This is a post about our early living conditions when we first got married. Every once in awhile I like to write a post that helps me document days I may not remember clearly later in life...
My wife and I married young(20 and 19)but did't live with parents after our marriage- ever! I moved into an apartment a week before the wedding, and started painting, carpeting, and moving. The day of the move, I was let go from my job. I was a draftsman, and the project ended... I'll never forget the feeling of being jobless a week before I was to provide for a wife, and moving out of my parent's home in the rain.
I wasn't out of work for two weeks when I got a new job, which taught me good things happen too!
The apartment we were in had four units, built after WWII for the housing shortage.. The doors were steel, no attempt at acoustics in hallways- every time someone came in or left the building, it felt like you lived in the bells of Notre Dame... I had never seen a roach before I moved in there- I thought they were June bugs... The heat came on in September and went off in May.. No air conditioning, just uninsulated steel crank windows- which about half worked...No parking spot- first come first served..
That apartment was the single largest motivator to get a house ASAP! We were there two years, saving for a down payment on a place smaller than a mobile home(Single wide!), but that's another post...
Tell me about your first place, I think this will be interesting!
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Historic apartment building in Des Moines. The Algonquin. I still cherish that place in my heart.
I lived in a small crappy apartment with three other roommates in college.
We had one toilet that routinely clogged.
It was a huge motivator.
Kate- glad it was a good experience!
K- Communal living isn't my cup of tea- never played well with other kids in sandbox...
Well buffalodick...
After college dorm living, I got a job about 2 hours away. I went apartment shopping on a Sunday. Out front there was a 4 lane road. I asked why the large road? She said that sometimes there was some traffic.
YEAH!!! How about bumper to bumper every morning/evening rush!! I had the police on speed dial to call in the crashes out front.
I hope I am not this stupid anymore?
See? I've always thought couples that get into it young and go through all the stages together, grow stronger together and ultimately stay together.
My first place on my very own, no roommates, no parents, no family of any sort, is the place I am in now, which is quite fancy for a student's life. So no complaints here.
Jen- I have a complicated theory on why compatable people stay together.
1. At a younger age love, lust , and emotions are all closer together.. As we become older, we can- and do separate them- we become more logical instead of passionate. Goals and people change, as long as it it is in the same basic direction- all is well..
With time, you allow for the others habits and quirks...you learn to to put them into perspective. Giving and taking will happen in all lives- Your ability to give is important, and your ability to be grateful when given to is more important... Sometimes you wear a glove that is comfortable, but doesn't fit perfectly..
Ahhhh.......yes!! I too had an apartment slighty bigger than a refridgerator box!! The walls were so thin and after about a year a newly single chick moved upstairs. Newly single chick had many "dates"........loud "dates".
By 2 or 3 in the morning I was exhausted from the moaning that came through the paper thin walls and would hit the ceiling with my broom handle and shour "Bravo honey, now get a lil sleep"!!
Worked every time :)
Steady On
Reggie Girl
Great topic! I married at 18, moved from Dad's house to Husband's apartment, which was an attic converted to an apartment (nicely done), with Mother in Law living downstairs. After a few years, Mother in Law deserted the place, left it in our hands, and we bought it when it was foreclosed on (finding financing in 4 days time).
We took over downstairs, and rented out 2 upstairs apartment. Landlord at 21?! TO BOOT, it was close to prostitute-laden downtown, and adjacent to an abandoned parking lot that hookers brought their johns to, to...uh...do business. I'd be washing dishes to lookout the window and get QUITE a show through someone's windshield.
After standing up to an editorial in which the owner of our local paper complained that the police force was wasting taxpayer's money on prostitution stings, I inadvertently became the neighborhood vigilante, getting letters from other neighbors with similar problems.
Mind you, I was still working at Arby's, for heaven's sake, and taking the bus to our community college.
Since then, the neighborhood has been completely renovated, is called "Old Towne," and is considered "high-brow."
My first digs were with a co-worker. We moved out together at 18 y/o and I took a two year detour from college. It was fun while it lasted but was so glad once it was over. We had a blast, had some good times, and had lots of friends over all the time. The best part? I was the only one who had even an idea of how to cook and that was what started me on learning to cook food I like.
My first home away from home had an outhouse in the backyard. Fortunately, there was a bathroom in the house, but I will never forget that damn outhouse, sitting out in the backyard as proud as you please. Ah, the simple pleasures in life.
I moved out at 18, I lived in Albuquerque near the university while I went to college, I then lived in Florida, Texas and spent a long summer in Europe before moving to NY where I currently reside.
Wow. At first I was thinking, "I would go crazy with all that noise! I would never sleep!" And then I remember when I was in Basic Training at Ft. Dix, NJ. It was right next to an airbase, and the first week or two, I couldn't sleep, but then I either got used to it, or I was so freaking exhausted my body just shut down.
I wouldn't know how to define my first place, unless I can count the military barracks!!
MMM- I hear you.. You didn't have to be in the room to hear the aguement!
Gnightgirl- Back in the day where you actually had to have a down payment for a house- we had to wait..
Chris- My youngest moved out to be with his friends, but after a year moved back home to get some peace! Now has his own place...
Angela- Never had an outhouse! But I have used one!
DogB- You got around!
Bina- It counts!
my first apartment was the upstairs in a huge house. It had an outside entrance, one bedroom. I LOVED that place. it was MINE. I had a bed and 2 chairs and a tv! But I loved it.
I wish we would have done something like that...
I moved out when I graduated high school a year early, just short of my 17th birthday, mom was pissed! A girl I met from Indiana (still talk at least once a week), her sister and her friend. Later another Indiana girl came down, so five of us splitting the rent in a two bedroom, to go to college. We all worked part time jobs and I cooked a lot of vegetable soup, we shared food if we went out, and the five guys downstairs said we were a night mare around certain times of the month :) I never moved back home, just got married two years later...they taught me to stop saying Texas phrases like Warshin my clothes, Taaaaalk, and saying That's real good, or they would not hang out with me...marriage, the second time around on the other hand has been, well, fun in most ways...
The house I still live in now.... when we bought it, it was near derelict.... all our friends bought houses in town which was cheaper, but my X needed to be near his family business and the thought of living in town was scary lol....
so it was this derelect little house and it was little back then just 2 bedrooms... or it was to get something bigger but cheaper in a really built up area of town... first viewing of this house we stood in the little front room, with windows falling out and damp running down the walls and rain pouring in the roof lol.... and I hadnt even looked at the rest of the little house when I got such wonderful vibes for the house..... good vibes, vibes that I had not got looking at the other 30 or so houses we looked at.... we made a decision there and then that we must have the house, even though we was over a thousand pounds short of our deposit, we just didnt tell anyone that bit lol...... which was a lot of money back then....
The house was only 21k back then lol ($42K) but its now worth 260K ($520K) at least.....
We actually put 7K cash down as a deposit... and got a morgage for the rest, but still a grand short,,, so for the next 2 months we both worked every hour we had, me at the ministry of defence then every evening til midnight and every weekend til midnight at his fathers plant nursery..... and we just about scraped the other grand together, we also had to lie about what we was earning to get enough on the mortgage lmfao.... then had to pay bloody tax on what we said we was earning even though we wasnt LOL
we was only gonna have it to do up for a few years, but kids came along and stuff so we stayed...... then 4 kids later he left... lol.... so I had to keep the only bit of stability me lads had and that was the house...... so I bought the bastard out, how I did it I still cant work out lmfao
It would be hard to let go of my little house, lots need doing around the place again now, but my lads were all born here..... and it holds more good memories then bad.... and its safe here...
I would love to move to america but I do not think I would sell me house, get out an equity loan and then rent me house out but I do not think I could sell it....
sorry, just waffling lmfao...
x
Chef- A tremedous amount of renting out rooms, and communal living is going on in America right now- money problems for the younger people are greater than ever before...
Marmy- Sounds like you have deep roots, but from what it sounds like, you could sell over there and buy over here very cheaply!
One bedroom shotgun apartment over a corner grocery. It came furnished and cost $25/week.
We could almost afford it.
I have to ask about the cook off you are entering.....
8 categories? Is that the Silver Lake or whatever they call it event? I just have to know what the 8 categories are. All I can come up with is
1 - pulled pork
2 - pork ribs
3 - brisket
4 - chicken
5 - anything but
6 - dessert
7 - guess - beef ribs?
8 - guess 2 - bbq wolverine? ha ha
Our first home together was a two bedroom council flat (apartment to you) which was huge! It was in a neighbouring town and we lived there two years.
Jeanne- Ours was $109 a month- included heat!
Chris- Held in Grand Rapids- "Taste of Grand Rapids" KCBS sanctioned- 10th or 11th year...Silver Lake is about 4yrs old and is sanctioned also, and I think Cabelas is also now sanctioned.. We got murdered last year, but did get 2nd in potatoes!
Catagories are Beef brisket, Pork ribs, Pulled pork, Chicken, Veggies, Potatoes, Desserts, Beans..
Ake- We weren't there much- no kids yet, both worked full time..
I'll save that for a later post but thanks for reminding me of it. You have inspired me!
Thanks looong time Bdic!!!
I love it when you write about your life...It is so sweet. You definitely need to do that more often...
Love your story, mine is not nearly as interesting. Lived with my mom till I got married at 25. (Dad passed when I was 19.) My then husband and I bought our first home together 6 months before the wedding, brand new home colonial center hall, 4 BR, 2.5 Br, usual suburban type home. Divorced.. bought him out of home, now mine.. remarried still living here. .. whens your next chapter?
My reasons for getting my house built were exactly the same. We were never satisfied with not only our rented accommodations, but also the landlords who bossed and lorded over us. And here they lease for 11 months and increase the rent by 10% every year, but before that , they start troubling you with little things...
The apartment that I moved in after we got married was so horribly cramped and ugly, and the landlord was a lech!
JGene- It's good to remember when you had less, but had more fun..
DarnG- It wasn't all great, but there were some good times!
Donna- I throw these in, here and there as a post.. Next will be about our first house- in a few weeks....
Mona- I was there two years and never met the landlord!
thanks for that story - now I need to write down some notes about the first places I lived after leaving home. I joined the Air Force, married and moved around a bit.
Noise - one place (cheap I guess) was a trailer park right on the approach to the runway. B-52's knocking you out of bed - good times.
It is to me...;)
Under the street flat in London. Shared it with my boyfriend and 4 classmates. Woke up with soot on my face when we slept with the window open. Still, it wasn't the dorm.
lisleman- My brother went from Greenland to Homestead in Florida- sick for a month! Welcome to the blog!
DarnGirl- I think you have a very kind heart..
Frog- Amazing what we think is normal at the time, isn't it? Welcome to the bolg!
That was a great post....I got my first apartment when I was 18! " had a good job in the city....." :-) went to college at nite.....The apt. was in an old converted candle factory....three family house. Was big and old. I had three large rooms....and hardly any heat. I ddin't care at that age. I just wanted to work, make a little money and party! I eventually got all that out of my system and met hub and settled down.
Peace
Odat- Snuck in late, didn't you? Those first places are memorable for a lot of different reasons!
Somehow I missed this post!! I have lived in a broad variety of apartments--upper floors of houses, a Kansas City warehouse where I shared the bathroom with everyone on the floor, gorgeous decaying apts in Detroit, turquoise shag carpet in Myrtle Beach, palm frond hut outside of Mazatlan, Mexico.
I think you probably already know more than enough about our current houses ;) Great post! I'd like to see pictures.
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