When In Doubt, Do Nothing

I've given up on finding a nice apartment we can afford. Nothing I've seen is as good as what we already have in our tiny little gnome hovel of a place. The house we live in was built in 1880 as a modest single family dwelling, and in recent years was hacked into four tiny apartments. Most everything is jimmy-rigged together. We have doorframes that are actually just painted 2x4s nailed to the wall, and some of our windowsills are fashioned out of painted particle board. One of the living room walls is painted over fiberboard paneling, and the living room ceiling is an artificial drop ceiling like you find in office buildings.


BUT at least the living room is painted a cozy shade of tan with white trim around the windows, which are spanking new. In our kitchen, the few cabinets we have are nice looking, our appliances are relatively fresh, and the linoleum in the kitchen is new and clean. We have blue-gray walls in the bedroom at the back of the house facing a shady wooded area, and the bathroom has hot and cold running out of the same tap. Did I mention the rent is super cheap?

So even though the place is sort of slapped together, it was slapped together by a guy who cares for the property really well and chose fixtures and appliances he would want to use himself, and painted colors he could live with, so it's much better than all that yuck in those thirty year old cereal box units we've toured.