Here are five things I’m thinking about when it comes to my new apartment:
1) Working from my office
It has been such a delight to have my own office! I love that I can completely compartmentalize my working life now, and when I’m done working for the day, I can shut everything down, turn off the light, and fully leave the room for the night. (On Monday, I was hoping for a dramatic moment where I could shut down my laptop, turn off the light, and close the door firmly behind me, but Eloise was sleeping on my office chair and took that joy away from me. SIGH.)
I still need to figure out the cat lounging situation. I have a cart that Eloise will sleep on top of (I have a blanket for her) and I put one of their covered beds in the room, but Lila seems a little out of sorts when she walks into the office. I think I might put her hammock on the other side of my desk and see if she starts using it.
2) Figuring out the thermostat
In my old apartment, my AC needed to be between 68-70 degrees for it to feel comfortable. Usually, I would increase the temp to 74 degrees during the day to try to save on electricity, and that was the absolute max I could handle. Anything else and I would feel like I was suffocating. In this apartment, I’m still trying to figure out the ideal temp. My first night here, I set the thermostat to 70 degrees and woke up freezing. I could even feel how cold the cats were! The next night, I tried 72 degrees—still cold! Last night, I slept comfortably at 74 degrees, and that makes no sense to me. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s been a smidge colder at night (in the 60s, which I know will make my northern friends laugh), so I don’t really need the AC as cold as the summer. Or maybe this place is just much more insulated than my previous apartment! I guess time will tell. It would be lovely if I could keep the AC at 73 or higher, though! Imagine the electricity savings!
3) A delightful bubble bath
My new bathtub is one of my favorite things about this apartment! Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a bath until last night because the drain stopper was broken, so I had to have maintenance fix it. I was in heaven the minute I sank down into the tub. The water was hot and there was just so much space to spread out! Plus, there’s a lovely incline for me to lean on, and I could have stayed in there forever. (The shower is nice, too! It is so spacious and I’m digging the rainfall showerhead.)
4) Too many kitchen cabinets?!
What a problem to have! There are a lot of kitchen cabinets and I am still trying to figure out the most ideal way to organize all of my kitchen items. There’s also a lot of counter space, which means I can have things like my air fryer out. (I’m really excited about this because the reason I didn’t use my air fryer as much as I could have it because I hated lugging it out of a cabinet every time I needed it.)
The other problem with my kitchen cabinets is that they’re pretty high. The bottom of the cabinet meets my eye line, which means I’ll need a step stool to reach anything in the third or fourth shelf. I also need a step stool to reach anything in the cabinets over my microwave. (I’m 5’2, so it’s not unusual for me to struggle with height-related tasks!)
I know I just need to live in the space for a bit to figure out the ideal way to organize all of my kitchen items, and I’ve already swapped around what’s in the different cabinets a few times. (For example, my mug collection went into a skinny cabinet, but didn’t fit well, so I moved them to a large cabinet, but then that felt like too much space, so I moved them to a different, more central cabinet. We’ll see if that’s a good location for them!)
5) Lila
Lila has had quite the adjustment period to her new home. I knew she would struggle more than Eloise. She’s my skittish lady who never, ever comes out from under the couch when guests are over. (Although sometimes she will appear if my mom is over.) For the first few nights, she was digging in the litter box and making these really mournful meows as she crept around the apartment. She’s never done anything like that before, and usually, her meow is a soft squeak that you can barely hear. It was very unlike her!
But she’s adjusting – she’s not hiding under the couch as much as she was in the first few days, Eloise has stopped hissing at her (she did this when we were at the Airbnb together earlier this year; I think it’s something about establishing dominance? IDK!), and I’ve found her curled up on her favorite beds and hammocks. She’s also been meowing at me for treats again, which is a go-to indication that she’s getting comfortable in her new home.
Bubble baths: yay or nay?
Welcome to the world of having your own office! The benefits cannot be overstated.
I promise that you will adapt to having “too many cupboards”;-)
It always takes a period of adjustment! I have found that wherever I put something when I moved in, that is where it stayed. In other words, I could probably rejig a few things around here!
I hear you on the thermostat. I swear our HVAC system has some kind of strange sensor. Like, we keep it cool at night, but the HVAC is set a few degrees warmer than I would think it needs to be, but our temperature gauges read cooler…I don’t know, every season change we have to fiddle with it a little.
YES to bubble baths! Except, I hardly ever take baths. I just don’t have the time usually, and in our house, the master bath only has a shower, which means if I want to take a bath I have to do it in my daughter’s bathroom, which means I want to do it when she’s not home… you’re making me really want a bath now. I’m envious of your tub.
I’ll bet your new place is more insulated, which is a GREAT thing! You will be able to save on the electric bill.
Oh, Lila! Cats really hate change, don’t they? It sounds like she’s settling in. I know for my cats, if there are treats to be had, they’ll adjust to just about anything.
Yay! What a fun new place! I’m so excited for you.
Zelda never had too much trouble adjusting to new places and within a day or two she was asserting her territory and dominance over mere humans. But when we first moved into our house, there was a VERY stressful twenty minutes when I could not find her. I was crying because what if she had gotten outside somehow and it was a new place and she was scared or catnapped or hit by a car? And then we found her in a closet and we still don’t know how she got in there.
Anyway, Zelda sends cat encouragement to Lila. Your new place is going to be awesome. Lila!
I think this post perfectly captures how important little luxuries are!! I’m so happy for you that your new place fits like a glove.
Look at that office! And, the tub!! I’m so happy for you. It’s such a right on statement that you need live in the space and feel out where things will go and the temp and all that. Congrats on the new digs!!
Hard pass on bubble baths or baths in general! We have a very large soaker tub in our primary bathroom. If we ever remodel, I would get rid of it and make our standing shower bigger. I am just not a bath person! But I am glad you have a great bath set up!
I’m so glad you have an office now. That is such a game changer! Mine is in the basement. I love that it’s out of sight/out of mind. And when I am down there, I am FOCUSED as there isn’t temptation to clean something or fold laundry, etc.
I hope you are able to set your A/C a bit higher than in your old apt. In the summer when we run our A/C, we set it at … wait for it … 78! Maybe 76. If we have guests I will lower it to 74 so they don’t feel uncomfortable. Then in the winter, we set it at 68 during the day (sometimes I bump it up to 70) and at night it’s at 63! I am sure this is all blowing your mind. I get very cold easily so I don’t mind the higher setting during the summer – most of the time. And I just have very cozy jammies for the winter.
If you do a remodel, I’ll have to give you Bri’s number so you can talk to her about it! She just did that exact thing – she had a small stall-like standing shower and then this HUGE Jacuzzi bathtub that they never used. So they tore it out and made it into a large walk-in shower and are building the old shower into a closet. 🙂
I’m 5’1 and I lived with a roommate who was even shorter than me in grad school. I think there were entire halves of cabinets that went unused because we didn’t have many belongings and we were too short to reach them. Every once in a while someone taller who visited would put something away up high and it would take us forever to find it.
Awwwww Lila. <3 I get it, girlie. Change is hard.
LOVE your bath — it's enormous! I am not a bath person but I love that you have such a great place to relax and read. What do the cats think of your baths? Are they worried about you? Interested? My cat is obsessed with the shower. He will come hang out on the bath mat and then after anyone is done showering, he goes in to investigate the drips from the showerhead.
Lila could care less what I’m doing when I take a bath, but Eloise gets VERY concerned. Whenever I start the bathwater, she’ll come running and sit right outside the door as if guarding it. And then she’ll just sit nearby during my bath like a lil creep. 😉 And whenever I finish my shower and open the shower curtain, she’s always sitting somewhere in the bathroom, keeping an eye on the shower! She won’t do anything IN the shower once I’m done – I guess she’s just keeping watch. 😉
Oh look at you with an own home office. And shame on Eloise for stealing your joy.
I love me hot bath but would opt for a salt bath instead of bubbles.
It is so hard to figure out the right way to store kitchen stuff. Such a struggle.
I have cabinet height probs too. But if you have too much space you could just NOT USE the tops, and that’s pretty awesome. It looks SO GREAT, and I love that you have an office– such a great way to “leave” when you work from home.
This is so exciting! I love how you’re figuring out your new space. I am sorry that Lila is having issues adjusting but I hope she’ll love it there soon enough.
No bubble bath for me, btw. I am 100% a shower girl.
Your new apartment looks wonderful! Too much cupboard space is such a luxury! I used to love a hot bath, but we remodeled our bathroom and got a big shower, and I haven’t missed the bathtub at all. I’m so happy for you to have your separate office!
I love that you have a separate office now yay!!! And heck yeah to that tub with the incline! When I arrived home from my trip Monday night Steven had a bath drawn for me and I was like 🥹🥹 I am so glad Lila is getting used to the new place!
I used to be a bath person. I can’t do it anymore. But I’m so glad your new tub is so conducive to the Perfect Bath Setup. I think you need a small table where you can set a drink and a speaker and any other accoutrements you need for the optimal bath experience. 🙂
I hope Lila is settling in! She sounds like me, with my new-apartment-that-wasn’t. I’m feeling rather sheepish, given how you’ve adapted in such a short time to your new place. Ah, well, eventually I will find a new place. Where it will be is anyone’s guess…
Hope the longer-term settling in is going swimmingly and that you still love it. <3