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It is finally, finally Memorial Day weekend. Do you know what that means? It’s Fleet Week, we can all wear white again, and even though it’s not technically summer yet, it’s the official kick off of the barbecuing season! (Though white sundresses, baby-back ribs, and the possibility of cute sailors asking you for directions around Times Square is sadly never a good combination.) And, of course, vacation! From now until Labor Day, people will be using their vacation days (or if they used them all during the winter doldrums, pulling a Ferris Bueller) and going somewhere tropical, and hopefully pina…

When I was a freshman in college, after going out to the bars, you’d come home with cigarette burns on your arms and your cute halter tops smelling of cigarette smoke. Sadly I was more concerned with the smell, but that might have been the amaretto sours talking. Luckily smoking is illegal in most bars and restaurants now. But what about in apartments? Many apartments are already smoke-free. And, according to a recent article in The New York Times, “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg introduced legislation that would require most residential buildings to adopt a smoking policy and disclose it to…

There are so many decisions you have to make during a given day. Should you invest your money in a reliable bond or a riskier stock (and should you look up what stocks and bonds are or just nod and put the end of your glasses in your mouth indicating you’re giving it serious thought)? Should you ask for that promotion at work? Is it worth it to DVR the finale of Glee even though you’re 90 percent sure you’ll be home to watch it? And what about when you’re looking for a new apartment? There are several ways to…

You know what I like about baseball? Cute men in uniform, popcorn that has more than a day’s worth of calories and watching the people who clean up the field do the “YMCA” dance during the fifth inning. That’s it. But, apparently some people actually like watching the game. Whatever—who am I to judge? It is America’s national pastime, or so I’m told. Anyway, I recently read about a “baseball-oriented development.” The D.C. area, where this stadium is located, is experiencing a renaissance, though the writer of the piece is attributing more residents to the local condos to having nowhere else…

Ghosts do not exist. It’s a scientific fact. That said, if I wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, I always check in the bathtub to make sure that dead lady from The Shining isn’t there. And I will never, ever play that Bloody Mary game. Ever. Of course, some people still strongly believe in the paranormal and supernatural. I recently came across a discussion on Multifamily Insiders where a landlord wrote that one of his residents said her apartment was haunted and didn’t want to live there, and he asked what he should do about…

Mother’s Day is upon us again. And, whether you’ve had your brunch reservations made months in advance or you forgot and are seriously debating whether that “Mothers Day Roses Shipped 4 Free” spam email you got is legit, it’s time to sit back and thank your mom for all she’s done. Like how true the advice she gave you when you first moved into your first apartment was (although you’d never actually admit it to her). Here is some of the advice I received when I first moved into an apartment. What advice did your mom give you when you…

One of the benefits of working for a multifamily publication is that people actually seek out my advice when looking for an apartment. My brother recently got a job in Manhattan, so I was helping him look for an apartment. And after going back and forth about a place (and literally going back to a studio three times—his broker was a lot more patient than I was), he finally signed the lease. The stressful part is over, right? No, for my brother, it’s just beginning. He wanted to know, how will he get to work from there? What is there…

Yesterday I went to a concert right after work. Though it was one of my favorite bands (Eve 6, in case you were wondering. The ’90s are totally back. Like, whatever), it wasn’t something I had planned in advance. I Forrest Gump-ed my way into the tickets that day because I happened to check Stubhub.com and happened to see they were playing and that there were tickets left. Anyway, because it was so last minute, I had to go in my work clothes—slacks and sensible ballet flats, instead of my normal concert attire consisting of jeans and Converse. But, sadly,…

You know how when you were little and were asked to draw a house, it always looked the same: a square with a triangle on top for the roof, a rectangle door, and maybe some square windows? (Actually, whenever I have to draw a house in Draw Something, that’s how it looks as well.) But all houses don’t actually look alike…unless you’re in one of those weird Twilight Zone type developments, where every home is the same model and design and you all read from the same book To Serve Man (It’s a cookbook!). Houses look different. And so do apartment…

Like a diva film actress who just found out her dressing room is stocked with yellow M&Ms instead of the requested green ones, I tearily told my husband, “I cannot live like this! How do you expect me to work under these conditions?” Yup, our washer/dryer is on the fritz. Again. And our new super is always MIA. Attempts to fix it have not gone well (What do you get when a law student tries to fix a washing machine himself? Soggy briefs. Seriously though). It might not seem like a big deal. There are about a million laundromats on…