mercurial scribe

Consider it a Mother’s Day present and a really dramatic way to get out of debt.

That’s right, folks of the internet: my mother is moving in with us.

Perhaps that’s not the best way to put it. We - Mom, Justin and i - are in the process of looking for an apartment together so that we can all get out of debt. She’s something like several grand in the hole and sinking; our struggle has been slow but progressing.

Let us start where the story does: we hate our apartment complex. This is no secret. It’s expensive, it’s noisy and the 885 sq ft apartment with a wall air conditioner in Southern California is NOT worth the $1105 a month, not to mention the $1155 they are bumping it up to. We’re sick of constantly being this close to dead broke and want to get out of debt and start building up a savings, maybe even - dare i say it? - invest!

The only solution we could see clearly would be to downsize. We’ve already lived in a studio apartment and we decided we simply can’t do it again. And Mom needs to cut her expenses too, so… it only made sense.

So far, even the search has gone *relatively* smoothly. Mom freaks out at every expense named and tries to figure out the logistics of paying for them when we haven’t even decided on a place. Justin wrinkles his nose at the lower-middle class areas and longingly looks at the nice, large complexes with sparkling pools and air-conditioned gyms. i, on the other hand, gimp along and try to notice if there’s a lot of noise and if there’s a dishwasher and central air.

No actual decision have been made; we’re still looking, still arguing over which amenities we prefer at what price. But just from the apartment hunt experience, i think we’ll all get along just fine. Who said you can’t go home again? You can at least make a new version of it.