Tomorrow morning, I will finally be moving into my first apartment and I’m sure it will be interesting to say the least (read: everything that can go wrong will go wrong). I sent in my application for the property back in March and signed the lease in April. It’s a bit under a mile away from campus which is less than ideal but it’s far enough out in the small college town of Isla Vista that it will at least be quiet; something that was my greatest concern. Over the first week of summer that I spent back at home, I’ve done a bit of planning to make the move-in process go smoothly as well as the first few weeks of living there.
Most of the items for apartment have been ordered from Amazon.com (thank God for Prime) since it’s tax-free in California and there was a vast selection of items. The furniture is coming from people I find on Craigslist (thus far, I’ve secured a kitchen table with charis, a couch and a coffee table); I don’t expect to find all the items I need on day one – I’m fine with sleeping on a couch until I find a nice bed for sale. One of the biggest benefits for me, however, is that I’ll no longer be using the awful ResNet service offered in the residence halls at UCSB. I’ve signed up for a 15Mb down, 1Mb up connection from the local cable company and I hope that works out.
My biggest concern is how I’ll make it ‘home’ since I expect to live there for at least a year, most likely two. I asked about the whole move-in process and personalizing an apartment on MetaFilter and received a variety of great responses. The general consensus seems to dictate that lighting, scents, wall decorations, plants, and colors make the biggest impact. I’m limited in how much I can really change about it; I’m prohibited from painting it which is a bit of a let-down. I’m sure that making this place something that resmebles home will be the most difficult and the most time consuming. Living in the residence halls didn’t afford much room for personalization and as such, my room looked sterile and bland – something I’d like to change this time around.
In a rare trend, I believe this is one of the few things personal endeavors I will publish on the site. I’ll be updating this and posting further with pictures and updates.