Our First Los Angeles Apartment…

Rose and I found an incredible area in the city: Hancock Park. We knew we had to get an apartment here. It is the only place that is central in this city and has trees. Plus it’s a short walk away from Larchmont st. We would be able to walk somewhere in LA. That’s ridiculous.

We set out to find an affordable apartment in this beautiful borough. We found a place the size of a closet that would be about 1100 a month. It was a one bedroom with a living room that ran directly into a “kitchen” (which was really just some appliances lined up at one end of the living room). It had no ac, no heat, and no parking. We almost moved in.

We decided to check some other places out just in case, though. We walked a block down the street and found an incredible looking complex. We weren’t sure if it would be too much for us, but we walked in and met with the manger to find out.  She told us the rates for apartments and they turned out to be fairly comparable to the last place. There wouldn’t be a vacancy for another month, though. She had gutted the last vacant apartment and was in the process of remodeling it. We wouldn’t be able to see it for a few weeks, but we could put in our rent applications and we would be pretty much guaranteed the place if we wanted it.

We  took the place sight unseen. It promised to be larger than the other apartment, had a parking spot, and was only 50 dollars more a month. Plus, we would be living in Hancock Park.

We got the keys the day before I started training. I spent a week on a blow up bed in the living room. It was fine, except there were a few details that had been looked over when they were putting together the finishing touches.

The garbage disposal was broken.

A couple of windows were in disrepair.

The sink and shower drain were both clogged.

The tub was leaking water and the knobs for the tub just spun when you tried to turn on the water.

Most importantly: The shower only released water through the bottom three holes of the shower head. That’s not a lot of water and with the Jew fro I have. I’m just saying, it took me an hour to wash my hair every day.

But we had a place to live! I didn’t have to commute to work every day and life was almost wonderful. We gave our manager a letter with our little grievances and expected everything to be fine… but nothing got fixed. I didn’t have time to push for things, so I just accepted the lack of water in my shower and went on living my life.

How did everything get fixed?

I somehow got blessed with the best scene partner EVER. He saw how terrible our apartment was, went to his car, and came back with a giant tool box. He fixed our shower, tub, and garbage disposal. That just does not happen. Needless to say, he is going to be our friend forever.

And our couch…

I have an amazing couch. This thing is the most comfortable couch ever. When we were moving in we couldn’t fit the couch in our door, because of the narrow stairs/hallway you have to walk up to get into our place. I was determined to get that couch in, so it spent the night in our U-Haul and we waited for my parents to drive back the next day with a power saw.

My parents showed up the next morning and my dad proceeded to take off one of the legs of the couch. It took all of the power in that little saw to get one leg off… and it wasn’t the leg we needed off to get it into our place. We had to charge the saw for five hours before we could use it again.The parentals had to leave, so we had to do the rest of the work on our own. I took off the leg we needed and the two of us moved the couch up the stairs.

We got to the landing at the top of the stairs and could not figure out how to fit it in the door. We needed man power to life the couch vertically to twist it into the door. There was a lot of panting and banging that occurred. We clearly could not do it on our own. Our neighbor across the way opened his door and stared at us. We were so excited. Someone was going to help us! But this is Los Angeles. He just said, “Oh, I was wondering what that noise was” and shut his door.Yes, this is Los Angeles.

So.. we tried calling the three men we knew in the area for help. We finally got assistance and the couch made it into our apartment. It may have to stay in there forever, but it’s in!

Rose and I wood glued the legs back on and prayed the couch wouldn’t collapse on us. Now, that scene partner of mine.. he also fixed our couch. He took apart our crappy glue job, sanded the legs and screwed them back on the couch.

I don’t know what we would do if it wasn’t for him. Basically.. the moral of all of this is:

Go to Howard Fine Acting Studio and find yourself a scene partner that can fix your shit.

- Jordan.