The First House

House hunting has been emotional, and overall less fun that I had anticipated. Turns out, like wedding planning, when you're playing with real money, it tends to be more stressful than just dreaming. Hopefully when we're all moved in to our new home, it will all have been worth it.

This won't be that home.

We put in our first offer on a home, and it was accepted...well, at least verbally. Before the seller had signed the papers though, another - better, offer came in, and we were out. The hardest part was that we had already started thinking of it as "our" house. I thought I would share the photos from the MLS listing, for those playing along at home.

The outside was still living in the 70s, but I could see the potential...
The backyard also had lots of potential, which I'm kind of learning is a code word for needs lots of work.
The garage was huge, which was more of a bonus than a prerequisite.
And there was a master bathroom. I can't tell you how badly I wanted a master bathroom (even a tiny one). We have one in our current apartment and I'm in LOVE with not sharing with guests.
The best part of the house however was the upstairs living area and kitchen...I loved the kitchen...
The other great thing about this house was that it had a lake view, which was something we didn't expect to find in our price range. So the location was fantastic!

At the end of the day, it wasn't meant to be...but sometimes I still think about the kitchen...

Apartment Number 2 - Party in Uptown

Our second apartment was in Uptown. We picked it for the location, and the architectural details.

(see the pretty arches? And the built ins peeking in from the side of the photo?)...(also, please excuse the mess, we were in the process of moving in...)
While we fell in love with the character, we missed some of the more practical elements. It was a small apartment. And not just a sort of small apartment...it was a VERY small apartment.

Here is a photo of the kitchen area. The tiniest little room, where the fridge couldn't open all the way, because it would hit the sink. You know, practical things like opening the fridge all the way ;)

Another funny thing about where we were at that point in our lives is we hadn't really started paying attention to decorating, or making our apartment feel homey. (Evidenced here by the fact that we had green, jersey sheets on our bed...green is not my favorite color).

Really in our first two apartments most of our purchases were based on cost. We needed sheets because we didn't have any, so we bought the least expensive. On certain things, like our mattress, we splurged, and went with quality, but on most of the more decor items, it was function and cost.

Now that we have the necessities we can focus more on decor...

First Apartment

The first apartment Brandon and I lived in together was while we were in college, and decor was nonexistent. I still think about it though, every once in a while. It is kind of crazy how far we have come...It was two levels - see there's a step down...so we counted that as the second level ;)
It was actually pretty large for a college apartment, and well maintained too.
AND it had a pool...which was super exciting when I moved in...and I used it once.
It was kind of a disaster most of the time, which I think most first apartments are...what is kind of sad is that we still have almost everything in that picture...except the t.v. We now have a MUCH larger t.v.

We quickly learned how much space we had really had when we moved closer to the city...