curtain rods? The shower curtain? When will the termite spraying take place, and when will the electrical panel that got turned from fuse box into a breaker box be correctly wired? It's all very hurry up and wait. I am definitely going to pay for the full month of August here at the apartment, since I really haven't figured out when I can move. If I have money to make those changes to the unit, I will wait to move furniture after that has taken place. Otherwise, there is no reason to wait, I should move the furniture I know I want over there the very weekend after escrow closes, and deal with the aftermath of stuff at this end. But, if no money available, it will all wait until I have saved, and can do the slight remodelling while living there.

Today, Yvonne the roommate, (who was only going to stay a couple months, or until the end of 2006 at the latest) moved out into a place of her own. She signed a year long lease. Her friend didn't come through for her in helping her move, and I could see how little stuff she really had, a car load at the most, so I offered for today to move her. Cleaning my car out for maximum room, it was one car load of stuff, then another car load for the beginnings of her canvases and her only piece of furniture. These were actually things she expected her friend would help her move, since her friend has an SUV (she has four children, so needs it for carting them about) and so now her friend only needs to make one quick trip to carry over the canvases we suspect are too big to fit in my car.

Yvonne seemed to be under the impression that I was anxious for her to move out, and in some ways, yes, but mostly no. Now there is no excuse for not getting anything done: I can make as big a mess as I want without it impacting anyone else, and so I really should start. And yet I am not inspired to do this massive purging that needs to be done. It would help if I had those keys to the new unit in hand. It would help if I sat in that space and communed with it, got a sense for how the space wants to be arranged. This can only be done by sitting and listening to it, something I try to do with every new space I move into. But instead, I need to make decisions about it now, rather than later.

After we got Yvonne's one load of stuff moved by noon, we wandered about the Santa Monica Farmer's market after getting some coffee, and the Mar Vista Farmer's market and had lunch at Taco Bell, while taking a tour of the two block radius she now lives next to. It was our fond farewell to one another.

So now I am wandering about my apartment, wondering what I really should be working on. With her stuff out of the extra bedroom, I took a picture of the futon she has been using, so I can post it for sale on Craig's List (matching cover and pillows with a snake/mayan motif). And I look at the light coming in, and think this would make a great yoga/exercise room for the remaining time. It has the full floor to ceiling mirror I put in there, I could move the TV/DVD player from the bedroom to here, and check my form while following the instructions of all the yoga videos I own.

I took a picture of the washer and dryer I will be selling, which I think I actually already have a taker on, need to check back on that. I took a photo of the dining table and chair, and know I can sell that set. If I concentrate on getting rid of things I know I can sell, then it will free up space, physical and mental.

If the bed loft gets built, I can sell my trusty bedframe and futon, great for storing things underneath. I was flipping through a magazine and saw organically made beds for sale in the local area. Maybe even buy myself a new mattress. I can always sleep on the sofa bed until everything else comes together. If the bookcase gets built, then I can finally be rid of the falling apart bookcases I have gained from here and there (the ones that increase in falling-apartness each time they get moved), and get rid of the boards and bricks that Mr. Electricity has complained about for years. I have loved my boards and bricks, particularly since they have been so versatile in how to set them up depending on the space I have needed to fill. Maybe even get rid of the stereo's storage thing it sits on, which is black and again too dark for the space, if I have replacement housing built into the wall of storage I am envisioning. The storage unit, the bricks and boards, the spare table here, another bookcase there, oh some chairs, some other things, these I even are willing to just plain give away. Do you have a good, loving, home? You can take it!

These are the thoughts flying through my head, plotting and planning, and trying to determine how much of what I have acquired I am willing to give up. The media center I splurged on a few years ago, though I love, is just too dark a wood for the tiny space I am trying not to overpower. So it needs to be sold. The bed frame with matching night stand and dressing table, the dressing table was all I ever wanted, so perhaps it is time to sell the frame and night stand? It came as a set, I would hate to break it up, but... Especially again, if I build a bed loft. I build a loft, I have an office to set up then, beneath the bed loft. Maximum utilization of minimum space.

But as you can see, I need to get in and measure to plot all this space so tightly and make it work to best advantage for me. Itching, itching. So much to do. So much to re-arrange. Right now I am stressing, but I know once I get going, it will get easier.

I can play music again in the apartment. Yvonne didn't seem to care for it, or at least not what I chose to play. So I just stopped. Now I can start again, as I will continue once I move into my new only me space. It's been a long time since I didn't have to share space with anyone. Since I could afford to not share space. I'm not sure I really can afford this new place, but I will make it happen. Thus the selling of the stuff. Every little bit helps.

I am reluctant to start. I am sad to leave. I have been cruising through my new neighborhood, trying to get a feel for it. I might not hang out in it so much, but it is so close to many places I wish to hang out in.

The energy over there is of a busy, bustling city. I drive through here, West LA, that has been my home ever since I moved to Los Angeles, and I feel as though it has been the quiet, sleepy, burbs I have been living in. (Me never having actually lived in real suburbia, this is as close as I have ever come.) I drive past landmarks of my area and think, I won't be missing that. There will be no reason for me to come over to this area for some well established routine I have had for years. Nope, none of that. I am actually anxious to get moved, and start exploring my new world of nearly downtown LA. I am anxious to feel the energy I have been feeling lacking here in West LA, to feel the vibrancy I experience every time I visit Manhattan, probably why the thought of exposing a brick wall sounds so right. Living in a co-op, having an exposed brick wall, two blocks away from the local subway system, I might as well live in New York City.

But I'm not. I am in sunny, sunny Southern California. And I am about to move into a place of my own. And that, I am excited about.