Too Much Stuff

As mentioned in the last post, we had a lot of stuff. We rented the largest truck they had and we barely fit everything in it. The first third was all the wife's stuff. The next third was all of my stuff. The last third? That's everything my mother saved from my childhood plus near-everything that she wanted to palm off on us. "Have a wicker waste-paper basket! Have an iron from 1952! Have an overly-large dining table!"

You know the sack of swag The Grinch had atop his sleigh when making his way from Whoville in the dark before day? We crammed that much into the truck and more!

Then we were off, at the amazing speed of 45 miles per hour -- thank you, speed regulator! We'll be there before the next ice age!

We pulled into my uncle-in-law's place in New Jersey three epochs later and began to look for a place to rent.

Renting In New Jersey

We were going to stay in New Jersey. I think that was because we wanted to stay somewhat near relatives. Or wanted to pay higher car insurance. One of the two.

We looked at several places (three) before settling on where we live now. Renting in New Jersey is weird -- remember, I come from Texas, where housing is abundant, spacious, and there's parking within close proximity to where you live.

In New Jersey, we were expected to come up with the first month's rent plus a month and a half's worth of rent for a deposit. This is normal. We then were to also cough up another month's of rent which goes towards the real estate agent. This is abnormal. Half of the apartments didn't have refrigerators. About a third didn't have stoves. This too, is abnormal. I still cannot get over the logic -- renters usually don't have large kitchen appliances with them. They also don't have around four to five thousand dollars they can just give up solely to move into a rented apartment. If they did, THEY'D BUY A FREAKING HOUSE!

We were bizarrely related to our real estate agent. I think he was my wife's aunt-by-marraige's sister's husband's brother or something. He was an idiot. He managed to find us a really nice place that had off-street parking, our own entrance, and a relatively cheap rent. Then he wasted a day before he contacted the landlord's real estate agent. What happened is we were involved in a race with another couple to the fourplex. They got there first.

However, the landlord's real estate agent was Italian. My stepfather was Italian. A few recipe trades later, and we were moving in.

Our New Home

Our rent was cheap for one reason: the train tracks. There were train tracks only forty feet away from our door. This scared off a lot of renters. However, we knew that these were freight train tracks and they were used twice a week at most. If those weren't there, we probably would be paying an additional two hundred a month.

We had parking along the side of the house. Our car sits right outside our door. Our door is our door. The other three apartments in the fourplex have a common front door. It's a good house.

The wife still has a few days before she has to report to work. I need to find a job.

-Faux "more later" Pas