Life Lately: New Apartment!

What a relief! After three LONG days of apartment and house shopping in Fort Worth (not to mention all the research we did online!), we finally found a place to live! This was the place that I was most excited about when we saw it. And the best part? It was a great price. They gave us a student discount and a special they were having, so it ended up being much cheaper than what we are paying now, in Dallas. They also said they wouldn't raise the rent much (maybe $25 a month, if that) if we re-signed in a year when our lease is up (this was good news because the place we are in now raised the rent almost $100 a month after the first year, and would be raising it a ton again if we re-signed).

I originally wanted a three bedroom, two bath because we are planning on having another child while Clay is in school. However, after looking at a bunch of three bedrooms, we realized they are either out of our price range, or in ghetto areas! So, I gave in and decided a two bedroom two bath was doable, even if we have another child. We'll manage.

This place is in what seems to be a pretty good/safe area (my cousin told me it's next to a lot of pretty parks, which is great for us). It's near a golf course and a lot of fields and big business buildings (like the areas around Thanksgiving Point, if you are familiar with UT). I decided it looked like an area that I would feel totally comfortable walking around with Ellery, so that sold me.

Pros and cons of this apartment vs the one we are in now:

2 bd 2 bth, just like we have now, only the new one is over 100 sq ft bigger than ours is now

The new place is gated, which is kind of annoying for guests, but I guess it's safer for us.

2 fitness centers at the new one, only they are much smaller and not as nice as the one we have now...

The new one has picnic areas like we have now.

It has two pools (well, one, but one across the street at the sister community that we are allowed to use as well). This is the same as where we are now. There are multiple pools and we can choose if we want to go to ours or another.

It has a sports court and a basketball court (which we'll probably never use! haha)

BBQ grills (yay!) Ours that we have now doesn't (well, one of the pools here does, but then you have to drive to it)

This new place has a catch and release fishing lake (which we'll never actually fish, but Ellery will like the lake). However, our place now has two lakes and they are even nicer. ha. But I'm glad this new place has one as well, because we do enjoy walking to the one we have here.

Sand volleyball court (probably never use!) Although, Ellery has never seen sand before, so that will be fun to show her.

Walking/jogging trail at the new place (like we have now and I love)

Patio: bigger in the new apartment. but no storage closet on the patio like we have now.

Kitchen: a little bigger in the new apartment, but also just more space (right now we can't open more than one thing at once (like our fridge and our dishwasher, or our dishwasher and our laundry room, etc, because they are all squished together). Also, a little nicer looking than ours is now. AND a pantry! (we don't have one now).

Bathrooms: much bigger and more cupboards and a linen closet with lots of shelves and a vanity in the new apartment!

Bedroom closets: about the same size as now, but one extra big walk in closet!

Other closets: one less in the new apartment, but since we're gaining a linen closet and a pantry, it's not a big deal.

No more gross carpets in the new apartment!!

Smaller dining room in the new apartment : / But it will work.

Location (as far as shopping, etc goes): mostly better where we are now…but I'm sure it will be fine.

Pros and cons to an apartment vs a home (we looked at homes, but didn't find anything good in our price range):

Apartment: no yard work, bugs not as bad (hopefully), maintenance better (hopefully), closer to neighbors (in my experience this has been a great thing! Let's hope it stays that way!!), pools and other amenities. Cons: no yard, people on top of you (could be bad), not as much space, no garage, not as much say about things like painting.

Our new place is:

45 mins from where we live now

40 mins from the temple (so 25 mins farther than we are now..)

25 mins from DFW airport (about 15 minutes closer than where we are now!)

right next to 820 freeway and near 35 (good for commuting!)

2 mins from two different parks (and others near by)

5 mins from Hobby Lobby (wahoo!)

11 mins from Jo-Anns

9 mins from Michael's

9 mins from Sam's club

29 mins from Costco

17 mins from the Fort Worth zoo

17 mins from Clay's school (we didn't want to live too close because it's not a good area around there!)

15 mins from Clay's hospital where he will do clinicals/downtown Fort Worth

35 mins from Clay's work in Dallas (he's do two shifts a month)

10 mins from Aldi

9 mins from Walmart

8 mins from Super Target

4 mins from Albertsons

15 mins from tom thumb

5 mins from kroger

17 mins from central market (bummer!)

20 mins from trader joes (bummer!)

23 mins from whole foods

10 mins from a mall

18 mins from another mall

3 mins from In N Out

10 mins from Five Guys

11 mins from Old Navy

7 minutes from our new church building

So random, I know. I just like to get an idea of how far I'll be from places.

Okay, enough rambling!

Pictures:

Our pool

The pool across the street that we have access to.

Our gym (so sad and small compared to ours now : / but hey, better than no gym!)

Our floorplan ^

Entrance into the apartment

Front door

Closet near entrance (may have to add shelves to it, like we did in our current place).

Dining/living area (the dining room is that area by the patio. So small! but it will work. I love the hardwood floors!!!)

Living room. Not sure what we will do about our furniture...we don't have a piece of furniture that fits into that little nook...we may get something that does, or we could just add shelves and a chair? ha. We'll see)