Sunday, October 5, 2008

I miss my bomb shelter

Luis and I had a big, unfinished basement on Long Island. We would go to Costco and buy everything in bulk. There were shelves alongside the staircase to the basement and then lots of shelves in the basement, all filled with food, neatly arranged.
Someone once dubbed it a "bomb shelter." There was enough food for a couple of years. I learned from my Mom to buy in bulk when things are on sale.
Now we have a little locked storage area in our apartment's ground level. Maybe it's 5-feet-by-8-feet and about 7 feet high.
We had lots of storage area in our apartment and the storage area -- until 63 boxes of our belongings arrived just under two weeks ago.
Yesterday, we just went grocery shopping, and then we had to figure where to put all the stuff.
In addition to ground-level storage, the apartment has a storage area right near the apartment's front door but we use that as my office. That room can't fit all of my office stuff.
In the living room, we've got our collectibles -- fossils, kaleidoscopes, crystals -- all over the windowsill and on the mantel.
So we just bought a bookcase and little tables for the living room and a bookcase for the office.
All of this comes AFTER we purged so much stuff before our move. We had two garage sales, made lots of trips to the thrift store and gave away stuff.
It was actually very cathartic to purge all that stuff. But every once in a while, I say, "Do we have this or that or did we sell it, give it away or donate it?"
But the apartment is very nice.
At least we aren't making trips upstairs, downstairs and all over the place. With 650 square feet, including the 45-square-foot balcony, there's not a lot of place to move around.
And as I've said in earlier posts, we are in the heart of the city. We overlook the inlet, the mountains, part of the skyline and even Stanley Park - the Central Park of Vancouver, though it's not as central here -- it's at the west end of the city.
And at least we have parking in an underground garage, so we don't have to worry about driving around forever looking for parking.
So overall, it's nice. But we've decided we'll only stay here until our lease expires July 15. Then we'll look for another place.
So for my family and friends reading this, if you want to experience the heart of Vancouver, you'll have to visit by July. Who knows where we'll be next. Maybe Saskatoon.

1 comment:

squirrelmama said...

Sounds like you need to be super duper organized....with everything. Like even an extra roll of toilet paper being stored - just in case you have the unexpected need for extra toilet paper - has to be justified.

If you move to Saskatoon, what will you be called? Saskatooners?? Saskatonians? Sasquatch??