I like to think/pretend that I had a traditional childhood,
but that’s just not true. My mother, sister, and I lived in apartments until I
was almost 15 years old. Although I grew up mostly in one city, we moved from
apartment to apartment on a yearly basis (sometimes less than a year, sometimes
more than a year). Of course, when I went away to college, I took up the
tradition that my family had cultivated during my childhood. In college, I
lived in 3 different dorms and 2 different apartments. I went straight to
graduate school from college and did pretty much the same thing. It got to the
point that I was always shocked when I renewed a lease…which meant I’d lived in
one apartment for over a year!
With that background, you might be thinking that I’m a little
wacky and probably a bit of a nomad – both of those things are true and that’s
why I LOVE renting! As I’ve aged, I’ve managed to live in a few places for
longer than a year, but even then, I absolutely love the freedom that being a
renter brings.
Being a renter – a lifelong renter – has given me the
opportunity to try out a variety of living experiences. I’ve lived in studio
apartments in century old buildings and I’ve lived in brand new luxury
apartments. I’ve had landlords and I’ve had property managers. With all my
renting experience, I’ve shied away from renting houses, so that is an
experience I’ve not had, but it is something that my sister and her husband are
currently doing. One of the things I love about Redwood apartments is that I
feel like I’m renting a house, without the anxiety that I have about house
maintenance. I have a large two bedroom, two bathroom apartment, with an eat-in
kitchen and an attached garage. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get any better than
this!
So, I mentioned anxiety. Although I am a pretty darn
carefree person, I do love my freedom of movement. Just the idea of not being
able to take a job in another state makes my heart race…I love my freedom. I
like the idea of being able to pick up and travel the country or the world at a
moment’s notice. To me, buying a house represents saddling yourself with a
liability that requires a high level of maintenance and will take a significant
amount of work to be rid of. One of my single friends who owned a house, went
to a conference, came home to a broken water heater and a flood in her
basement. After she paid for a new water heater and replace all of her
belongings, she decided that owning a house wasn’t for her. Well, I don’t have
to have that experience to know that I don’t want to have that experience.
I’m grateful that apartment living affords me the ability to
comeome to a housing problem – but not have that problem become a housing
crisis. Having a property management company means that if the refrigerator
breaks (which mine has), it gets replaced the same day – THE SAME DAY!! If I
had a house and my refrigerator stopped working…I might end up living out of a
cooler for a month. If my garage door opener quits on me (which mine has), a
nice young man comes to manually open it, so that I can get my car out…and the
opener is replaced within the week. Again, if that had happened at a house that
I owned – my car would still be trapped in my garage and I’d have become a
professional walker.
Renting gives me a level of freedom that allows me
to really love my life. My dog and I can travel and see the world and not
have to worry about what’s happening at home. The ability to share the
responsibility of my housing with an apartment manager is exactly the freedom
that I need to feel ultimately at ease and in control of my life.
*Written by Lindsay S., a proud writer and Redwood resident.
No comments:
Post a Comment