The House!

Man, guys, this week has been something else. Can I just reiterate that January is the worst? Claire and Maggie are feeling better, but they passed their colds onto me. On Thursday, I woke up to feed Maggie at 1:00 am and was so congested that I couldn't stop blowing my nose long enough to fall back asleep. Then Claire woke up for the day at 5:00 and since I was already awake...

Thankfully Adam was able to take a sick day after that crazy night. Next week is going to be better, for sure. Looking at the forecast, there might actually be some sunny days ahead. And there's definitely going to be less movies watched by the resident toddler.

But, the highlight of the week was finalizing the move-in details for our rental house! You guys, we have just been really blessed with our housing situations so far. Our first apartment was a one-bed, one-bath in the first floor of an old house near the University of Pittsburgh. The price was right for our newlywed budget, it had a dishwasher, and it was close to school while being in a safer part of the student neighborhood. 

Our current apartment (a two-bed, one bath) has also been really good to us. It's right on a bus line for Adam to get to work, it has a washer/dryer right in the unit, and it's in a really walkable neighborhood. I can strap Claire in the stroller and Maggie in the carrier and walk (usually on a trail along a river, no less!) to the grocery store, library, post office, bank, several restaurants, and even the craft store. We've really enjoyed the apartment complex experience. Maintenance has been prompt about fixing things. The amenities, like the pool and the play structure, have been really great. It's nice not having to remember to put your trash bins out on garbage day and having a leasing office to sign for packages when you're not home. 

But, we've been craving more space for a while now - a garage, a backyard, an extra bedroom and bathroom for guests. We looked for a rental house last summer and didn't find anything we loved in our price range, so we planned to look again this summer. Since then, we've frequently chatted about where exactly our ideal neighborhood would be. We both agreed on an area about ten minutes from our current apartment. It's really convenient to all the important places (Adam's work, church, Costco, Target, everywhere that's currently within walking distance, the freeway to get Seattle/the airport) and it's right around the corner from a fantastic park. 

One day back in December, I was reading a blog post about Great Schools ratings that made me curious about the schools in our dream neighborhood. I clicked over to Zillow to see what elementary school it was zoned to and noticed a rental house had just been listed. It fit all our criteria, had just been recently renovated, and was under budget. So, I called Adam over to take a look and we contacted the landlord right away! We were really just looking for three bedrooms and two bathrooms, but this house is definitely above and beyond.

I think it goes without saying that this floor plan is completely not-to-scale (although the nursery is the smallest bedroom, it's still bigger than the main bath) but at least it gives you an idea. Our it'd-be-nice-to-have list was a little longer and this house checked each item off - a play room, a gas range, a fireplace, and wood floors. We haven't loved the kids + carpet situation, so we're interested to see if we like wood floors better, for future house-buying purposes. It's a little over 1200 square feet, which is pretty small for a house, but given that our apartment is only 800, it will feel really spacious!

The kitchen has a lot more cabinet space and stainless steel appliances. (I'm weirdly excited to have one of those french-door fridges!) The backyard has a great concrete patio and several fruit trees (apples, pears, and plums) but it's kind of sloping and isn't fenced in on one side, so the girls won't be playing out there alone any time soon. The garage fits two cars and is also where the washer and dryer are located.  The hall bath does have a shower, just not a tub. The current tenants use the play room as a dining room. We normally entertain on a pretty small scale (just having another couple over for dinner) but when we do have a big group, we'll have to set up our folding banquet table in there. Which should work fine since play rooms are supposed to have a lot of open space to, you know, play.

The living room is significantly bigger than our current one, which only has space for one couch. We're so ready to invest in more seating! We're thinking two chairs, one of which will be a comfy glider. We've put our wooden rocker to such good use that it's now held together with bungee cords. We're planning to get another crib for the nursery and eventually turn them into toddler beds. We're also planning to purchase another twin bed for the guest bedroom. We're hoping to be living here when sibling numero tres comes along and then that bedroom will become the girls' room. The computer desk will still be in our room, which means that there probably won't be room for a dresser. But we won't have a walk-in closet to keep our dresser in like we do now, so we'll have to think up another clothes storage solution.

Can you tell we're really excited? Probably the thing we're most excited about is the fact that Adam can still take the bus to work. And it'll be easier for him to bike, which is something he's been wanting to try for a while. Commuting + exercising = the height of efficiency! But, this means we won't need to buy a second car for a while. We'd still really like to have a minivan, mainly for when we have guests, but we won't really need one until another baby comes along. Well, I suppose we could wait until we have four kids, but I think we'll be more than ready to bite the bullet after three. Anyway, it's just nice to know we've got plenty of time to decide when to make that minivan purchase.

We're hoping to live here until we buy a house (which could be in three to four years if we move back to Texas or a lot longer than that if we stay here in Seattle). It's not absolutely perfect (if we were buying a house we'd like to have four bedrooms, an ensuite master bath, a foyer, a dining room, a laundry room, and a little safer backyard) but it'll do just fine for the foreseeable future. We move in March 1st, right before Claire's birthday, which means she'll have lived in three places before she turns two!