Apartment Living

When I moved to New Orleans in August of 2021, I decided to rent an apartment. Partly, I wanted to live in an apartment to get a chance to see the city and its various neighborhoods before making a decision about buying. The neighborhoods matter in New Orleans. In addition, the pains of homeownership had worn me down. A house, even one appreciating in value, is such a money pit from paying to fix the water heater, garbage disposal, garage doors, etc. to the cosmetic changes one might want to make like new appliances or changing the carpets. Since I was single, I'd have to be home for every little thing which occurred. And don't get me started on moving!

Being in an apartment came with clear advantages such as home repair. If I needed something fixed, I simply called the office and they would put in a work order. One check was all I needed. No property taxes to pay. No homeowners association dues.

That was not to say that living in an apartment didn't have its downsides. I had a 2 car garage at my house and could leave stuff in the car and garage as I saw fit. Plus, the cars were protected from the elements. At the apartment, there was a big parking lot and one must never forget to lock all car doors. Bringing in groceries? What a pain.

In my house, I had all of my gym equipment set up in my garage. I simply went down when it was convenient and never had to worry about sharing equipment or there not being the stuff I wanted. The complex had a "gym" on the other side of the complex which was a step up from a hotel gym. I always wanted to get there really early to avoid others mainly due to COVID-19 concerns. And besides, people are slobs and don't wipe up after themselves.

The biggest thing that bugged me about apartment living was the others. The complex was relatively quiet so I didn't hear from my neighbors much but they were just so nasty. The complex had these two big trash dumpsters near the rear exit where my apartment was. People were so lazy that they would put their trash bags on the hood of their cars to take them to the dumpsters. However, it was way too much effort to actually get out of their cars to put the trash in the dumpster. Instead, they'd throw the bag in the general vicinity of the dumpster and keep going. Click here to see all of the room still in one of the dumpsters and click here to see what people did instead. Ugh.