New Digs

In less than a month, I'll be moving. Normally, I detest moving, but this time I'm excited about it. About 3 1/2 years ago, I moved from a two-bedroom house to a basement studio apartment. One of the reasons I moved was to live in Decatur, GA, where I often found myself playing rehearsals or gigs. Mostly, though, I needed to relocate because I was in a terrible financial hole, and I needed to find a smaller place.

I like the little studio apartment where I'm living now, and it's been a good situation. It's a basement apartment attached to a house. My landlady, Sue, is a musician, and so are her two kids. We've had a good relationship, and I've enjoyed living here.

Last week, Sue told me that her college age son is going to move into my apartment in less than three months. (We've had a relaxed, monthly lease, with the agreement that if I want to move out, or if she needs me to move out, we give each other a couple months'  notice.) I surprised myself with my lack of surprise. For the last several months, I had been considering finding a bigger place to live. When Sue gave me the news, I immediately felt invigorated and eager for a change, like the universe was letting me know that now is the time to move on.

I soon had several leads, and within a week, I found a nice little carriage house apartment only 15 minutes away from where I am now. It's small, but it's larger than my studio apartment, and it'll be nice to have more than one room. I'll have a bedroom, living room, an office, and a deck with a view of a wooded area and my new neighbor's chihuahua. The garage that the carriage house sits on is all mine to use. It has a washer/dryer and plenty of storage space. I'll keep a lot of my musical equipment in the garage for an easy load when I have gigs, and I plan on using the rest of the garage as a fitness room.

I'm especially excited about using the new place as a private teaching studio. I currently teach a handful of guitar students, driving to most of my students' homes. My current apartment isn't suitable for giving lessons to younger people, and I'm not interested in teaching in a music store. I'm looking forward to hanging out my shingle and teaching in the office space while parents wait in the living room.

I just signed the lease, and I move on April 1st.

I created a virtual tour of my studio apartment about three years ago. I'm looking forward to getting settled and posting a tour of the new place in the near future.