My original plan was to do some soul searching and create an honest pros and cons list to help us decide whether we should renew our lease for another year or put ourselves back on the market for a place to live. Because despite feeling as though all I do is complain about this place, it really does have some great things going for it such as lots of space, both living and storage, and a really awesome layout. Having Owen's toy room and my office directly off the main living area has made life quite simple and enjoyable. We've also got one heck of a pool, play ground fit for a 2-year-old, gorgeous club house, and beautiful grounds to admire while walking the dog. Oh, and did I mention that when the rest of the city was trying to finish their Christmas shopping, but were really just sitting in one huge traffic jam at the shopping center parking lot, all I had to do was walk across the street? I'm pretty sure I was back home before a few of those cars found a parking space.
But before I start listing cons and run off on a tangent about The Elephant Man and the nasty laundry room and the unexpected fuzzy little visitor we had last month, I'm going to stop myself, because none of it matters.
Two weeks ago we received a letter in the mail from our leasing office stating our lease was up soon and we were required to notify them in writing if we did not wish to renew for another year. We've never rented from a big corporate establishment like this before but I assume this is pretty normal, right? Sure. The letter was dated January 9, was delivered on January 12, and thanks to many previous disagreements with our leasing office I knew to read every single line, especially the very small print at the bottom of the second page, which said we had 15 days from the date on the letter to notify them before our lease automatically renewed. Again, not so surprising. What was surprising, however, is the fact that we had until January 23rd to make a decision but our lease is not up until April 30th.
Seriously? I about died. They were requiring over three months notice or else we would be stuck here for another year. No one is going to hold a place for that amount of time which means if we leave, we leave blindly, and hope beyond hope that we find a place before April 30. Risky? Maybe. But I didn't care. If we didn't take the risk, obviously, we would be here forever. I wrote the letter stating we would be leaving and turned it in the next day.
I've never lived anywhere this short of time, but I've never lived anywhere that the negative outweighed the positive, even if there were quite a few positive attributes. Then again, I guess this was part of the plan when moving here. We didn't know the city well enough to know where we would feel most at home, and we didn't know what our lives would be like to know how much space and financial responsibility we could handle. Now, we do know the neighborhood we want to be in and we do know the type of home we want to have. Unfortunately, with another child and additional care costs on the horizon, we aren't entirely sure what the budget will look like but we have a decent idea of what we'll be working with.
So, in the battle of staying or going, we are going, and we're finding a house, and I'm really excited about that. I hate the idea of moving when I'm 9 months pregnant, but I love the idea of sleeping at night without a zoo trampling above my head, of taking a shower without the water turning freezing cold when someone in a neighboring apartment flushes the toilet, of having my own washer and dryer. I want to be in a place of comfort when this baby arrives and that can't happen here. Apartment life had a lot of potential, and I feel I was pretty optimistic about it, but this isn't the place for us. We need a home of our own.
Looks like instead of just organizing closets, I'll be packing them up.
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