Birdhouse House

Alan's neighborhood reminds me of the area around Highland High School in SLC, and I love the actual houses. Owned by people for years on end. There's a lot of turnover in Chicago, mostly because apartments are rediculously expensive, hard to find, and turning into condos all over the cutest neighborhoods. Kendra and my apartment, for example, was newly rehabbed and rented out at about 1800 a month, i believe. So we would have had to move even if she didn't go back to Cleveland. Damn.

My lease is up in June, and although I love my place, there's a few issues that may never be resolved. Living on the ground floor. The front elevator being constantly broken, meaning the entire building passes my door, LOUDLY, to use the back elevator every day. A big hole in my wall, due to faulty plumbing, that hasn't been fixed for months. The construction next door on a resturant build by the same people who own my building...because god knows they really should refinished and open a bar in the adjacent space before, say, fixing the BIG ASS HOLE IN MY WALL. The rent, which is high now, and likely to go higher when/if I renew my lease. The laundry room, in the basement, with a pacman machine (nice) and dryers that blow gently on the clothing, but fail to, you know, dry them (not so nice).

I'm going to start looking soon. For now, however, I'm just jealous of people who own houses; thus having the freedom to be crazy and hang up twenty birdhouses in their yard. Lucky bastards.