The many benefits of my apartment

I live in a basement apartment. To get into my place, you have to walk around to the back of the house and climb down into what looks like a root cellar. Then you must duck your head as you enter the hallway that leads to my "front door."

There are many benefits to living in a basement, especially this basement. Let me share a few of them:

1. The grown-up ball-room experience. Do you remember playing in a tub full of balls at McDonald's Playland? In the fall, leaving and entering my apartment becomes such an adventure! I get to walk through stockpiled leaves that have blown into the stairwell and hear the fabulous crunching noise - which incidently happens to be one of my favourite sounds - first thing in the morning! (The same thing happens in the winter but it's not quite so fun!)


2. The disco lighting. My apartment is well-lit with small pot lights embedded in the ceiling tiles. They are bright and really do light up the place well. Some of them, however, are equipped with an important feature: they turn off when they've gotten too hot. As you can guess, I've never had a fire due to overheated ceiling lights! (The only time I mind is when the light above the sink goes out. It has led to more than a couple dish-rewashing episodes.)


3. The sliding doors. My bedroom and bathroom are each separated from the main living area by a sliding door. Don't be getting any ideas of patio doors! I'm talking about the fold-up kind that roll on a track. The pure joy of this is having first-time visitors. Some ask for music to be played, others flush before using the facility and still others break the awkwardness by talking through the bathroom-using experience. I love learning new things about my friends and how they handle my sliding door situation is just as fascinating as anything else!


4. The increase in love. My landlords who live upstairs have a rocky relationship -- with each other. The woman is kinder to me than just about anyone I know, but she seems to have a "Larissa voice" and a "husband voice". I have witnessed more fighting matches than I care to remember, but they always end well...with me calling Darren and telling him how much I love him. In fact, the other day his response to my "I love you" email was: "What made you decide to write that? Were they fighting upstairs? :)" While it was not, it did make me smile.


5. The cut-flower advantage. I used to be a plant person. In fact, I was so much of a plant person that I would scorn cut flowers. Who wants them? They die! Their entire purpose is to die! A plant lives on, giving eternal happiness and joy. But this apartment has helped me to see the light through lack of natural light! When I moved in I bought a number of plants to brighten up the place. The only one that is still alive is the one that came with me from my apartment in London (Hanako) and the remains of the asparagus fern in my only little window. But this is good news for any relevant boyfriends…I now love cut flowers! I don’t kill them - they’re supposed to die! It’s a breath of fresh air!

The list could go on and on (I haven't even mentioned my pre-Darren connection to utility meter readers - a.k.a. the trap door) but that’s enough for now. The bottom line is this: I love my apartment. Really. I love it so much I've decided to stay longer than my 1 year lease. I don't think I've ever done that before. It must be due to all the endearing quirks!