Downtown Move

We moved downtown to our new place this weekend. About 2/3 of our stuff is still left behind at the house, but nothing of real importance. The good thing about a move like this is that you realize how much stuff you have that you really don't need. I would guess that most of the stuff we left behind will go to Goodwill.

The move was exhausting & painful. Two days later & I can still barely walk, but we got through it. The worst part was getting the stuff into the apartment; moving into old buildings is HARD. The poor movers..the truck didn't fit into the garage, so they had to trek everything down a huge & very long cement ramp, then walk the equivalent of at least 1-2 blocks beneath the building (it was like a secret underground area) before they reached the freight elevator. The elevator took forever to climb to the 8th (top) floor, then they had to walk a quarter/half block to our apartment unit. Loading took less than an hour, but unloading took about 2-1/2 hours. It was brutal. To top it off the A/C in the apartment doesn't work, so it was up to 83 degrees; we just couldn't get enough air from the outside to cool things down.

Besides the inconvenient arrangement of the building & no A/C, things went great. Nothing broke, and the apartment was bigger & cooler than I remembered it. Absolutely love it. I took a few initial pictures, but none of them do the place justice. The angles of the high ceilings, the true height of the windows, the details of the kitchens & bathrooms just aren't given justice with the lighting I had. Once we get things unpacked I'll make another attempt to get some photos of our new home. The one thing I did manage to get was a shot from our living room window. Again, it doesn't do the view justice because this is just one area you can see, but it's pretty spectacular. Totally different from the Lake Erie view I have from my office window 5-6 blocks down the street. There are so many old buildings & architecture that it's overwhelming. I feel like I'm in a completely different, east coast city.

Saturday night we walked to Morton's at Tower City and treated my parents to a "thank you for helping us move" dinner. We did the same thing when we moved to our last downtown home in St. Paul, Minnesota, and that place brought us a lot of good luck - so we thought it would be cool to keep with tradition. The only thing that was missing was my brother, who was with us in spirit. Back in MN he bought a $50+ prime rib and ate the whole thing (he was a teenage boy at the time), yet the bill still turned out to be the same this time as last time. Darn inflation!

We went to bed Saturday evening with the windows open, where you could hear traffic, sirens, etc., but it honestly didn't phase me at all. It was soothing...it felt like home. I missed that.

Sunday morning we lounged around, familiarizing ourselves with the cable box since we've had DirectTV since the late 90's but couldn't have it at the new place. Cable is ok, and luckily the DVR works well. Got ready & walked a few blocks to Zocalo, a Mexican restaurant on 4th Street; the street itself is awesome, by the way - it's the hip place to be. We got there right before a big storm hit, so we helped ourselves to margaritas & some really great food. Turns out Aaron Sanchez (of Food Network fame) created the menu and it was amazing. That's now three restaurants we've eaten at this year where the food was created by famous chefs: Morimoto's, Charlie Palmer's and now Zocalo. The food was true Mexican and the flavors were spot on. Once the downpour ended we walked back to the apartment, got in the car and drove a few miles to Target. We picked up a few necessities before my body decided it was going to give out on me, so we headed back home & I actually just slept most of the evening. Physically I was drained, and still am to some extent. We made a late dinner - the first one at our new home - and watched Fox Sunday night TV while looking at the fog rolling into downtown and replacing our beautiful nighttime views with whiteness.

We have a lot to unpack but it looks like we'll have plenty of room for everything. Our furniture fits in well with the "look" of the apartment & I can't wait until we start having visitors. Unfortunately we do have a home in the burbs we can't forget about, so I'm sure starting next weekend we'll be making weekly trips to get the place in shape to sell. As for this week, it's a very swamped work week so the quick commute is a good thing. It was great to leave at 7:10am this morning & still be at work before 7:30am.

An interesting fact - I now take five elevators each morning/evening. Three at the apartment building, and two at my office building. Five. Kind of nuts! But so far I'm loving it. We just need A/C and we're good to go.