Fresh Start 2010

YAY!

We're moving! We're MOVING!!!
No, we haven't bought a home (much to my parents' chagrin) but we're
M-O-V-I-N-G!
I still kind of can't believe it.
Andrew and I moved into our little 2 bedroom apartment a stone's throw from downtown Mtn. View over 5 and a half years ago. We had already outgrown it when we were expecting Sadie, but we've made it work just fine for the past 2 and a half years.
With Bun's due date looming, we decided it was a priority to find a place with more space. We've been looking at rental houses all over the South Bay area for a couple of months, feeling hopeful and determined. Hopeful that we'd find something we really liked for a good price, with good landlords, etc. and determined not to stress about it.
Well, the stars aligned and voila! - we found a cute little house just on the other side of our beloved downtown for only a few hundred more dollars than what we pay now. It's almost too good to be true.


It's definitely funky/old/a bit odd, but I still can't believe all of the little aspects that make it such a sweet deal:

• 3 bedrooms (one's teeny tiny, but that's all Bun needs)
• 2 bathrooms (oh, bliss)
• gas stove (I think every other rental we looked at had a junky old electric stove)
• central heat (no more banging & pinging in the middle of the night from a wall heater)
• a big playroom for Sadie
• indoor laundry (w/d included)
• 2 car garage (that we will NOT fill with junk this time...ahem!)
  
• 2 cute little parks within walking distance
• very close to the bike trail that Andrew takes to work
• very near our dear friends A & G (who are expecting their first baby in June)
• still walking distance to downtown
• awesome landlords

and the best part:

• it's a month-to-month rental, so we didn't have to sign a year of our life away on a lease! We'll be able to continue to get all of our ducks in a row or whatever and still inch toward the goal of home ownership.

That's the part I'm hoping will assuage my mom, dad and anyone else who has been humming the refrain, "now's the time to buy! this is it! rates will never be lower!" etc. (which, for what it's worth, has been ringing in my ears for...oh, about 2 and a half years now.)

Jeez...new car, new home, new baby on the way. I like the way 2010 is shaping up so far.