Moving Day Take 2... for real this time.

"Wait... didn't they just move?"

Yup. We did. And we'll be doing it again in 10 days.

Long story here, I'll give you the condensed version. We moved to our sparkling, new, $720/month apartment 3 months ago. It was supposed to be a larger space for us and the baby. But after the acquisition of a few baby items, we started to see we would be hopelessly cramped, even with the extra space. And, for some reason, we just didn't feel at home in our new apartment. Oh, we tried... and really, we have no idea why we can't seem to settle in. It just doesn't seem like ours. So we started looking around.

Its been an uphill battle. We needed something close enough to walk to campus, but not on campus. Inexpensive, but not a ghetto. Bigger, but within our budget constraints. And finally, something we could qualify for as college students without a tradition "income." We were starting to think it was impossible.

But 2 days ago, we found just such a place. I saw an ad in our college newspaper for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath townhome for $600 a month. It’s near campus, but not ON campus (aha!). Terry called about it and we were shown a unit.

It. Was. Awesome. It’s 2 level, being a townhome. The bottom floor alone is bigger than our entire living, kitchen, and bedroom (well, most of it) combined. It has a living area, dining area, and kitchen. Then the upstairs has two bedrooms (they’re decent size, but smaller then the one we have now) and a bathroom with a double vanity and a enclosed toilet/shower area. They just put brand new carpet and “woodish” (cough*laminate*cough) flooring in. The unit also comes with a stackable washer and dryer and basic cable. We really, really love it . It is SO much more room. Both the bedrooms have closets, and the master has a dual closet, which is nice. It’s not a walk in, but that’s okay. I’m not crazy about those anyway.

The area is decent. It’s in a well kept-up building of maybe 15 or 20 other units. It’s right across the street from a UTA parking lot that has a university bus stop that will take us into campus, so we won’t have to drive or walk. We’re off of Cooper, but away from it, and the area is really quiet and peaceful. No scary looking businesses around… it’s actually tucked right at the beginning of a quiet neighborhood. We’re walking distance to Starbucks, Chipotle and La Isla, our fave hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant.

If the “too good to be true” alarm is going off in your head, rest assured it did in ours too. But the property does have some drawbacks. It’s not as new as our current complex- maybe 20 or 30 years old (but well maintained). The appliances are not new, in fact many of them look older (but they’re all full-sized and we do get a new fridge). There is no pantry, but there is a huge storage closet under the stairs that we’re going to buy and over-the-door rack for and try to make work as a pantry. The washer and dryer aren’t in their own little closet, they’re actually in the kitchen. Being an older unit, there’s a higher chance of roaches and such, but we haven’t seen any and are going to buy these little pulsing things that you plug into the wall to run them off (they worked well at West Crossing). There’s a funky little porch thing in the back that we’ll probably never use. The sinks, bathtubs, toilets are clean but not new. So, the price is pretty well balanced. It’s not like we’re getting some sparklingly perfect unit for dirt cheap. But the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks.

Anyway, our lease here was 3 months and then month to month. We stayed out our 3 months and put in our notice yesterday. We were approved and put down our deposit for the new place yesterday as well. Our technical move-out date for our current place is Dec. 7^th, but we’ve already paid it through so we’re moving into the new place November 15^th so we can be guaranteed to get the unit we want (if we wait until December, there’s a chance we could be moved to another unit without the new flooring).

We’re renting a U-Haul this time around, just to make the moved quicker and easier on everyone. Our families will be helping, and we're open to any additional help as well... just say the word!

In other news, Andrew is growing bigger and stronger every day. His kicks are full-fledged now- I can literally look down and see my shirt move!! We have another prenatal appointment tomorrow. I'm 23 weeks along now, only a few weeks away from the THIRD TRIMESTER!! =O

Time sure does fly when you're growing a baby. ;)