The Apartment

May 15, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

The apartment is good and we have everything squared away. It took a little bit of craiglist searching to find the random stuff we needed. We budgeted around $200 to get a kitchen counter top table, a love seat, a couple TV’s, and a couple lamps. Now the first apartment is awesome. So far there…

Ikea equals awesome

April 16, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

Ikea makes every budget look too high. Besides being a madhouse of shoppers and lacking enough employees, Ikea works for every first apartment budget. I planned on paying around $800 to furnish my room. I needed a bed frame, a night stand, a dresser, a bookshelf, a desk, a chair for the desk, and some…

Free Time?!?

April 11, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

I have so many bills already. Paying rent and utilities is going to be a pain. There already not enough free time. Yet, I’m thinking of getting a part-time job to make some extra cash—like 5 to 10 hours a week at a job that pays $15ish—maybe I can bartend again. But, then I was…

Chicago Rocks

April 10, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

Living in the city is going to be indescribably cool. There are no fancy metaphors or analogies I can give: Chicago is awesome. My photography will pick up; my writing will get a culture boost. I cannot wait for those warm summer days when I can just walk around the neighborhood and look around. There’s…

What to Get?

April 5, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

The getting is good. Everything we don’t have we’ll get when we figure out what exactly is missing. The list on myfirstapartment.com helps a lot. It’s a list full of products and staples that I wouldn’t think of until I actually needed to use them. But there might be other holes, too. Like, we don’t…

The Wait Begins

April 1, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

I cannot wait to move out. My new bedroom is looking nice, right? Look at that view! Staying with my folks got old quick. I’ve been here for just about a year, but after five years on my own at college, give me a break—I can’t take this anymore. I’m the guy who doesn’t bring…

Striking Gold

March 29, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

We found a place. Everything we wanted, plus it’s cheap. Somewhere in the middle of seeing bogus place after bogus place (see picture), I snapped and had to talk some sense into my roommates. After the places we saw last weekend, I could tell that they were getting tired of looking around. Yet they still…

This Might be the One

March 24, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

The apartment my roommates and I checked out on Wednesday night was great. There were two living rooms, three big bedrooms, two decks, and a big kitchen. Plus, the apartment was on the top floor and as an added bonus there was no security deposit, only a $200 dollar non-refundable move-in fee that we would…

Week two – no luck yet

March 22, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

We’ve been looking at several 3-bedroom apartments in the last four days, but nothing has seemed right yet. One apartment was cool, the landlord seemed reliable, but the bedrooms were closets. I did not realize it would be this difficult to find a place. It’s not like our requirements are that tough, either. We’re looking…

So it begins

March 17, 2006 | By Jeff AuthorMy First Apartment

The apartment search is slowly progressing. There’s promise out there, but lots of B.S. to scour through first. The good news: my friend Kopala found out that his girlfriend is going to grad school and can’t live with him for a couple years. So, I don’t have to worry any more about being home poor…