Lisa And Bryan Moved In Together, Finally

by Lisa and Bryan

Lisa and Bryan are moving in together and, against everyone’s better judgment, are documenting it on the Internet. THE STORY SO FAR. Last we heard from them, it was January and they had found an apartment. Then three months passed. Did they break up? They did not.

Bryan: Hello beautiful.

Lisa: Good day sir!

Bryan: So we went furniture shopping at the flea market today. First big piece of furniture purchased together. Big step.

Lisa: We gotta back up man! It’s been three months since we wrote an article. We need to remind our audience who we are!

Bryan: I thought we would do this like Momento. Just go randomly from time to time in no specific order.

Lisa: I don’t even have anything to say to that. Except that Memento wasn’t random, it was simultaneously presented chronological and reverse chronological threads.

Bryan: Okay. Three months ago.

Lisa: January 25th. You were finishing up at your old job, and I had a shoot the next day so you were going to go craft service shopping with me to get things for craft services but I think I ended up doing it alone because I thought I’d be going to drinks for my co-worker’s last day. Do you remember now?

Bryan: Sounds vaguely familiar. And yeah, we wrote about finally finding a place to live. That was so long ago!

Lisa: It was. And we talked about how we would split rent 55/45 due to our respective financial situations and how much we had been used to paying.

Bryan: Right. And since then you paid your half of the deposit, so that was a good step.

Lisa: Yes. That month was rough for me bill-wise and you were working. I appreciated you paying the half of the deposit we needed to leave with the application, but on move-in day, I had the money so I paid the other half. And we both paid our first month’s rent.

Bryan: Well, we each only paid a half month’s rent.

Lisa: We should explain that our landlord had told us there would need to be some construction done the first week we moved in, so she only charged us a half month’s rent — $900 total.

Bryan: Yes, we were told that there was some minor plumbing and electrical upgrades needed but that we could live there during the work and it would take 2–3 days. We got a half a month’s rent discount for the inconvenience. Then we showed up on move it day to find…

Lisa: NO WALLS IN OUR APARTMENT!!!

Bryan: What was described as minor was actually re-plumbing and rewiring the entire apartment. Luckily we had sort of planned for it and kept a bed at your place for half a month, so really we paid a full month’s rent including the half at your place, which we split.

Lisa: Right. It was a weird situation. We had moved all our stuff into the new place — EVERYTHING — but we couldn’t stay there because construction was going on all day. All the furniture had to be two feet away from the walls.

Bryan: And we couldn’t put clothes in closets.

Lisa: The construction ended up taking a full 10 days. So for 10 days we would drive cross town to the new place, get an overnight bag and sleep in a bedroom with just a bed no lights (because we had moved all the lighting). We were very unhappy, BUT…. we had only paid that month’s rent so we didn’t really feel justified in complaining.

Bryan: True. It was pretty annoying, but we took turns being stressed and angry and we calmed each other down when we needed to. Plus, looking back better to have the construction out of the way while our stuff was still in boxes, rather than when we were living in the place with nowhere to go. It all worked out.

Lisa: So… since that first snafu, things have been going rather smoothly.

Bryan: Indeed. Even moving in the cat went well.

Lisa: Ah yes, once we got Henry the cat over here it started to feel like home because until then, I’d still have to go back to my old place and take care of him. We didn’t want to move him until we had a safe living environment for him to tear up.

Bryan: Home is where the cat is…right.

Lisa: Haha. Yup! And we realized we had a similar design aesthetic.

Bryan: Yes. All the furniture you brought from your place and everything I brought from mine is playing very nicely with each other.

Lisa: Yeah! Almost everything we brought from our respective places is part of our decor. We did have to buy a few things, though.

Bryan: Yup. A couple accent chairs, a work bench, a fancy garbage pail.

Lisa: The fun thing that I discovered about living with someone is that everything is half priced!! The dustbuster is only $30 because you paid the other $30. The garbage pail was only $40 because you paid the other $40.

Bryan: I know! When you told me the garbage pail was $80 I thought that was crazy. Then I realized I only had to pay $40. I will totally spend $40 on a nice garbage pail.

Lisa: And we decided whoever falls in love with it more gets it in the break-up plan.

Bryan: Never thought I would try to prove how much I love a garbage pail. Man, we can’t break up.

Lisa: No way! Because then one of us would have to move out and we both love this apartment too much. (Also because we love each other.)

Bryan: I think it was good that we talked about how we were going to split the cost of everything before we moved in. It made things go more smoothly. Since all of the utilities at my place were in my name I just transferred them to the new place, and you write me a check for half.

Lisa: So easy!

Bryan: And we each put $40 into a jar each week for groceries and then take from it when we go shopping. Honor system style.

Lisa: Yeah… we haven’t been doing a good job of that at all. I think whoever’s been going food shopping has just paid (mostly you) and then if someone picks up food on the way home at night (mostly me) we consider it even. But I don’t know if it’s even…

Bryan: We’re still perfecting our system. It’s only been a month.

Lisa: I guess.

Bryan: We have been good about splitting all of the furniture, shelving, organizational things, etc.

Lisa: Definitely.

Bryan: Damn. One word answers already?? You’re totally over this.

Lisa: I just think we discussed everything and the conversation is over.

Bryan: Okay, fine. See you in the kitchen.

Lisa: So wait. We’re not gonna end all cute like? Cuz that’s kinda our thing. Our signature sign off. That one guy who comments on our stuff and says he hates us will be disappointed if we don’t give him something to vomit about.

…

Hello?

Bryan: Sorry missed that last part. I was distracted by your beautiful face.

Lisa: Eh. Good enough.

Lisa and Bryan live in L.A. Together.

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