Life 2.0 – Starting Over

I am starting life over. I moved out this weekend. It has been an emotional roller coaster. I am torn between the guilt of leaving, especially not being with my sons all the time, and the excitement of taking charge of my own life.

I had a little over $1,000 in a savings account. I used that to start to furnish a two bedroom apartment. I picked up a very nice sleeper sofa used. It was originally from The RoomStore. If you follow that link you will see it is priced at $960 (for as long as the link remains active). I paid $350 for it and the seller said it was less than a year old. Hey, it still had the plastic on the sofa. The picture is all wrong. The description says it is brown. It is very brown. The picture on The RoomStore’s web site shows it to be green. Heck, the guy’s picture showed it to me a blue/gray color.

I scored a very nice solid oak kitchen table with 4 chairs. The table is round with a leaf to make it oval. It is perfect in the round shape. I bought this for $317. My son said, “I can’t believe she is letting this go for so little.” I have to agree. It was a really good find.

I picked up a used Whirlpool washer and dryer for $200.

I found these three items on Craigslist. I used an app called Craigsnotifica (version 1.96) on my HTC Hero (Android) phone. This app is great. You plug in your search criteria and it shows you all the current Craigslist items that match. You can tag your favorites and delete everything (the favorites still stay in your favorites). Then it notifies you every time a new posting shows up matching your search. I love it. I even used this app to find my latest car, a 2004 Mini Cooper S with 36K miles. But that is for another posting.

With the final money of my $1,000 apartment makeover I bought a desk from a place called Desks Galore. I picked up a great oak looking desk. It has a very large top surface, and it has the area in front of the desk that would provide knee room for a person sitting on the other side. I wanted this feature. I put my desktop computer and server in that area and put the desk as close to the wall as I could. The computers prevent me from putting the desk flush against the wall. I am about 4-5 inches away. But this leaves plenty of airflow for the two computers. Overall it is great. I put the desk in the second bedroom. Now keep in mind, Desks Galore sells new and used office furniture. So this is a very heavy and sturdy used office desk. Oh, and it only cost $199.

In another post I will tell of the Internet arrangement I created here. You will like it.

O.K. So I went over budget at $1,066. At least I have enough furniture to enjoy the apartment. My sons came with me for the sofa and table and they liked them a lot. I need to make the place as pleasant for them as possible so they will want to come over a lot. My wife and are are keeping this very amicable, and trying our best to make it as easy on the kids as possible.

In fact, I picked this apartment complex because the amenities blew my sons away. They have a killer workout room and a half court basketball court. My youngest son completely flipped over that. Finally they have a media room with a forward projection system and theater seating. You can bring your own Blu-Ray discs in there and watch them on the big screen.

In case you are wondering… I have two queen size air mattresses in the bedrooms.

That’s it for now. I will be writing more detailed information on my regular web site soon.

Stick around. I hope to be blogging more, and trying to make the most of Life 2.0.