Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Back in Business

After what seems like forever, I am once again sitting in front of our repaired computer. It's fixed! And at a cost just under half of what we paid for it initially. *grumble grumble* But, thankfully it was just the motherboard & nothing else.

We're still settling into our new apt. Little by little I'm getting through the boxes. I'm struggling with liking our new place... Though it's wonderful to have the additional living space and 2nd bedroom, in many ways, we lost space from our last apt. (And those of you who saw that one wonder how that's possible!) This apt has smaller or fewer cupboards, closets, shelves, towel racks, counter space, storage space... Frustrating. Since we moved in, we have already brought in an additional 7 pieces of furniture to make up the difference - and we have yet to get a computer desk.

In addition to the 'little' obstacles, our biggest challenge is that the apartments are not non-smoking. So our apt, while clean & freshly painted, has a dingy, well set-in stale smoke smell. It's HORRIBLE. It assaults you when you first enter, haunts you at night while trying to fall asleep, and lingers in your hair & clothes after you leave. I feel like - why bother doing laundry or showering -- the horrible smell just comes back. What's the point? :-P Our only hope is borrowing a friend's ozonator (sp?). My brother recently bought a used & heavily smoked-in minivan that the ozonator took the smell out of, so we are eager to try it on our apt.

Aside from all the apt challenges, we are greatly enjoying seeing so many familiar faces again. Matt is enjoying his new job so far. He thinks the learning curve will be doable, esp since his last job was similar. The hardest part, he believes, will be learning their complex tracking system in which he has to log every phone call, piece of mail, etc.

I still plan to provide a more detailed account of our trip out here, so stay tuned!

2 comments:

Niecey said...

Our house stunk of smoke when we first moved in too. We got air purifiers (dunno if its the same as ozonator?) and ran them for a few weeks, and it really helped.

We also used that carpet freshener stuff of the carpets. You know, the powder stuff. Although I'm sure baking soda 15 mins before vacuming would neutralize it fine.

Sarah M. said...

I'm with niecey, try an air purifier. Another thing...when you have time and if you want to spend the money and if your landlord will let you... You could try KILZ paint, which gets rid of smoke odor and then you could paint over a layer of that with a paint color... if they let you paint. And grocery stores rent rug doctors which are awesome and not to $$ (about $30 I think) for 24 hours. They work great and give rooms a fresh scent when you have wall to wall carpeting. I remember when we moved into our place while they weren't smokers, there was this "smell" that wasn't us. I hated it. For about 2 months when I'd come home I'd be like... "Ugggg" but then one day I walked in the door and it didn't smell like anything... It was home. Eventually you'll get your place that way. Please post pics when you have time. :)