Found a Place to Live!

To make a long day of events short, Tuesday was basically just a repeat of Monday – about two-dozen calls and several mediocre viewings. One property stood out – it was a complete remodel that nobody had been in since. It was gorgeous, but about $100 over what I was hoping to spend and about a mile further out than I wanted.

My new place in midtown Harrisburg.

I did, however, find the right place in the end. There’s a group called WCI Partners that’s bought lots of buildings in the neighborhood where three other andCulture employees live. They remodel and sell or lease the rowhouses out, and they do great work. Fortunately for me, they actually have their work done by the woman-owned construction company that remodeled the other house I liked so much! They really have their act together – wrote up all the remodeling changes they committed to for me – and are super nice – she let me borrow her umbrella all day to look at other places. So I feel at peace about it.

The house’s current seafoam green carpet (when was that popular?) will be replaced with new flooring and the whole place will be painted in some nice neutral tones (the kitchen is currently pumpkin orange with a plum ceiling – what were they thinking?). They’re adding a washer and dryer to my private basement plus a security system. There’s even central air, which is definitely nice, though I’ll be making the switch to life without a dishwasher.

There’s one bathroom and 2.5 bedrooms upstairs. The “third bedroom” really is tiny so I’m going to geek out and turn it into a library! My room has doors out to a second floor balcony. Hopefully once I get settled I can rent out the other bedroom to interns at the capitol or maybe exchange students. I don’t need that to make the rent, but it would help me save some money and give me some company besides Paparazzi, who’s welcome there. They even waived the pet deposit and pet rent to meet my budget.

I’m in the same neighborhood as Liz Rose, who recommended me for this new job because she’s awesome, and she raves about the neighborhood – block parties, really friendly, strong neighborhood watch. I’m hoping to buy my way into her car pool party too to save money on gas when I don’t want to walk, though I hope to do that a lot for the exercise – it’s about 2.5 miles round trip - while it's nice.

The Church of Poetry at Midtown Scholar
Bookstore down the street.

I’m also just a few blocks from the Susquehanna River, where there’s a great walking trail people take their dogs on all the time, and I’m about half a mile from a giant bookstore/café and farmers’ market. It’s just what I wanted. :-)

So, despite the initial nerves and probably 10 miles of walking over three days, I ended up with a great deal in the end. And I’m not worried that I’m missing out because I think I’ve seen every freaking available place in the area!

My projected move-in date is May 15, depending on how fast they can do the work they need to. If you need my new address, just send me an email since I don’t want to post it online. If you're in the area, I plan to have a moving party: Beer, Brisket, and Boxes. Apparently Shiner and decent barbecue are scare in Central Pennsylvania so I aim to remedy that for any who will help.

I’m not sure yet what will be my last day in Texas, though I’ll probably be around through the end of April. My official start date at andCulture is May 9, but they’re flexible on that. John and I will likely be road tripping out to PA, so I’ll keep y’all posted on when I’m leaving the great state of Texas.