It's Fun to Frolic in an Empty Rental

I am happy to report we found a new rental house. We signed the lease last week and move in mid-July. WOO HOO!

We looked pretty seriously at four different places. Our top choice was one in our neighborhood, ironically the exact same house we are living in now but three blocks away. It had A/C and the rent was lower than ours. We could have literally moved everything in our house into the exact same place in that house. The bummer is, we turned in our application behind another family and lost out. Obviously something else was in store.

The one we picked is in the same town but in a new neighborhood with a family friendly reputation. If I had to move Julia to a new school, this was about the only one I would have considered. Apparently from talking to a few friends all the first grade teachers are great and they stay with the kids to second grade, so I am excited by the prospect of her having two solid years with someone and am especially excited for her to make some great new friends. The neighborhood has a pool, tennis courts, and little bike paths that weave their way behind the homes. Our new house has an actual yard surrounding it, room for the kids to run and play. It boasts a huge covered deck which I guarantee we will spend lots of time on. There are some fun things growing in the yard, like peonies! It's on a cul de sac so it will be bike friendly for our little bikers. My husband will actually have an office, and we will have a/c. It's all one one level, built in 1983. It has a wood burning fireplace and tons of storage in the attic above the garage. The people we are renting from are very sweet, too. It feels right going through homeowners not rental agencies. They are flexible and human with less silly fees and regulations. Most importantly, they are not planning to sell the house out from under us.

The downsides of the new house are the curb appeal (it looks.... well....granny with its' bird bath out front) and size. We will only lose about 200 square feet but I'm fairly sure that is made up for with our yard. I will also really miss the current cupboard situation in our house now. I'm going to have to get creative about where all this kind of stuff goes because there's no areas like this in the new place.

I am looking forward to moving in and making it our own. I am also looking forward to purging some of our current junk. Before me lies packing and packing and more packing and then lots of cleaning. Tomorrow I will schedule movers.

Change is in store, change we didn't ask for, but change I think we're really ready for. I'm excited!