• Great view of Lake Michigan
• 24/7 Doorman
• Well-kept building
• Pretty blue tile in bathroom
• Have never seen a bug
• Cool ceiling fans
• Can’t hear my neighbors at all
• Heated parking garage
• Area isn’t too crowded or loud, but it’s close enough to the loud and crowded areas
• Awesome hardwood floors
• Built-in bookcase
• Great water pressure
• Lots of windows
• Lots of space for one person
• Walk-in closet that’s lined with cedar

I’ve been thinking of selling my condo or letting someone else live in it. It’s easy when I’m rarely there. But I’ve started to realize how much it means to me. Even if I let someone else live in it or I go away for awhile, I feel like I want it to be there for me when I decide to go back to it.

Maybe it’s a safety thing or a way to protect myself from feeling like buying the place was a bad decision or a way to keep myself from moving on with my life. It’s true that I’m not exactly living the life that I anticipated when I was searching for my own place. I can’t say that I tried very hard, though. I also can’t say that it’s too late to try again before giving up on it altogether.

Lately, I’ve had grand ideas in my head of what my next steps in life will be. My condo doesn’t really fit into any of those scenarios. It’s scary and I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. I might make a lot of noise, ruffle a lot of feathers, and do something that is outrageous and force me to grow up. Or I may make a choice that will have little impact, but will have me moving backwards somewhat.

In the meantime, I need to remind myself that my condo is great place and that it deserves my time and attention. Things don’t suck as much as I think they do. The parts of the condo that I don’t like are easily fixable. It will take little effort for me to start fixing those things.

So… anyone know a good handyman/painter? Or does anyone want to spend a few days helping me spruce up my place? I’ll give you beer and I might even feed you.

I never moved when I was a kid. Never. The house I was brought to from the hospital after being born is the only home I ever had until I bought a condo in December 2008. I didn’t move away for college. I didn’t move away after college. I stayed in the same house with mom and dad.

I feel out of place in my building. I appreciate that there’s a garage with attendants and a 24-hour doorman. This also means that I’ll always have to interact with someone when I get home. But they’re still strangers to me. Despite that fact that there are a couple hundred units in my building, I don’t run into other residents very often and have no one I can really call “neighbor.”

Winter view from my condo. I was really hoping for a view of the city, facing South. At least there is a rooftop deck with a good view of WrigleyField and downtown.

There are things I need to get used to: having to take an elevator, wall air conditioners, radiators lining entire walls, an electric stove/oven, the sound of cars passing by on Lake Shore Drive below. It’s weird to think that there are people living in units next to me, across the hall from me, a floor above me, and a floor below me. Probably the hardest thing to adjust to are the rules. Homeowners associations are like mini-governments and the rules are taken very seriously in my building.

The condo still feels like “my place in the city” or “where I go when I don’t have to do anything important the next day.” For the past few days, I’ve started to refer to it as “home,” but that feels like a bit of a lie. It isn’t home yet.

One of the things I love about my condo is the blue bathroom. The little hexagon floor tiles are lovely.

Sometimes I think I should’ve moved to a more exciting neighborhood, an area where I could walk out the front door of my building and be right by where all the action is. Sometimes I think I should have moved closer to friends of mine, but most people who are near and dear to my heart are in suburbs or parts of the city that I’m not interested in living in. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t have moved so far away from mom and dad… but moving out was supposed to mean leaving that comfort zone and creating a new one.

Like anything else, living alone in the condo will take time to get used to. I really didn’t think it would take me this long to adjust. I also need to stop being paranoid that I’m going to choke or knock myself out and not be found until someone follows the foul smell of my decaying body. Wow… that’s morbid.

I should really give The Condo some love. I mean, it is technically my home. I’m paying money for it. And I do hope to create some nice memories in the time that I live there. So, whenever I come up with a reason to love The Condo, or the building that I live in, I will blog about it.

Today’s reason: The common areas are clean! It’s nice to know that I won’t encounter a dust bunny when I walk through the lobby or the halls of my building. My mom actually even commented on the cleanliness of the building when she first saw it. Next week, they’re going to clean all the carpets! How nice.

I met another neighbor today. He’s older but seems cool and said to come on by if I needed help with anything. Nice! I love friendly neighbors. Now all I have to do is get this neighborly thing to a point where he ends up cooking all my meals for me and I am SET.

Things at The Condo are shaping up. I have a houseguest this weekend, so I’ve managed to make it a bit more homey, though none of my clothes or shoes are there yet and my shelves are semi-empty. I’m taking my time! I rearranged the living room again this past weekend. HUGE improvement – and all I really did was move a chair to the bedroom. Man, that living room bugged the hell out of me. It was nice to come in today and feel comfy. I can’t wait to spend the weekend at The Condo, even if I will be on an air bed while my guest sleeps on my new bed. That reminds me…I’ll have to post my thoughts on AeroBed’s Extra Bed, which I bought from Bed Bath & Beyond. AND I have to figure out where the hell my storage unit is. Ah…the joys of high rise living.

Condo Project – fix the hole in the wall. A friend gave me tips and said he would leave it up to me to fix. Hopefully, I don’t end up fucking up The Condo in the process. I’ll do some before and after shots!

Call me clueless, but I didn’t know that L.L. Bean sold furniture! One of the sort-of perks of moving is that you inherit some of the old seller’s mail…in this case, I got the L.L. Bean Home catalog. There’s some great stuff in it. Check them out online!

This table costs $154.90 on Amazon (found it cheaper on another site) but will I love it a year from now?

I bought a bed from Dania and decided not to get the matching night stand because it was a little too pricey for my taste — I was willing to spend the bucks on the bed but night stand be damned! Argh…it is so annoying because tables are freaking expensive! I just don’t get it.

Anyway, I settled for a mini wire table (Eames wannabe) which, honestly, will probably end up in my living room. But it will do for now. Ikea didn’t offer any choices that I liked. So what will I do? Probably end up trying to find something at a secondhand store (at least for the kitschy/eclectic effect) or I will cave in and buy the f’ing night stand that matches my new bed. Sigh.

Oh, yeah. In case this post doesn’t make it obvious, I bought a condo. I will gladly take a housewarming present.