Hi, I'm Zilla, a freelance graphic designer, video editor, and general odd-jobber of the creative arts. My partner is an office admin for an insurance company, and my nonbinary kiddo (a budding artist themselves) is currently enjoying summer vacation from high school.

Ten years ago, due to circumstances which were already pretty dire before the bottom fell out, we had two weeks to find a new living situation. We were, by no small amount of tiny miracles (including a successful GFM), able to secure a cramped one-bedroom walk-up apartment and keep homelessness at bay. Our plan was always to get a properly-sized place once we could afford it. Finally, a decade later, the stars have aligned.

This journey has not been easy. We rode out the pandemic lockdown in this tiny apartment, doing some creative greenscreen camera magic to set up a corner where kiddo could attend school via Zoom without shame, while my partner hunched over a laptop to do her complex job remotely, and I had to find whatever space I could to do my own work while supporting my family. Our child, having reached puberty, needs their own room, so we gave them the one and only bedroom. My partner & I sacrificed our bed to make this happen, and currently sleep on the main room's floor atop folding mats we have to stow away every morning. Not to mention the entire decade of managing two work-from-home careers in a space best suited for a single college student, and in an economy best suited for aspiring trillionaires.

It's been difficult to say the least, but we've made it work as best we could.

Finally, after a decade of saving up, along with some minor gains in our career tracks, we've met the financial requirements for a bigger place - somewhere we can not just survive in, but live. There's more space in the common room, enough bedrooms so that people can have privacy, and most important for two aging adults, a ground-level unit with a room where we can finally, once again, have a proper bed. While still not big or luxurious by any stretch of the imagination, it accommodates the work, play, and rest needs of this family far more sustainably. And the best part is, this will be an easy move, since it's in the same apartment community & only across the driveway.

The snag we've run into, is that we had a limited window of opportunity to get this space, and we jumped at it. It cost us nearly every penny we had in reserve, which means a very lean month to cover basics like food, prescriptions, hygiene products, and so on. It also means we have nothing left in the tank to hire a couple of strong-backed fellas to help us shlep the bigger pieces. It's a short trip, and we have a generous five-day window to clear out of the old place, but I'm not the spring chicken I was ten years ago; I instead have the spine of someone that's been sleeping on a memory-foam floor mat for several years.

This is why we're asking for help. Not a lot of help, but I figure it's better to ask BEFORE things get dire than DURING.

I know firsthand that people are posting GFMs for situations far more dire than mine. Last month, I chipped into & shared two such GFMs. So this ask is hard because I feel guilty when I know I'm not suffering as hard as others. However, after much fussing and soul-searching, I do think it's better to ask now, before it becomes an out of control emergency and the expenses get too expensive.

I'm thus setting the starting goal based on these estimates:

In the event that we are blessed by overwhelming generosity, here's what overages will cover:

Any help is very much appreciated, even if it's just a share. Thank you so much in advance for your consideration!