Home Is Wherever I'm With You

As you have read, the last 10 days have been a bit crazy. Well the last blog was about the sad stuff, now it time for the happy.

Chris and I moved out. We have our own place again :)

First, I have to congratulate Sam and Alex Conte. We had a wonderful time with you over your Vegas wedding weekend. I will never forget Elvis playing Crazy Train at your wedding. Ever.

You inspired us to get this ball rolling. After your wedding on Sunday we realized we had nothing left to look forward to except my 30th birthday. We were planning a little staycation at the Mandalay Bay and when we got home on Sunday we planned on booking the room for the weekend of my birthday. Well then we started talking about why I wanted to stay there. And the truth is, I just wanted a little vacation from my life. I wanted to pretend I was in a tropical paradise somewhere and not have to sleep on someone else's floor in a tiny little room for my big 3-0. Chris and I were amounting the same frustration level about our living situation and decided we are being too cautious. We need to just jump in. So we decided that we were moving out May 1st.

Because 6 week plans are about as spontaneous as we get when money is involved. LOL

Monday morning I went to tour the two places we've had our eyes on. We knew we wanted to live in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas. We chose the two apartment communities based on price in the area we wanted to live. I loved the first one. It has three pools and beautiful grounds but it really lacked in closet space. We don't own anything anymore but it still seemed like not much room to grow.

On the other end of the street is Summerlin Entrada. Sounds fancy right? Not so much. I only has one pool and basic landscaping but the one bedrooms have 4 big closets, including a walk-in in the master. Also the rent was $80 less then the first place, putting it below our budget. And they had great move in promotions available that would make moving in immediately cost $300.

Sold.

On Tuesday Chris went to tour the properties and turn in applications. He agreed with me that Entrada was the better apartment and better price. We would rather save our $80 for our air-conditioning bill than better landscaping.We agreed that we should just do it. We are always going to make some excuses so lets just jump in right now.  Applications were turned in and approved that day. We chose to sign the forms together and pick up our keys on Friday.

Wednesday morning Chris wakes up and gets ready for work. And our car is gone. Stolen or towed, we don't know yet. 

It was towed. We were parked in an illegal parking space, which we had been parking in for weeks, inside our gated community. In fact we only found out it wasn't a parking space on Sunday when we got home from Alex's wedding. Sharon said we may get towed so Chris went to move the car. On Wednesday morning, when he got back from his hospital rounds at 1 am, there wasn't any street parking left. So he parked in the spot because it was only going to be a few hours, he had to leave for work again at 730 am.

So we found where it was impounded and went to get it. Chris had to take the morning off of work and honestly, we couldn't stop cracking up about the situation.  I mean, we were moving out in 2 days for pete's sake! $200 and a trip to a scary tow yard on the outskirts of town later, we had the car back.

So Chris headed to work and I headed back to the house. Then my phone rang. It was saying that since he already had the morning off work, we should just go sign the papers today. He was really frustrated with the HOA right then and didn't want to go back.

He didn't have to tell me twice!

We signed our papers and picked up the keys that day. I had went shopping in anticipation that we were moving soon all ready but there is a lot of small things you take for granted.

Like garbage cans.

Hangers.

Forks.

So here we are. Indoor camping as we like to call it. We have 2 forks, 2 plates, 1 pot and 1 pan, some TP, a coffee pot, and a can opener.

And it's the happiest we have been in a long time.

We are on the ground floor. It stays cooler and is easier to walk to if I have a leg issue.

The evolution of the bathroom. ( above)

The evolution of the dining room. (below)

 I bought a cute tablecloth at the thrift store so we could have a picnic inside :) Plus its new carpet and we didn't want to spill since we have to eat on the floor for a few weeks.

The almost end result. Thanks to some awesome clearance deals at Target I scored the rug and the art work for $60.  Chris is headed back to Kitsap this week to bring my car and some more of our stuff down so we will have a table then. But no chairs :( I'm on the hunt for chairs while he is gone.

And that is pretty much it! We have a clothes drying rack in our living room. Our mattress is on the floor on the bedroom and we had to buy extra hangers because we don't have a dresser so everything has to be hung up. But it won't be this way for long. We've been shopping around for furniture already we are just playing it a bit close to the chest and looking for the best deals or thrifted items. And frankly, after 16 months of coexisting in one small bedroom, the extra space is really nice. We are in no hurry to fill it.