In other news from this weekend, J and I found the place we're going to live!!!! I have been fretting over this issue for quite some time. We thought we had found the apartment complex last October, but when I went to their website to look at it again, the price was WAY out of our range. At first I was bummed, but then I realized that God must have something better in store for us.
And today we found it! We looked at a 2 bedroom with a den (which we didn't even know was an option from looking at their website) and a 3 bedroom apartment. Some people have been asking us why we're looking for a three bedroom apartment and simply put, we'd like a guest room for our families and friends to visit and we'd like to use the third room as J's office. I want him to have his own space to spread out his art and not have to clean it up and put it all away whenever we have guests over. I'd like to just be able to close the door and leave his work undisturbed.
We were both really impressed with the appearance of the buildings themselves. We knew that the complex was probably over about 25 years old, so we weren't expecting a grand looking outward appearance. We were greeted in the office by Marie, an older woman who, over the course of our visit, mentioned she has a five-year-old grandchild, has a Pepsi a day to "keep away the grumpies" and informed us we needed to try one of her freshly baked chocolate cookies and that she keeps dog biscuits in her desk for all the residents who come in with their dogs. She was such a delight to work with and it makes me happy to think that we will be working with her in the future.
We toured the 2 bedroom apartment first and were pleasantly surprised by the new appliances, large windows and spacious closets. All important things. J almost mentioned how nice the kitchen countertops were and I was in love with the double sink. Don't ask why, I just love them. The den in this apartment was simply another room off of the living room. No door and no closet, but we didn't need them anyway. The den would be a perfect space for J's home office. The living room itself had a lot of open wall space, which was not expected. We're hoping to put a nice leaning bookcase on one wall of this room, along with our couch and other furniture. The only downside to this apartment is that it only has 1.5 baths. The half bath is in the master bedroom, so that means that we'd have to use the guest bath to take our showers, etc. Seems kinda weird to me, but I can deal.
The 3 bedroom was much the same layout, but with another bedroom near the others, with a door and a closet. The master bedroom in this apartment had a walk-in closet that led to the master bathroom. This seemed like a cool feature when we were looking at the floor plan on paper, but in real life, it seemed almost creepy to me. I know that sounds crazy, but I felt weird standing in the closet, and seeing the bathroom on one side and the bedroom on the other. The kitchen was exactly the same (and I should mention that there was enough room for a cute little 2 seater-table in the kitchen itself) and we still liked it, seeing it a second time.
We also toured the rest of the facilities, including the Olympic size pool, fitness center, sand volleyball court, two tennis courts, a car wash area with vacuum and hose AND a nine-hole putting green. Everything that was on our checklist was met. And Marie even informed us that they have a "guest suite" available for our extra guests to stay at in the event that our apartment can't hold all our guests. It's right on the property, has great amenities and is only $84 a night. Not too shabby.
I, being the future domestic diva/homemaker/wife that I am/will be, asked about the location of the grocery stores. Five within a three mile radius. Score. There are also three pharmacies nearby (including one that is family owned, which I think is so cool) and the hospital and library are just down the street.
By the time our visit had ended, we had filed applications for residency and put ourselves on the waitlist for the 2 bedroom with a den apartment (and the 3 bedroom, just in case that was the only thing available in June, when we'd like to start our lease). We walked away, with our chocolate cookies, extremely happy and relieved, but also a bit nervous about this huge step into adulthood and cohabitation.
We're very excited for our future and our future home :))
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