The Adventures of Chris and Evey

A lot of you know Chris and I have been wanting to move into a new apartment for quite some time. We have lived in our current place for almost 4 years. The entire time we have lived in Boston. I suppose I will always have a small bit of nostalgia for this place since it is the first place Chris and I lived together after we were married. We drove 3000 miles from Seattle to Boston, leaving behind all our friends and family there and in Alberta. We had no idea we would be in Boston this long, never mind this apartment.

There are many reasons we have wanted to move. For starters there is a mouse problem in this house that just won't go away. This has been an on going problem since back in 2005. Nothing has killed them. They are some sort of mutant mice I am sure of it. Then there is the fact our landlords don't really fix anything around here, after this long you just get sick of it. Our place is also small and it seems to shrink by the day. It is technically a 1 bedroom but we use the bedroom as a closet and storage space. So we really live in a studio if you look at it that way. I am running out of places to put stuff. And last but probably the biggest reason we have wanted to move is because we live in the GHETTO. And no I am not exaggerating. We really do live in the GHETTO. Hyde Park is an older area of Boston. It is mostly black and Hispanics and I imagine a lot of lower income families. Places like that tend to have a lot of crime, gang issues etc. When we first moved here things were really not that bad. There was crime but not extremely violent or frequent. That has certainly changed over the last year. A few months ago only a few blocks away a young black male broke into an elderly ladies apartment in the middle of the night and beat and tried to rape her. He was never caught. On July 4th there were 3 shootings within 3 blocks of us in 3 different directions. 2 were fatal, one of them a drive by and one of them happened at a BBQ. Both were teenagers that were killed and both died from gunshot wounds to the head. The other shooting was outside a convenience store when 2 armed young black males shot 4 teenagers around 2:30 am. Those teenagers then fled to the house ACROSS the street from ours to call the cops. I realize most of this stuff is probably people who know each other or gang related, but I don't need to wait around to get caught in the crossfire.

We have been looking for apartments for a few months now but were not really in a rush. We wanted to be patient and find a place we would be happy with. But then on Wednesday our landlords informed us they were selling their house. So it took us by surprise but we are kinda glad cause it pushed us to really buckle down and find a place.

Saturday we went to look at a 2 bedroom (first floor of a 2 apartment house) in Revere and we knew then and there that was the place we wanted to move too. It is not the biggest apartment but it is bigger than what we have now and we have 2 bedrooms as well as our living room. The kitchen is a good size and has a walk in pantry. I am super excited about the pantry just because for the last 4 years I have had ZERO kitchen space to put anything. There is a back yard, no grass mind you (just concrete) but nice regardless and lots of space for our BBQ and a table and chairs. Our landlord is an 82 year old woman who lives upstairs. She does not seem 82, is very active and still gets around on her own. Her son and daughter help her with the upkeep of the property and they do a great job because the house is in excellent shape. We aren't crazy about the wood panelling in most of the rooms (except the kitchen) and Chris doesn't like the pink tile in the bathroom. lol. But those were small issues compared to all the positives. We get our keys on the 18th and move in on the 1st. HOORAY!!

I have been packing like crazy. Tyring to be organized so I don't pull my hair out trying to find everything once I am unpacking. Our landlord said we can start moving stuff in after the 18th so that will be nice. We can move most of our stuff before the 1st and just move the stuff we need right up until we move like the fridge, futon, computer and tv.

I will post some pictures once I have some. Until then I will try and not get lost in this sea of boxes in my living room.