Pikake & Pearls: Helen & Randy’s Website

Labor Day weekend is typically the busiest time that Boston sees. The last few days of August into the first few days of September is when the bulk of the city’s apartments turnover. Unlike other cities, where landlords often offer a choice of leases (month to month, 6 month, two years, etc.) that begin throughout the year, Boston’s landlords prefer to align their leases with the beginning of the academic year. That means nearly everybody moves in on Sept. 1 and finishes their leases on August 31. (And yes, that also means that a lot of people are homeless between the evening of Aug. 31 and noon on Sept 1).

Luckily for Helen and I, this year is the first of many that we didn’t have to move out of one apartment and into another! That alone is cause to celebrate. We did, however, get the urge to do some cleaning and re-organizing of our apartment. We also went out on our annual furniture stroll to look for stuff people have thrown out.

This year’s stroll netted many great catches: a black metal book case, some new kitchen shelving, and a brand-new wood futon frame. The futon frame is replacing a similar catch from two years ago (that one was a black metal frame that has since been falling apart). I’ll put up some pictures later, once we get things assembled. In the meantime, here’s a picture of our new kitchen shelving.