This Old Bull

This weekend I finally ordered the new TV from Vanns.com. I settled on the Samsung HL61A650, a 61″ LED-based DLP TV (OMG!). What this means is that while it’s a rear-projection set, it uses LEDs instead of a lamp so I won’t have to replace a bulb ever. It got great reviews, is the right size for my viewing distance, and looks phenomenal.

Last week, I ordered the stand for it, which just got delivered today. The FedEx lady called me from the front door’s call box, and I walked up there from my office, helped her get it in to the apartment, and headed back to work, helping some of my coworkers load some systems into a car to take to campus on the way back.

I love living this close to my office!

Update: It turns out that this isn’t an LED model, which I found out after looking very, very carefully at the spec sheet. I talked to one of the sales support guys at Vann’s and he recommended the lamp-based unit anyway. His points were that it produces a more natural white light rather than the bluish tint that the LED units can have, and it’s a tried-and-true technology so there are likely to be fewer kinks to work out. For what it’s worth, I’ve loved the TV so far, and am exceedingly happy with my decision on this model.

This site used to be hosted with [Squarespace](http://www.squarespace.com/), but after being unable to set up commenting the way I wanted I decided to move it to my own hosting running the recently released [Movable Type Pro](http://www.movabletype.com/). I was able to bring over all the old content, so it should be as if nothing ever happened. You may need to change your subscription in your feed reader, though.

Please pardon the dust while I get things going on the new server!

I got my mailbox key yesterday, which means that the Post Office finally put their locks on the mailboxes. The mailboxes themselves are behind a locked door with a keypad so that we can dial ourselves in, but it also has an intercom for guests arriving at the building to get buzzed in. Unfortunately that doesn’t really help me as it only lets people on to the main hall and my exterior door is off Pettigrew Street, but it will still give me a place to tell people to go, and then I can instruct them to walk around to the other side of the building and I’ll come down and let them in. Hopefully mail will start arriving soon, too!

There were also a couple of small things broken or wrong with the place when I moved in, most notably that there was a part missing from the microwave that made the turntable not turn. That got fixed yesterday only a day or so after I’d reported the problem, which leads me to believe that the maintenance people are going to be on top of things. It wasn’t any big deal, and was the sort of thing that I expect when I’m the first occupant of an apartment, but it was nice to have it fixed in a timely fashion. They also gave me a couple of quotes from an Allstate agent for renter’s insurance, and a nice silver keychain with the “Apartments at American Tobacco” logo on it. Snazzy.

So Kevin over at Bull City Rising made mention of this blog and my new apartment today, and I just wanted to welcome any and all readers who came here from his site. Bull City Rising is one of several awesome Durham blogs which inspired me to write and share my experience with this incredible building, so I’m honored by his reference.

I don’t post with any set schedule here, so add my RSS feed to your feed reader to be kept up to date with all my random thoughts about my new apartment, the building it’s in, and the city I love. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to drop me an email.

• Five-minute commutes.
• Walking to work.
• Really nice weather.

On the morning of Friday, the First of August, TROSA showed up at a little before 9AM to start loading my life into a truck. At around 10:30AM, I spoke with Ally at the leasing office; they were still waiting on one final signature from someone with the city and had been waiting since 9AM. There were already two other residents with movers waiting to put items into their new apartments. At 11AM, we were done loading the truck and ready to head over to Old Bull, still not having the keys to get into my new place. At about 11:30AM, Ally called to let me know she was on her way to meet me with my new keys almost exactly when the movers finished parking the truck; I was overjoyed to not have to pay the movers to sit there, waiting for the city. At 12:30PM, all my stuff was in my new apartment. We were done. I bought the movers pizza to thank them for their time (and because we were all starving), and had the first meal in my new home.

As always, TROSA was nothing short of amazing. When we’d finished, the other two crews who’d been waiting were still going. I donated my old washer and dryer to TROSA, since the new apartment has really nice new ones, and I got an amazing work crew for a phenomenal price. I will always continue to use and recommend them for moves of any size. Their workers are fast, professional, kind, and careful. Their prices are more than reasonable and go to a very good cause.

Betsy spent the afternoon cleaning up the old apartment — once again, there is no way I could have made this move without her help — and I took over from her in the evening. I am absolutely ecstatic to be rid of that dump, and there is no love lost between me and the former apartment.

Today we went shopping for various accouterments for the apartment, including some really nice stuff for the bathroom and kitchen, and an alarm clock that I can read from across the spacious bedroom without my glasses on. She cooked me dinner — homemade lasagna! — with some new pots and pans I got. There were some fireworks from a Durham Bulls victory, and we had a wonderful evening with one of our dearest friends, my first guest in my new home.

To put it bluntly, I absolutely adore this apartment. It feels like a home to me, something I haven’t had in quite some time. It’s not without its flaws — the trains can be kind of noisy at times, and while the windows are very tall I wish they were wider so I could get a better view of the downtown skyline — but I suspect I’m going to be very happy here for quite some time. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Earlier today I signed the lease and various other pieces of paperwork. We still appear to be all set for August 1st, so I’m getting final things in order. Betsy has been absolutely invaluable in helping me get packed, as well as providing moral support, and I could not have done this without her help.

I’ll keep everyone posted throughout the week!

I just signed the most recent — and hopefully final — welcome letter, and I have an appointment to sign the lease on Monday, the 28th. It’s expected that the Certificate of Occupancy will be in hand early next week, after having been denied in late June and pushing all the residents back until August 1st. It’s been a bit of a hassle having to set up and then cancel moves, utility transfers, changes of address, etc. but Ally and Kia have both been incredibly helpful, communicative, and patient. These setbacks haven’t been easy on them, either, and I’m sure we’re all looking forward to getting normal living underway.

So, if all goes according to plan I will have the lease signed on Monday and will be moving in on Friday, August 1st. Here’s hoping!

I got a call from Ally up at the leasing office earlier this week with some bad news. Apparently a handful of units are holding the entire Old Bull building back with regard to getting a Certificate of Occupancy, and the building’s opening date pushed back from mid-June to July 1st. I had originally planned on moving in on June 27th, so needless to say this changed things a bit. Further complicating the matter was the fact that my current lease ends June 30th.

We all knew this was a possible obstacle from the very beginning. The apartment management was very up front with me about what could happen, and I was notified as soon as they knew of the pushback. They’re also being extremely accommodating, as they said they would, and are reimbursing me for the inconvenience by cutting some additional concessions on my rent. At the end of the day, we can all hope that nothing will go wrong with any situation we find ourselves in, so guarantees to make good where possible are worth a great deal.

I called TROSA to re-schedule the movers, and to utilize their short-term storage. They’re going to pick the stuff up from the old apartment on June 30th — which I’ll then have to go through and clean, but it shouldn’t be a big deal — and will be dropping it off at the new place on the First of June. My cat and I are going to get a hotel room for the night because I don’t want to think about how traumatic it would be to board him.

Many thanks again go out to Ally and the HallKeen team for their quick response to the rapidly changing situation and going out of their way to both stay true to their word and ensure that the residents have to suffer the minimum number of inconveniences.

I spoke with TROSA today and set up the movers. They’ll be showing up at my current apartment at 8:30 AM on the 27th of June. They’ve moved my stuff before and it was an absolutely flawless experience. They’re exceedingly professional, very courteous, fast and efficient, and affordable. I honestly can’t understand why someone would go with anyone else to move.