I stayed at a really nice Air B&B in Thornton Park while I was looking for an apartment to rent. It was in the top floor of a 3 story building with a balcony that overlooked Washington Street. There was a bar next door with a UCF banner and I liked hearing all the conversations.
All of my belongings were in a storage container in Lake County Florida. My hope was to find a place in Downtown Orlando. The problem of course was that most places downtown cost a fortune. I know of a place near the Day Building that costs $5000 a month. The building looks like an old Spanish fortress church with the bells removed frm the bell tower, which was refurnished. It has really tall ceilings but I bet the apartments are not that big otherwise. $5000 a month is insane.
The place I was staying in in Thornton Park was right on Washington Avenue a block away from the Falcon Bar and Gallery. I have sketched at the Falcon Bar rather often so I was pleased to be so close. I sketched my view looking towards Lake Eola at night. A small outdoor street festival had just shut down, and the tents were being broken down.
There was a pause in the activity and a family with a dog was talking to a vendor. One block from the Air B&B was a 7-11 which I went to several times for basic supplies. By basic supplies, I mean junk food of course and battery acid Mountain Dew. A Publix was a few more blocks away and I went shopping there for the week’s groceries.
In a few weeks I would be sketching shows at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. I needed a place that was a short distance from the festival since I planned to sketch like a Tasmanian devil. I tried to re-book this Thornton Park place but it had already been booked.
While here I was also looking for apartments. There was a place for rent across the street, so I called to take a look at the place. It was a single room apartment with a kitchen and bath. It had an upstairs attic with a skylight and I thought maybe I could use it as a studio space. When I got inside I found that the attic ceiling was only 5 feet high at the peak of the roof. I had to duck just to walk down the length of the room. The room was completely unusable and could only function as storage. I don’t have many belongings but this place was waaaaay to small.
From this Thornton Park Air B&B I had to move to a place in Azalia Park. That place was on the landing approach to the Orlando International Airport and the morning planes flying over were an unpleasant window rattling racket. I took a map of Orlando and drew the areas that had the loudest airplane landing noises. That map became my plan for the places I absolutely refused to live.
Prior to moving out to lake County I lived at the Chatsworth Lane house and it was also on a plane landing pattern for the airport. I used to wear ear plugs every morning to try and drown out the noise.
I really loved my stay in Thornton Park. Home process were through the roof and the few rentals I looked at were either too small or too expensive. Finding a place in Downtown Orlando was proving to be a challenge.