Blog # 3: Apartment Living

For those of you still living in dorms, props to you! I mean don't get me wrong, I lived in the Watterson dorms for both my freshman and sophomore years and found it to be decent, but when I moved into my first ever apartment at the beginning of my junior year, it was a COMPLETLEY new experience for me.

(I wish this was my apartment, but I'm only a college student...)

First of all, apartments are great for SO many reasons. Let me just name off a few of those reasons: you can cook any meal you want, you have a washer/dryer in your apartment so you don't have to wait in line for the dorm washing machines to be available, there are fewer neighbors, and most importantly, THERE'S MORE SPACE!

(My apartment this year)

For my freshman year I lived in a quad with three other girls, so you could say we were pretty cramped. During my sophomore year I lived in a double, which was a bit more roomy, but not by much.

This year I have my own room and it is honestly the greatest feeling to stretch out and relax after an exhausting day of classes. I am also a cooking fanatic, so preparing a nice meal beats a trip to the dining hall.

(My freshman dorm room)

Even though I completely love my apartment now, I wasn't that happy with it at the beginning of this school year.

My roommate and I found out from a friend last year that she had just signed a lease, and that all the apartments were going pretty fast. We really hadn't even started looking, so the next day we went to a local realtor, and visited some potential apartments. There were three layouts that were possible contenders. We were under the impression that all of the good apartments were being scooped up, so we signed a lease for the first apartment we saw that day.

(Photo Credit)

I figured everything was going to be fine, but that changed during the first night I spent there. We discovered that night the apartment is directly across from the train station, and the trains would blare their horns SUPER LOUDLY every time they would pass by. I'm already a light sleeper, and these trains woke me several times throughout the night. The close proximity to the train station didn't even occur to us signed the lease. Oops - lesson learned! So I invested in a fan and some ear plugs to drown out the noise.

Recently the town of Normal put up a "No Train Horn" sign next to the railroad track, which is AMAZING! I mean we get the occasional train that didn't get the memo, but luckily that problem was solved!

(Photo Credit)

There were some other problems with our new apartment like:

• the shower didn't work for three days

• the air conditioning went out when it was 85 degrees outside

• and the couch needed to be replaced as it was torn up and nasty

You know, just your average apartment problems...

So the lesson in all of this is to take your time when searching for an apartment. Don't let people pressure you into something that isn't exactly as urgent as they make it seem. My roommate and I kept these experiences in mind when we searched for an apartment for our senior year. Here is a link to some other apartment horror stories that are so much worse than mine. Go check it out!