Moving In

.. It was so long ago, I do remember the night after work when my college roommate Laurie and I went to look at this place. The night was cold and snowy - the first part of January, I was 25, my birthday was a few days away. It was empty, only pull-down shades on windows, empty, good location to downtown Hartford and all highways, central air conditioning and great water pressure in the shower. The kitchen was new, upgraded since the conversion from apartments to condominiums in 1980. Located on the ground floor, we had a patio and yard and there was shared washers and dryers in our basement. No more treking off to the laundry mat on Monday nights. That sold both of us - we signed the rental contract on the spot. That night we went out to dinner, flipped for the bedroom with the walk-in closet, I won and still use it today. A few days later we moved in from separate apartments. It was an easy move, though it was snowing that day, neither of us owned much. We had our bedroom furniture, some kitchen stuff, a couple beach chairs, we had two TVs, one clock radio and I reunited us with Ma Hawk's old wing back chair that I rescued from College West. The rent was $500/month plus utilities. This was truly a deal - we even splurged and purchased cable TV service.

In the next couple of months, we would go furniture shopping. Being accounting majors and both now working in the field, she in private and me in public, we agreed it would be great that we would purchase pieces individually, so we would not need to anty up when we got married and had to move out. She purchased the sofa and coffee table; I purchased the bookcases and the dining room set with chairs. Of course we shopped for a few window treatments, additional kitchen appliances and gadgets. Before the end of tax season, the place was all set up. For both of us it was pretty much our first home since college days. We were looking forward to the spring, to have parties with our friends, like at College West, then swimming in the pool and playing tennis. This place was like living in a resort!