My first apartment was a dump

My first apartment was a dump – that simple. I used to describe the carpet as looking like rolled garbage. I don't know where they got it. It looked like a factory mistake – some production error done after the company Christmas party when everyone was totally sloshed. It looked more like recycled carpet pad than actual carpet. Then there was the bathroom. It had a turn of the century (1900) composite floor tile made out of something blackish. The sink was from about 1920. It had separate hot and cold faucets and the bowl had a permanent stain across the bottom as well being completely pock marked. It looked like it had suffered a bad case of sink acne at some point. The walls of the bathroom had little pink plastic tiles – coming unglued of course. To say it looked horrible just doesn't do it justice. And then there was the kitchen, a real gem. It had a ancient refrigerator from about 1960. The kind with a latch door which were taken off the market because people could get stuck inside and die. It also had big rounded corners and was painted pink. I repainted it yellow and it actually ended up looked pretty cool in a vintage sort of way. The kitchen sink was a big white ceramic thing with two white metal cabinets overhead. The only counter space was about 18" between the sink and a tiny gas stove. The counter was made out of something similar to the floor. Some kind of soft plastic looking material but not plastic, black of course. The edge of the counter was covered in unpainted metal. The stove was without a doubt the smallest standing stove you've ever seen. It had four burners but they were so close together as to not be of much use. It was more like one big burner with four parts. And to the immediate left of the stove was the water heater – right on the kitchen counter with pipes and wires sticking out. It made the kitchen look more a boiler room than a kitchen. The one thing I'll say about the place though was that it had nice big old windows, they must have been seven or eight feet high so they let in lots of light. Ahh those were the days...