Apartment in Transition

I've lived in the same apartment almost since I moved to LA, over 3 and 1/2 years now.  I've gone through about seven roommates and a puppy.  Earlier this year my roommate and I realized that we were embarrassed about the state of the carpet. It hadn't been changed since at least a year before I moved in, and 3 years, 7 roommates, and puppy can really wreak havoc on already-old carpet. So we decided to ask our landlord about changing it.

We caught him a good time, right when he was trying to rent out the empty unit next door and realizing that people like hardwood a whole lot more than carpet.  My roommate and I are two of those people who love hardwood, and jumped at his offer to hardwood the entire apartment.  A month later, the disgusting carpet was a distant memory.

Not long after the flooring was finished, we found out that our apartment building (which had been on the market for the better part of 6 months) was "in escrow."  Neither of us knew what escrow was, but presumably it meant it had been sold.  As evidenced by the parade of inspections that happened over the next 2 weeks.

And then two more weeks went by, and we didn't hear a thing. And then on a Wednesday night, my roommate noticed our sink had been leaking and then we found a cockroach, and it became imperative that a landlord come IMMEDIATELY and take care of the situation.

So the next morning I call our landlord and find out, he doesn't own the building anymore.  Now, we had never received anything telling us that we officially had a new landlord and who that was and how to contact said landlord in the even of a COCKROACH INVASION. So former landlord gave us the number for the realty company, who gave us the number of the new landlord, who was told he wouldn't become the landlord for 2 more days.

But it turns out that our new landlord is AWESOME.  He came over to fix the sink and rid our world of evil that takes cockroach form, and also to let us know all of the great ideas he has for the place and see what our thoughts were for possible improvements.  And his ideas were AMAZING (insulation and a new a/c unit to keep place cooler in summer? Yes, please!) and he seemed fully willing to do our ideas as well and basically, our apartment is awesome now.

It all started with a fresh coat of paint, and my roommate's friend who is an amateur interior decorator.  The fresh coat of paint was joined by two dark gray walls, rearranged furniture, a few new lampshades, and a couple of strategic new pieces of furniture.  Add to that new shades and curtains and some art on the walls (instead of full-sized movie posters), and it looks like adults live here.  I love it.  We're probably going to have a house re-warming party, because it literally is like a whole new apartment.

All that's left is to include my room in the apartment update.  I already rearranged and got rid of a papazan chair I love but doesn't fit in the room anymore.  But I'd like to add some color to the walls, put a few things on the walls, and generally make it look like a room I've lived in for 3 years and not some place I'm crashing for now.  We'll see if the budget can cover that kind of makeover.

Bottom line, I love my practically new apartment!