We Have a New Home!

We've signed the lease!  We have the key!  Now all we need to do is move in!  It's so exciting about finally making this step in our lives, a step back to some sense of normal life.  I really can't wait!  Now if only we had the money to get the electricity and water turned on today!  Oh well, things will happen when they happen, and the first isn't so incredibly far away.

Actually, it's funny how it happened.  We were looking to have a place and move on the first or shortly after.  We didn't truly want to move before Christmas.  We weren't looking for somewhere that would be available now.  As much as we were ready to move and wanted to move, our finances just weren't lined up to allow us to move as soon as we wanted to.  We were going to have to do this the smart way, which meant doing it on the first instead of right this minute.  We had figured exactly how much time it was going to take us to move everything and what kind of time line we were working on.

Last night we went to see the apartment.  It's not in a great section of town, but it's not a bad section of town either.  Even though it was dinner time when we arrived, there were kids out and playing.  The street seems quiet enough.  Actually, the whole neighborhood doesn't seem that busy!  There are a good deal of families.  It doesn't look like it will be that much different than when we were living on post, aside from living upstairs in an apartment instead of a duplex.  We even go to meet our downstairs neighbors, who are pretty nice people.  They've got two beautiful dogs too.  They were honest about the neighborhood.  They hate it.  However, they said that the landlord has always been good to them and they've got to be honest, they've never exactly tried to get to know any of the neighbors, so they don't really know much about what the neighborhood is like.  They just know that outside on a Friday or Saturday you can hear the noise from the string of clubs two blocks away.

The apartment is much smaller than I've gotten used to.  I have to admit, I've been spoiled between living on post and my friend's homes.  I'm used to having more space than I could possibly need.  Looking at this apartment my first thought was, "Where are we going to put everything?"  Then I remembered that after all of our downsizing, we really don't have all that much stuff anymore!  We'll have no problems fitting it all in to our new place!  I'm actually starting to think of the smaller space in a very positive light.  I'm getting excited about having a place that's perfectly sized for our family!

As you enter in there's a small living room.  I'm honestly not sure what we're going to do with the space.  We don't have a couch and even if we did, the area is kind of small.  I'm not quite sure how we'd set it up in a way that would allow us to use the couch and have a television set up.  Of course, that's something we can figure out in the future.  Just beyond the living room is the kitchen.  On the left there are two bedrooms and the bathroom.  One of the bedrooms has an absolutely massive closet!  I think that's going to be the boys room, mostly because it's more practical.  We can fit two beds in there and put the dressers and toy boxes in the closet.  I was actually joking about putting one of the boys in the closet so he can use it as his bedroom!  That's how big the closet is!  My daughter doesn't exactly have a small closet either!  It should be big enough for everything she'll need to fit.  The main bathroom is decently large with plenty of room for teeth brushing and everything else.  We even have a linen closet conveniently close to the bathroom!  The kitchen is surprisingly big for a place that has a kitchen, dining room, and living room.  In my experience, those kitchens tend to be tiny.  There looks to be plenty of cabinet space.  There's a pantry too!  On the other side of the kitchen is a very small dining room.  To be honest, I think we're probably going to want to get a smaller table in time, but for now ours will do.  Being in the back of the house, away from the living room and bedrooms makes this space ideal for homeschooling and crafts too!  The laundry room is just off the dining room. and so is the master bedroom.  The master bathroom isn't anything stunning, but I'm excited to have my own bathroom again that can be a no-kid zone!

Some features I've been spoiled with back home definitely aren't here.  We have no back yard, which is pretty standard in apartments, however, there's also only one door.  It would have been nice to have a back porch or back door.  Then again, I'm also finding that one way in or out is pretty typical of Texas apartments, especially on the second floor.  It's very strange, but even when they do have two doors, I'm finding that on many occasions, the doors lead out of the same room!

However, this place doesn't look bad.  The way I look at it, we'll be here for a year.  A year's time is definitely enough to make an opinion on the place.  If we like it, we'll stay.  If we hate it, well, we've got plenty of time to start saving for another place, and getting our deposit back will definitely help fund moving into a new place.  In all honesty, I don't see us really wanting to move anyway.

This whole thing is very exciting.  I can't wait to get settled in.  I've got a lot of incentive to get everything settled in and in order.  I want to have a house warming party.  I don't know if it's inappropriate to throw your own house warming party or if a friend is supposed to arrange it for you.  I guess it's sort of like the bridal shower I never had, and the baby showers I never had.  However, it's not about the gifts or anything like that.  It's not about showing off our beautiful new home (especially since most of my friends will be living in nicer homes than I am!), but it will be about celebrating getting all settled in to our own place with no room mates to worry about!  It will be about enjoying the fact that once again we have a home.  In truth, we'll probably just end up sitting around and playing cards or something!

So, moving day is looming ever nearer, but I'm not worried about it anymore.  We get all our utilities set up on the first.  We're going to have much of the stuff we're not using moved in before then.  After that, we won't have far to go to get everything into the new place and be completely done!  This is shaping up to be the most stress-free move I've ever made!