Things to Enjoy While You Can about Apartment Living

I really, truly can't wait to move into a bigger place, with more than two basic rooms and one toilet. But there's a part of me that recognizes on some theoretical level, we're going to be giving up a lot.

Maintenance
Any apartment will fix things, but I feel like we hit the jackpot here because our apartment has the best maintenance team. They respond quickly. They will fix anything. If they fix something in the "morning" and I'm still sleeping, they never wake me up (it's happened dozens of times). They even know our pets by name. It's free. Seriously, they could've charged us on multiple occasions, like when Boone ate the weather seal off the patio door. Not a dime.

In a few months, we'll be responsible for all that. If our AC breaks on the hottest day of the summer, not only will we foot the bill, but Pat will pay a premium to get it done fast because I'm a pain in the ass when I'm hot (sorry, Mom).

Amenities
Ahh, the pool. When the AC inevitably breaks the pool is the only non-alcoholic way to turn me into a pleasant human being. And the gym! I can't believe in a few months I'm going to be running on sidewalks with Boone (World's Worst Running Dog, 2013) instead of working it out on an elliptical while Martha Stewart decides what we're having for dinner. Our apartment's gym also stocks current magazines, which almost makes me look forward to burning 400 calories.

Buffer Zone
I'm sure there's another cat owner out there who has one cat that just tries to escape every time a door opens. That's Atticus. At least right now, he has to make it down three flights of stairs before he's 100 yards from the closest road. We're pretty good at catching him so our poor guy's paws haven't touched grass in 3 years. At the new house, he'll only have approximately fifteen feet to the road. That's kinda scary.

Trash
This one's a love-hate: I hate having to walk my trash to the dumpster, but I love that I don't have to keep a large, smelling can in my garage that I have to smell several times a day while I wait for once a week pick-up. I can't quite decide what's the lesser of the two (very real) evils. What pushes this one into the apartment's favor is the A.P.T. provides several convenient stations to trash Boo-Poo so that even if I did have to store trash for an entire week, at least dog waste wouldn't be a part of it.