Moving on from Alabama - Part 2

July 09, 2019

It’s been quite the busy few months since I last blogged. I actually was planning on blogging within a week or two of posting my last update, but I got distracted with shiny new objects on the internet.

I’ve spent all of June just sort of thinking through all of the things I needed to for the move upcoming in less than 60 days. In 60 days at the time of writing this, I SHOULD be in Colorado. Now, all that to say, I’ve done a TON of prep-work but I still have quite a bit of work to do and figure out. The first of which is to really nail down an apartment.

I gave notice to my place in Alabama here that I would be moving out at the end of my lease, so I’m pretty much committed to at least move out of this apartment, the first week in September.

Somewhat stupidly, when I moved into this apartment in Birmingham, Alabama… I managed to find myself a place that is just as expensive as many places out in Denver. It first started as more of an experiment to see if I could do it on the salary I made, the short answer is, of course, the longer answer is my spending adjusts to what leftover money I leave in my bank account so given that, I ought to be able to make the Denver rent work.

Hindsight being what it is, I wish I would have just saved the money instead, but I’m realizing I’ve been really terrible with my money and that’s 100% my fault. If I would have stayed in my previous apartment, it would have meant an additional monthly savings of at least two or three hundred dollars. Knowing myself, I would have likely spent it on some other things I rarely use but that’s beside the point.

So what have I done lately?

So I’ve been planning the move I mentioned above, and one of the pieces of the move is booking the moving truck. Right now I’ve got the moving truck booked for 5 days, starting on September 4th. 2019. I’ll likely need to call in and expand the dates a few more because if I leave the next day, it will likely put me in Denver late Friday or Saturday, and wherever I end up renting from the office will likely be closed.

I have quite the decision ahead of me to make, I’ve looked at many apartments online and found a few I like for a reasonable price, but the decision ahead of me is do I go visit them first? The plane tickets can be quite pricy for me to fly out there + lodging while I’m there… So that gives me some hesitation in visiting. The downside being, if I DON’T I could be stuck with a bad apartment I don’t like for a year.

I’m traveling to Nashville at the start of next month for a Ruby conference, so it sort of throws a wrench in when it would be good for visiting Denver to find a place. The mid-to-end of August is usually when colleges start, so early August tends to be when a lot of college-aged folks are moving into their apartments, so vacancies may be hard to find.

Because I work from home now, and I’ve been working out of my one bedroom apartment’s living room, I would REALLY like to find a two bedroom. I found a few in a price range I’m okay with, but the question about availability comes up again. These next few weeks I’m really going to need to get into gear and start contacting the apartments and find out. I’m willing to settle and get a one bedroom if I have to but definitely would prefer two bedrooms so I could have an office to help separate the work-life balance.

I am pretty eager to get to Colorado but also anxious about it. What if I don’t like it? What if I will miss being reasonably close to my family? But then I tell myself, let’s do it for a year and see what happens. I need to do something to kickstart my lifestyle to get it out of this funk I am in. Maybe the outdoors and mountains will get me out there.

I think my plans this weekend if the weather isn’t trying to kill me, will be to get my car all cleaned out, and then start going through rooms here and get rid of things I don’t need like clothes I can’t wear anymore.

Lots to do, but for now, that’s all!

Thanks for reading!