#155: Home Real Home

We finally have a place for our little family to call home! We have looked high and low, all over Richmond, for a nice three bedroom, two full bathroom apartment, with an in-unit washer and dryer (not located in the kitchen). We also wanted the community to have a pool and a gym, along with a nice staff.

I know that my list makes me seem high-maintenance, but if I'm going to live in a place for a year (or more), then I'd like to enjoy every aspect of it! I didn't think that it would be too hard to find an affordable apartment with all my specifications, but boy, was it a chore!

I searched craigslist and google for apartments all over Richmond, but trying to keep in close proximity of J's Starbucks. Primarily because he still works there and will probably continue working there for awhile after the wedding, but also because most of his friends live within a couple mile radius of it. I want to keep him close to his friends!

We ended up visiting three different apartment complexes. The first one had definitely seen better days. It was visibly old, while still in very good condition. The sinks in the bathrooms were seashells...yup. Seashells. Strike one right there. Strike two was the "pass-through window" from the kitchen to the dining room. I kid you not, it was no bigger than my 21" computer screen. Seriously? No thank you. We walked out of there with the idea that if we HAD to live there, we could do it. But it wasn't our ideal situation.

The second complex was REALLY nice! We were both very impressed. It had every specification that we wanted and it had a lot of storage space. We made our mind up right there that we wanted to live there. About two and a half months after our visit, I went online to check out the prices again and try to find a phone number so I could contact someone about getting on a waitlist. That's when I had a heart attack! The prices had gone wayyyy up! The rent alone was out of our rent and utilities budget. So we sadly had to scratch that idea.

Then I remembered another complex I had looked at online. I wrote about our visit here. We left there after putting down a deposit to be put on a waitlist. Marie told us that she would contact us when any residents put in their 60 day notice. Not even a week later, I got a call and Marie told me that the 2 bedroom with a den option would not be available at all within our time frame (trying to move in the first week of June), but that she had a first floor three bedroom that would be available May 19th. I told her I would talk to J about it, but in my mind I had already dismissed it because I didn't want to live on the first floor. Something in the back of my mind tells me that I would feel very unsafe in a first floor apartment if I was there by myself late at night. J assured me it would be okay.

Last Friday, J received a call from Marie and she told him that another first floor three bedroom would be available June 8th. When he called me at work and told me this, I took it as a sign from God that it was where we should live. My paranoia about first floor living will have to take a backseat.  I asked if the first apartment was available still (it was a little cheaper), but it wasn't, so I told J to snatch this one up.

And now we have our own address. I've memorized it already. Can you tell I'm excited?

Here's a few shots of the community:

And here's a photo of what all the brand new kitchens and appliances look like:

Eeek! So excited. 78 days until move in day!