felt like i needed a change and i figured the easiest way was to switch out the skin on my blog... back to a maystar design... i like the simplicity and the cuteness of this... i'm thinking about doing a skin based on my beetle, but that'll take a little work and probably won't happen for a while (if ever)...

Movin' On My Mind... Maybe...

I haven't posted in a while and it's because I've been obsessed. I've been completely consumed with thoughts of moving. My lease is up at the end of July and I'm exploring my options. My goal is to decrease my monthly housing costs. I really love my little apartment, but with rent, utilities, cable/roadrunner, and phone bills I pay about $750 a month just to live there. And, that's really just about right on track with what they recommend you spend on living expenses compared to your income (it's about one week's pay before taxes), but with my other extreme debt, I think I should be spending less.

So I came up with a couple of options:

1. I could move home. I mean, I could save $750 a month! I could have my loan from the Pa and the Wham to pay off the credit cards paid off in just under 2 years! Pa was all for this idea. I think Wham was going to fall over when he suggested it though. It was a very nice offer, but I can't move home. Wham and I did not get along very well when I lived at home, and we get along awesomely now, so I'm thinking that moving home is not the best solution. Also, there's no room at the inn anyways.
2. I could find a roommate and a 2 bedroom apartment. I'm not a huge fan of living with strangers, but if it reduces the bills then it could be worth it. And I could end up meeting someone awesome and gaining a new friend. BUT... I could end up with a complete freak... And I'm really particular about my furniture and its placement and I'm sort of a control freak about that kind of stuff... Also we'd have to have a 2 bedroom apartment that's acceptable to both of us and it could be a lot more expensive so when you split the costs it doesn't actually save all that much...
3. I could try and find a smaller/less expensive place. A viable option. But when I was looking for this apartment, I ended up choosing it because it was the least expensive not ghetto place I found. I did just find a listing for a one bedroom apartment right on the park (on the non-ghetto-actually-very-pretty side of the park) for $425 which is $145 cheaper than what I currently pay in rent... But it's a 3rd floor walk-up. And the parking situation by the park is heinous... And there's either something really wrong with it or it's tiny for it to be at that location for that price. But I would absolutely love to live right on the park like that. It's so beautiful there with all the historic buildings...
4. Alex could move in with me. He works right in Albany and already ends up spending the night before he's got to be into work early in the mornings. And if he moved in with me, we wouldn't necessarily have to get a 2 bedroom apartment, so I may be able to save more money. We could, in fact, stay at my little apartment now, but he'd be bringing his large TV and stereo/gaming equipment and possibly a dresser or something like that and it could be a tight squeeze. But still doable. And I wouldn't have to leave my pretty near perfect little place.

I'm thinking that option 4 is the one that's most likely going to happen. Alex and I talked about it and he's into moving in with me and that rocks. So we can stay where I'm at, or we can try and find a little bit bigger apartment. I don't want to spend too much more a month on an apartment because even though two of us could afford more the whole point was to save money... Both of us would like to live by Washington Park in Albany because the buildings (on the good side) of the park are so pretty and the neighborhood is really nice. But the apartments there are expensive... We were walking by the park the other day and we saw a two bedroom apartment advertised that sounded promising. It's a basement apartment and I think it said that heat and hot water were included but it didn't give the rent price... I'm hoping that it'd be cheaper than most two bedroom apartments on the park because it is a basement apartment and those are usually cheaper. I'm going to call and check that place out... There are also these townhouses near where I live now that are 2 bedroom/2 floor townhouses with basements and washer/dryer hookups that are probably more practical. They're about a hundred dollars more a month than what I pay now, which isn't too bad, but no utilities are included so those'd be more a month than what I currently pay because my heat and hot water is included with my rent. It would be nice to have a place that felt more like a house... And it'd be awesome to have a washer/dryer in my place (after I save up for them...). But we'll see. I do really like my place now... Wherever I end up will have to be as cute and have as much character (or be a much better deal).

For a week I was obsessed with the thought of buying a place. There's a girl in my department at work who's getting married in October and she and her fiance have been looking for a house and I started browsing through the listings and I found this little blue house in Albany and I fell in love with it:

It's way downtown towards the river in the "Historic Pastures" neighborhood of Albany. It's a three bedroom 1.5 bath and it's adorable... The listing price was $74740 which technically could be within my range... I was completely obsessed with buying that little house and even figured out that, worst case scenario, my monthly cost of living in that house with rent, insurance, taxes, utilities, homeowners association fees... Etc... Would be around $900. That's really not bad... And only $150 more than I'm paying now in living expenses... And really, I could technically swing that on my own (that's my rule... I don't want to live in a place that I can't afford entirely on my own because I like to know that I can take care of myself)... But I'm trying to save money... And I even though I was completely enamored by that house I made myself stop thinking about it. I don't know yet what might happen with the NYSP... So I should keep my options open and not commit myself to a house because really, unless you're in the house for at least 3 to 5 years you're not benefiting from owning compared to renting. So, sigh... No cute little blue house to match my cute little blue car... Not yet... ;)

So now I'm back to obsessing about if I should move and, if so, where... Yesterday, this was my horoscope: "The possibility of moving out of your current neighborhood may have vaguely occurred to you in the past, dear Cancer, but events occurring today might have you finally making up your mind to do so. Perhaps too many good neighbors have moved away, or perhaps a rush of good fortune has made it possible for you to 'move on up.' Much has to be considered and decided before it happens, but if this is what you really want, go for it." I was freaked out by how applicable that horoscope actually was to me... But then nothing really happened yesterday that made me resolve to move out... In fact, I got home after having worked overtime at work and I was really hyper. My supervisor had bought us dinner and I got a Mountain Dew Code Red to drink and it made me completely off the wall crazy hyper (I guess that's not uncommon... I was telling my fellow late-stayers that my stomach was feeling "flippy" which was how it used to feel in the early morning hours when I worked overnight shifts at the hospital and I'd always assumed that it was because I was up so late and now I guessed that it had to do with the Mountain Dew because I'd consumed that during the night shifts too and my one coworker, Matt, said that he can't drink Mountain Dew anymore because it causes anxiety and he once had a panic attack after drinking a bunch of Mountain Dew... But I'm like, way off track here...). So I got home and I was still hyper and I put on HGTV and I couldn't just sit there and watch and I got inspired and I rearranged my bedroom:

Before

After
And now I really enjoy my bedroom. And I can totally see how I could fit another dresser in there... And where my TV would go.... Sigh. I might as well just stay where I'm at... It's less work, anyways... And I do love the little apartment... But then, I do love change and it's just so much fun to look (and to obsess)...

It's a conundrum.