If you were to ask me if I miss the place I used to live at, I'd say no.

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Almost a year ago, we moved out of an unsafe neighborhood to a better place. I was glad to be able to turn a new page in my life. Sure, the old place had some advantages, but there were more disadvantages to it as well. I had a bank right across the street, which was nice, more convenient than now. The grocery store was closer, and it was a shorter drive to work. With the torrential rains we've had recently, being there would have been a bonus. Being up on a hill, the rain never had a chance to flood our area. Moving there was a breeze. We walked everything across the lane way to that place from our old apartment, and were able to do it a bit at a time. But the apartment itself, and the area was not nice. The apartment, a 2 story, 3 bedroom deal, was small. And for the money we were paying, it wasn't worth it. The main floor consisted of a kitchen and a large living room. No storage except for the kitchen cupboards. There were more than enough of them though. And there was a dishwasher as well, which was nice. The windows were small and barred. The front door had 3 locks on it, a door knob lock, a dead bolt and a sliding dead bolt. There was a narrow, L shaped staircase leading upstairs, it was nearly impossible to get some furniture upstairs, in fact, a wardrobe we'd purchased had to be hauled up to the roof and into the place through the deck door. We couldn't take it with us when we moved because we couldn't get it out of there. Our bedroom had a small window. There was no closet space, and just enough room for our double bed and one night table. Our landlord had promised to build us a custom shelving/storage unit, but never got around to it. I'm just under 5'2" tall, and could lie on the bed and touch both walls. The room was only 7' wide. The second bedroom, we used it for storage and to put the hamsters and guinea pigs we had. There was no window and no closet either. It got really hot in there, as did the rest of the upstairs area. The 3rd bedroom, which our roommate staked claim to, was the only one with a closet. It had its own bathroom, but only a toilet and a sink. Both of his windows had bars on them as well. The bathroom was extremely small, was hard to move in there, and near impossible to get the dog in there to bathe him. The deck, for a while, was the nicest feature of our apartment. It was quite large and there was a small storage area out there as well. Parking was a nightmare for most of the time we were there. Our landlord was supposed to pay for parking, but for some reason, failed to do so most months, and several times I was warned about parking illegally in a spot he was supposed to pay for. Even when the spot was marked as mine, there were people who would park in that spot. Those times warranted a call to parking enforcement, but the car owners never took too kindly to that. One of them even came at us with a baseball bat, and another one threatened me later and put a nasty note on my car. When new people moved in next door, our peace and quiet was shattered. They would throw all night parties, not caring about anyone around them. There was one night, it took until 4am before the police could get by to shut them up. We hadn't been the only ones to complain either. After we had moved in there, it was getting cold, and we asked for heat. We couldn't get any. The landlord gave us nothing but runaround for almost 2 months about why the furnace wasn't working. We stopped paying our rent because of it. He found a way to get it working after that, but was angry that we had done that. Our walls were cinder block with no insulation at all, it's no wonder it was really cold in there by November. We wanted to put a deck on the roof at one point, got the go ahead, then he changed his mind. Then he said it was ok, and then said no again. He cited some sort of safety concerns the last time, and that was the end of that. We'd wanted the deck so we could put up a fence around our roof, not only to keep people out, but to block off the neighbors and get a bit of sound proofing. By the time we were ready to move out of there, we were more than happy to do so. The place was starting to fall apart, the walls were cracking under the ceiling, the dryer stopped working, and it was hotter than anything in the summer. The 2nd bedroom didn't even have a window, so that room was the worst. When we bought a portable air conditioner for the summer, we put it in our room and brought the pets into our room to keep them cool. So you ask me if I miss that place, and I say no. I'm glad I don't live there anymore.