In Appreciation of 508 Barclay Boulevard

 As I showered this morning in our bright, clean, spacious and powerful shower, I thought it was time I wrote about our lovely apartment.  I complained plenty about the shabby rental house on Juniper Road and wrote that we would be glad to get back into our place here in Princeton.  And now we are here and we don't take this comfortable, luxurious home for granted.

Our daughter-in-law Susan was our personal real estate agent who suggested Barclay Square.  I think we had assumed it was a condo complex and it may have been so originally.  We would have liked to have been able to walk to stores and libraries but we went for more space for the money and we have not been sorry.  We chose a unit looking at plans online and Jeff and Susan sent us some photos of the outside of our building.  We have three bedrooms with one used as Jim's study.  We have two full bathrooms and that is a bit more than we wanted or needed--the tub and shower are never used in one of them.  We have used the dining room area very few times but can blame that on Covid and limited entertaining or family gatherings inside.  My digital piano occupies a wall of the dining area.  

We looked at two complexes closer to town that charged extra for parking in a parking garage.  Here we have a garage attached to our apartment at the bottom of the stairs. It is large enough to store boxes and a bookshelf.   I am no longer fearful of getting the Sportage into and out of the one stall opening. 

We use the gas fireplace more than we thought we would.  There is no sound of crackling wood or smell of wood burning, but it is very cozy and can take the chill off a cold afternoon.

The decorating scheme of white walls and beige carpets is bland but we have area rugs in the kitchen and living room. Very colorful comforters add life to the bedrooms.  

So far we are happy to be on the second floor; we hope we can continue to manage the stairs.  In fact, I do the steps a few times extra each day for some exercise.  Our downstairs neighbors are concerned that their toddler's crying will disturb us but when we hear him, and it is not often,  we think of them with compassion.  We don't use the showers or laundry room late at night and hope we don't disturb them either.  

The grounds here are maintained well and landscaped beautifully.  Christmas decorations are up replacing the colorful mums that signaled fall.  If something goes wrong in the apartment, Jim puts our request on the "portal" and Alonso or Adriano is there to fix it very quickly.  Eboni in the leasing office has helped Jim with scanning and faxing documents several times.  It's a short walk to get our mail and to get rid of trash and recyclables--and a good excuse to get in a few of the steps we need each day.  If we are more ambitious, we can walk to the Delaware and Raritan canal path--a round trip getting us about 5000 steps.  

We did not even consider buying a house or condo in Princeton at this stage of our lives.  Taxes are very high.  We are so glad to have someone else take care of maintenance and problems.  

Barclay Square has become home. We are grateful for such a comfortable place to live.  We are a ten minute drive from the Princeton VKs, a bit over an hour from the Conways, and 2 1/2 hours from Dan and Alex in the Catskills.  We are glad it is no longer a 13 hour drive to spend time with them!