Moving Like The Birds

Our porch light went out a week or so again and soon after it did, some birds moved in to the space. (It's a light fixture inside of the porch roof and a corner of the thing that covers it is broken off so they can fly up into it and it's like a little square apartment up in there.) I can be hugely entertained just watching them fly up and out of there...and they peak their little heads over the edge sometimes and it's very cute. The first day I saw them flying up into it, I instantly compared it to apartment hunting...it's like they stopped and looked around and it was perfect. And now there's about 3 or 4 of them that go too and from all the time. It's fun to watch. I love the birds around here. I'll miss them.

But we're moving! And we're very excited. We're getting rid of a lot of our stuff...mostly furniture because not only will it be easier to move....and not only do we have an offer for some nice hand-me-down furniture...we also don't have much room in the apartment for stuff. It's a very cute studio apartment. Fairly small but perfect size for us. We don't need much at all and it's in our price range and very nice so...we're happy with it.

Everything about finding this apartment just seemed to happen like magic. We had already found another apartment that we were close to moving into...and on what we were planning on being our last day in Durham (we ended up extending our stay another day later) we decided to shop around just a little bit more to see if there was anything else. Everything seemed to need to happen. We almost didn't even go apartment hunting that day but we ended up going...and when I was looking through the apartment guide...I almost skipped over the page thinking that it was out of the way...but I dogeared it anyways. And when we went to find it and got lost, I almost gave up and went home...but we decided to keep going. But as soon as we drove into the complex...everything just felt good. It was clean, and quiet, and nice, and sunny but full of vegetation...and in a great area. Robbie, Ella, and I walked into the office and Ella and I looked at each other like "no way". It was the nicest looking place we'd seen...and not at all in our price range on most days. But there was a special going on so we checked it out. The lady we met with, Rosetta, was amazing. She was fun, and warm, and helpful. She was busy so she just gave us the keys to a few of the apartments and let us go check them out ourselves...which was nice because we didn't have to feel like we were being watched...we could go in and open all the drawers and talk badly about it or jump around in circles if we wanted. And we did. The one bedroom apartment that we saw was very nice...but the bedroom was too dark. But the studio didn't have the same problem because there wasn't a wall...so it was nice and bright....and very comfortable. We didn't feel cramped at all. Plus, there was a half-wall divider between the living area and the bedroom area...so it didn't really feel that wide open. When we sat back down with the lady and talked with her about it...she was incredibly helpful. Robbie explained his bad credit situation to her and how it might be a problem...but she said she could relate because her husband also has a medical condition and his credit is bad too....so she was really understanding. We decided to apply almost without even thinking about it...we'd only been taking the applications not actually applying but this one we just jumped on without really thinking about it. It was easier than I'd thought...and everywhere else we went they had all these things you needed to have with you...proof of this and that...but we just filled our our information and told her that we had the money and she helped us from there. We filled it out with both of us on the lease but when she put it into the computer she said it didn't accept us because of his credit. But then she said "Shhh! I'm not supposed to do this..." and told us she changed it to just me and it accepted me and that we could put him on the lease later without any problems if we wanted. Anywhere else, we probably wouldn't have gotten it. She was so helpful. All we had to do after that was pay a deposit, show a bank statement of a checking or savings account that showed we had some money somewhere if we needed it...and sign a lease. An now we're all set to move in! It's very exciting. I sent her a thank you card for being so helpful. It was a totally painless experience.

So now we have a really nice apartment in a really nice place that's close to everything. It has tennis courts and a free 24 hour gym that we're very excited about...the Durham bus goes right through the complex...and you can take walks on the Duke walking trails from there. It's got a pool and a 24 hour laundry facility. It's very quiet and peaceful and clean and we're very excited.

Now all we have to do...

is find a job.

Love is on the move!

-Kate