Our first place was fancy and expensive, a one bedroom place in Brentwood. Our favorite memories there: letting our laundry pile up because we had no system for organizing it, so the process of sorting it took so long that we put off the chore as long as possible. (Now we have a four-bag laundry-sorting rack that sorts whites, colors (x2), and towels/linens, so we just grab a bag and head to the laundry room. Marshall has his own hamper and laundry bag.) We also had this little couch that could fold out into a makeshift bed, and we would have little living room sleepovers (I think because we didn't have a TV in our bedroom?). This apartment was where we started taking long walks together regularly, and it's (the neighborhood) where Terry proposed to me!
Photo credit: Heidi and Edward!
After all that reminiscing, we thought about where we might live next. Here are my must-haves:
- Washer and dryer in-unit
Here are some other dream attributes (keeping in mind these are for our next home, not our eventual dream home, which is obviously a cute little house near great schools with a huge yard and a big dog):
- two bedrooms, two bathrooms (sure, we'd love more, but we have to be realistic here)
- two parking spaces
- enough space to fit our couch (we have a large sectional and looooove how comfy it is!), but we'd be willing to downsize if necessary, because it's pretty silly to turn down an otherwise-awesome apartment for a couch...right?
- super safe location--I'm paranoid and Terry travels for work frequently, plus I have to get approval from my retired cop of a father
- great neighborhood for walking--exercise paths, nearby restaurants, local parks
- family-friendly (not too loud at night, other young families nearby, no smoking in the building)
- pet-friendly (do you realize some places charge up to $100 per month for "pet rent"? WTF?!)
- some sort of outdoor space so we can keep our grill
- storage space, because at some point I went overboard buying too many Christmas decorations
- well-maintained and/or renovated
- no cockroaches
I suppose that list could go on and on, but those qualities would be wonderful. Most importantly, it occurs to me that our next place will likely be where we welcome Marshall's future little sibling, so we just hope it will be a perfect potential home to become a family of four (plus Scout).
Okay, what are your worst and best past living experiences?
No comments:
Post a Comment