Six for Saturday: The Ideal Apartment

It's that time of year again to reassess the living situation and decide whether to stay put, or move on. This week, I will wallow in my own self-pity and list a bunch of things my apartment doesn't have that I really wish it did.

1. Kitchen counters. I don't mean this in like an "Oh, man, my kitchen sure could use more counter space..." kind of way. I mean we literally have no counters.
   
   
2. Kitchen cabinets and a pantry. Okay, okay. I'm already kind of stretching this to make 6 things, but seriously: we have three cabinets—one of which we can't reach because it's over the fridge. That makes for a lot of stand-alone shelving for pots/pans/pantry.
   
   
3. Storage. We have one tiny closet to store stuff in. If we want to put stuff in the basement, we have to ask the store below us to let us in during business hours. Which we have never done.
   
   
4. Space for 2 desks. It would be great if Bryan could have a desk for his desktop computer and I could have a desk to actually sit at and do things. Maybe if we were more organized, this wouldn't be a big deal. But, let's face it, we've lived here for almost a year now—things like this aren't really going to change.
   
   
5. Yard and/or porch. Right now we have a parking space and a patch of dirt down the wrought-iron stairs from our second-floor apartment. It's fine enough for the 20 or so potted plants that make up our garden and the smallest grill ever, but it would be nice to have a yard. Or a porch even to put the grill on. Right now if we want to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather (when there is some to be had), we sit on the bus bench out front. So sad.
   
   
6. Peace and quiet. During the day and into the evening, the harp store downstairs has lessons and the plucking of strings can be heard clearly throughout the apartment. Not to mention the traffic 2 feet outside our window on a major (albeit 2-lane) thoroughfare.

Other than that, I love our apartment. It is close to everything. It has just enough space for our stuff. We don't pay for heat or water (which is great because I like sleeping with the window open in the winter, and we use a lot of water for the aforementioned 20 potted plants). The landlord has provided 3 window A/C units that provide an amazing amount of comfort during 100˚F days for a surprisingly reasonable amount of electricity. We also have an almost-new washer and dryer right in the kitchen, which makes throwing a load of laundry in almost too easy (I love not going up and down stairs to do this). And the landlord doesn't bother us at all.

So, I guess, here's to a very American, the-grass-is-always-greener mentality... Oh, and please feel free to take this opportunity to complain about your living space. Or really anything at all.