My New Apartment
As some of you may know, I just moved to Reno from the Sacramento area. My new apartment is sort of cute, but better yet, it's cheap. It's right across the river from the downtown casinos and is more importantly, near the main library. It is interesting, I've never lived right in the middle of a city. I'm pretty much a country girl at heart and love living on lots of land with space for all my animals. It is nice to be close to stuff though. When I post on Craigslist and Freecycle there are people actually located close to me! (-: I'll also be right near Street Vibrations and Hot August Nights when they go on. Yeah!
There are a couple of things that are bugging me about the new place though. One is that it is an apartment and an old one at that. It lets every sound in and every sound out. You can even hear the people below me talking and when someone knocks on someone else's door, I can't tell if it's mine or the neig
hbor's. I can be quiet when I need to be but the cats and the rabbits can't seem to understand they should be quiet as well. Little Bit has been chasing Holly around their cage (the rabbits) starting at about 1 am and continuing until about 5 am. The cats have been playing racetrack by running around the apartment and then bouncing off the wall to turn around in the other direction and run that way. It sounds like a herd of galloping horses. All this at about 3 am until everyone in the apartment building is awake and leaving very early for work. I've tried everything to get them to shut up and at least play tag during the daytime. No go. My cats and rabbits are obviously not prepared to be quiet to satisfy anyone, least of all me. I think my neighbors are either acclimating to the constant noise or have started to sleep with earplugs since I don't hear them wake up whenever the cats start anymore. So, since no one has come up and screamed at me for disturbing their sleep I think we're doing okay there.
The other problem I'm having with the apartment is stupid. I can't figure out a way to arrange it so that it is comfortable and not terribly cluttered. I said it was stupid. It wasn't a problem initially since we didn't bring any furniture over the mountains with us. The car was pretty much packed with the cats and rabbit cages and we barely had enough room for some clothes and random items. So the apartment was nice and empty to start with. Lots of room and it looked easy enough to arrange the furniture when we got some. I looked and looked and finally found a small couch for free on Craigslist. We ran over and picked it up with our car. (Yeah, we strapped it on top. We looked great driving around like that!) After carrying it up the stairs and putting it in our apartment we realized there was a problem. Even though it was a small couch it sort of took over the apartment. Then we got a free bed when one of the casinos was getting all new ones (yep, strapped it to the car again). That took up the entire bedroom. Free TV stand, filled another corner. A couple of cute, free blue chairs, we can barely move. Well, it's a small apartment, it was to be expected.
There are a couple of things that are bugging me about the new place though. One is that it is an apartment and an old one at that. It lets every sound in and every sound out. You can even hear the people below me talking and when someone knocks on someone else's door, I can't tell if it's mine or the neig
hbor's. I can be quiet when I need to be but the cats and the rabbits can't seem to understand they should be quiet as well. Little Bit has been chasing Holly around their cage (the rabbits) starting at about 1 am and continuing until about 5 am. The cats have been playing racetrack by running around the apartment and then bouncing off the wall to turn around in the other direction and run that way. It sounds like a herd of galloping horses. All this at about 3 am until everyone in the apartment building is awake and leaving very early for work. I've tried everything to get them to shut up and at least play tag during the daytime. No go. My cats and rabbits are obviously not prepared to be quiet to satisfy anyone, least of all me. I think my neighbors are either acclimating to the constant noise or have started to sleep with earplugs since I don't hear them wake up whenever the cats start anymore. So, since no one has come up and screamed at me for disturbing their sleep I think we're doing okay there.The other problem I'm having with the apartment is stupid. I can't figure out a way to arrange it so that it is comfortable and not terribly cluttered. I said it was stupid. It wasn't a problem initially since we didn't bring any furniture over the mountains with us. The car was pretty much packed with the cats and rabbit cages and we barely had enough room for some clothes and random items. So the apartment was nice and empty to start with. Lots of room and it looked easy enough to arrange the furniture when we got some. I looked and looked and finally found a small couch for free on Craigslist. We ran over and picked it up with our car. (Yeah, we strapped it on top. We looked great driving around like that!) After carrying it up the stairs and putting it in our apartment we realized there was a problem. Even though it was a small couch it sort of took over the apartment. Then we got a free bed when one of the casinos was getting all new ones (yep, strapped it to the car again). That took up the entire bedroom. Free TV stand, filled another corner. A couple of cute, free blue chairs, we can barely move. Well, it's a small apartment, it was to be expected.
My problem is that the orientation of the living room makes it almost impossible to set up in a way that makes sense. Almost one entire side is open to the kitchen with one small wall next to the hallway with a wall radiator on it. The opposite wall is almost all window from about 3' up. On another wall is the entrance to the room set right in the center. That means almost everything has to go against the one empty wall so nothing gets blocked. The entertainment center had to go kitty corner next to the door where it's blocking one window completely and another partially. So, every time I've been sitting on the couch one thought keeps going through my mind, "Why 
do apartment designers have to make apartments impossible to decorate?" All they had to do was move the door over 1' or put the radiator on a wall where it made sense to put it. Just doing one of those things would mean I could arrange my furniture properly. But no, for some reason they didn't think anyone was ever going to put furniture in the living room or something and so made it impossible not to block the entrance to the kitchen, the radiator, the door, or the windows. Why?! Why would they do it this way? So, lately this is bothering me. I keep rearranging the furniture in my head, trying to figure out some way that it will work.
do apartment designers have to make apartments impossible to decorate?" All they had to do was move the door over 1' or put the radiator on a wall where it made sense to put it. Just doing one of those things would mean I could arrange my furniture properly. But no, for some reason they didn't think anyone was ever going to put furniture in the living room or something and so made it impossible not to block the entrance to the kitchen, the radiator, the door, or the windows. Why?! Why would they do it this way? So, lately this is bothering me. I keep rearranging the furniture in my head, trying to figure out some way that it will work.
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