“It Feels Like I Can Finally Exhale”: 13 Stories From the First Days in a Place of Your Own

• We lived with my parents until we were 28, saving up. When we finally moved into our own apartment, I remember that first evening down to the smallest detail. It was empty and smelled like fresh renovations, with nothing but a mattress for furniture.
  My wife walked from room to room, and so did I. Then we simply sat on the living room floor in silence. For a long time. She said, “It’s a strange feeling.” I asked what she meant. She said, “Like we can finally exhale.”
  I understood exactly what she meant. We probably sat there on that floor in the empty, unfurnished apartment for another hour. It was the best evening.

• We moved into our own apartment. We had a crib, a TV on the floor, and an air mattress. The window had a bedsheet for a curtain. In the kitchen, I would spread out a bedspread, and we’d sit on the floor to eat.
  13 years have passed, and now there’s a TV hanging in every room. All three of our children have their own rooms, furniture, and toys; we have a wonderful kitchen and a dog. But I’ll never forget that first dinner on the floor.

• My husband and I bought a 1-bedroom in an old building for the price of a studio. Happy as clams, we moved right in without renovating. Our cat was the first one through the door. He shot straight out to the balcony and started meowing. We looked around but couldn’t see what he was meowing at.
  Then the previous owner called: “I forgot to tell you that there’s a feeder on the balcony. Our grandma used to feed the neighborhood strays there. They still come by sometimes.” So that’s what it was! Our Romeo had sensed some competition, or maybe some new friends.
  The apartment is on the first floor, and there’s a tall tree right next to it, so the furry visitors must have been climbing up that way. They showed up a couple of times, and my husband went outside with food and fed them down below. Seems like we’ve broken them of the habit.

• I’ve been living in my new apartment for 6 months. I didn’t have any neighbors, so I did whatever I wanted: blasted music, basically didn’t hold myself back in any way.
  Yesterday, a friend came over with some friends, there was dancing and music, and it was 3:00 a.m. She asked me, “Is it okay that we’re being this loud?” Without thinking, I replied — really loudly, actually, “Ahhh, don’t worry, I don’t have any neighbors yet.”
  Then I heard a response through the wall: “We moved in 3 days ago. Have fun, we’ll be renovating soon!”

What’s a strange purchase you made that turned out to be useful? My entry: a huge mosquito tent that I set up over my bed and sleep in whenever mosquitoes swarm into my apartment. Not a single mosquito that flies in by accident has dared bother me since.

• When I moved out of my parents’ place and started living on my own, I discovered that nights in an empty 2-bedroom apartment are a whole different kind of experience. It constantly feels like someone is walking around somewhere, creaking, or slamming doors.
  To calm myself down, I decided to get a cat, figuring I’d sleep with him, he’d purr beside me, and make the place feel cozy. Yeah, right. This little rascal immediately realized no one was going to make him leave and moved into the other room. He sleeps there peacefully, hangs out, and pays absolutely no attention to me.
  And, by the way, there are even more sounds now, and I have no idea whether it’s him wandering around somewhere or not.

• I remember moving in with 15 boxes, and that same evening, a crew came to clear out the remaining clutter from the balcony and haul away all the old furniture. Then, later that evening, someone came to set up the internet. I was also moving with a dog and a cat, and I was completely exhausted.
  I put the mattress where the bed would eventually go. I didn’t have the energy to make it, so I fell asleep on the bare mattress under a blanket without a duvet cover, and the pillows were the same way. It was the sweetest sleep of my life.

• We moved in September. We decided to furnish our new apartment partly with new furniture, within our budget. Naturally, we sold off the old stuff, practically for pennies, just so people would pick it up sooner.
  Everything sold pretty quickly except for the couch. And it was in excellent condition — not sagging, upholstery intact, and the price was ridiculously low. My wife said, “Maybe we didn’t photograph it well. Let’s take new pictures and list it again.”
  All right, I thought, I’ll give the couch one more photo shoot. At that moment, our cat jumped onto the couch. I didn’t shoo her away. I took the pictures, posted the listing, and that very evening, someone picked up the couch.
  Now I’ll know for next time: if you’re selling furniture, photograph it with a cat.

• I moved into a new apartment, met a lovely neighbor on the very first day, and was added to our building’s chat that same day. I’d never been in one before, but it turned out to have such a pleasant atmosphere. No one argues, sometimes people share memes, discuss building-related matters, and so on.
  Since the neighborhood was new to me too, one day I decided to ask in the chat where I could find some delicious pancakes nearby. A minute later, my neighbor replied, “Give me an hour,” and an hour later she brought me a whole plate of pancakes that were still hot.

• I recently moved into a new apartment, and everything is still in boxes. After the move, I was making breakfast and realized I didn’t have any salt, and I didn’t have time to run to the store — I’d be late for work. I asked my elderly neighbor, and she kindly gave me some and invited me to stop by that evening so we could get acquainted.
  After work, I visited her. We sat, drank tea, and chatted. I noticed some beautiful beaded pictures on the walls and asked about them. It turned out that she makes them herself.
  I had a whole box of supplies like that at home, I used to enjoy doing it too, but I don’t have the time now. Bead embroidery isn’t cheap, so I decided to do something nice for her and brought over all my materials.
  She even teared up — she hadn’t expected something like that from “the neighbor who just moved in.” I never would have thought that doing something good for someone else could feel so wonderful.

In this photo, you see the happiest person on Earth—and here’s how it happened! When I moved into my apartment, the furniture came together gradually: we bought some things, brought others over from my grandparents’ place, and I made a few pieces myself.
But the first time I saw my long balcony, I immediately wanted to hang a hammock there. After plenty of persuasion, my friend, an industrial climber, came over, installed anchors in the wall, brought special heavy-duty ropes, and voilà!
For the next 3 months, even though it was late fall, I slept exclusively in my hammock, wrapped up in blankets. Even the cats, who were wary of this strange thing at first, eventually learned to jump in and sleep there with me. And now, the cats love dozing in the hammock in the sunshine even without me.
My point is: we’ve grown up, and now we can do anything we want in our own homes!