Our New Place and a Giant Sigh of Relief

I just have to tell the relief part first. It is a very happy ending. We lost Buster. We got to our apartment in the late morning, brought everything in, including the cats and Nikkyo and Buster were exploring. There is a space on the kitchen floor between the two sets of cabinets – which Nikkyo and Buster immediately crawled into – very dirty. We saw them both just before we left for my parents’ place around 1pm. When we got back around 4pm, Nikkyo was in the crawlspace but Buster was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere. There is a hole in that area above that the sink pipe goes into, but which is big enough for at least Buster to get into. We talked to the landlord, who is so nice we can hardly stand it. He called several times throughout the evening to check in and see if Buster had returned. He said that underneath was just a crawlspace that runs the length of the (very long) apartment and goes between ours and the one below. He took Lori to the basement but they determined that hole definitely does not go all the way down. We eventually went out to dinner around 6pm (more on that later) and when we returned, still no Buster. We were still despairing a couple of hours later, thinking how crazy it was that he would make it all the way across the country without incident only to be lost in our apartment building on our first day there. It was about 8:30pm when he finally came out. The landlord is going to board up that space over the weekend. We made a makeshift barrier, but at least we know if he gets through it, he can get out again. Relief doesn’t even begin to describe it. Now they are sleeping on our air mattress where they belong.

Now on to other things. We LOVE our new apartment. Our friend Lisa could not have picked a better place. It’s huge, great floors, high ceilings, the location is stellar. There’s actually more storage than we thought – there are 2 closets – one very small one but it’s perfect for coats and another one that is actually very long. The landlord put an armoire in the bedroom so we don’t need to buy as much for storage as we’d initially thought. Our bathroom table will fit in the bathroom perfectly. The kitchen is small but very nice with great cabinets (except for that space between them!). Pictures are below.

We are right down the street from Donna’s Cafe, where we had a delicious dinner (pricey though, so will be an occasional treat), Starbucks, bagels, Barnes & Noble, sushi, small specialty market, a liquor store where they make keys, several other cafes and food places – since it’s right near Johns Hopkins University of course. My great friend Marnee, from whom I now live just over a mile tells me there is a year-round, weekly farmer’s market a mere 6 blocks away.

Not only that, we immediately got our wi-fi hooked up in the apartment AND our phones have 5 bars – 5 BARS! Tomorrow I will call the new job and set up a time to go in and make it official. Plan is to start the week of April 25th, hopefully mid-week. My parents are very happy we’re here. We’ll see them again on Friday with my aunt and uncle who are driving back to Ottawa from Florida and stopping in. Thursday is moving day. We have lots to do but also plan to take some time to explore and familiarize Lori with B’more.

Ok, enough yapping, here’s the pics:

Immediately to left of the door to our apartment, small hall closet

Room just past closet, our living room, facing the street

The other side of the living room, with back to the windows, long closet

Facing hallway from living room, far door is door to our apt

Looooooooong Hallway

Bedroom, from doorway

Bathroom from doorway, enough room for my bathroom table next to toilet

Bathroom from in front of toilet, door is to right of radiator

Kitchen from doorway

Kitchen 2

Office from doorway

Right side of office

Cats and humans can sit in these windowsills