We're moving!

Well, now that we're all settled into our apartment...we have decided to move! It came time to renew our lease, and Scott and I really had to think about if it was worth staying where were are. We do love it here, especially the location, but even with just the two of us, we're pretty squished on space. While we'd love to buy a house, we simply cannot afford a down payment yet, and neither of our job situations are 100% secure yet.

So after doing some research, we fell in love with an apartment complex about 10 minutes away from where we currently are. The four requirements we had were:

1. It has to be within 10 minutes of our parents. We are family oriented people! And we host Shabbat often.

2. It has to be close to our Synagogue.

3. It needs to have a MUCH BIGGER KITCHEN. We keep kosher, and 2 sets of dishes is a pain with only 2 cabinets. We are currently storing utensils in our bedroom...the only place there is room for them! Also, we have no counter space.

4. It needed to have an in-unit washer and dryer. Don't even get me started on how much money we spend to do a dinky load of laundry on top of having to stake out the washers and dryers at an inconvenient time.

For less than the cost of what we are paying between rent, our gym membership, and laundry, we were lucky enough to find a wonderful apartment with more amenities than we could dream of for less than what we are paying now! When we went to go look at it, Scott and I got the same kind of feeling when we first started dating: we knew it was meant to be.

Here is the layout and some pictures...

The layout is exactly how the apartment is laid out. The bedrooms are significantly smaller, but we are gaining an extra bathroom and almost 200 more square feet everywhere else. One of my favorite parts is that there is an actual designated spot for our dinner table! The deck also faces a beautiful grove of trees + a green space to play soccer/bocce ball/etc. There is a 7 mile walking/biking trail in our backyard too, which we will enjoy using! I cannot wait to sit and sip my morning coffee on the deck! And the washer/dryer unit is in the master bedroom, so no more carrying heavy loads of laundry.:

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This isn't our kitchen, but it looks just like it...but with an Island (which you can see in the layout above)! I'm *SO* excited to actually have some counter space, and a space for a drying rack in the sink! Plus, the Island gives us more storage in the kitchen. We got to pick out our paint colors, and they do all the painting! We chose an earthy/neutral brown (think carmel coffee) for the kitchen Our cabinets are white, which I admit I'm not crazy about, but the contrast of the paint really brought them up a few notches.

Here is the outdoor pool...there is an outdoor pool, and indoor pool, and a fitness center! It will be nice to just walk across the street to work out each day!:

We also get heated parking + a bay wash area! This will be so nice on early mornings when I have a meeting or rehearsal and in the winter, we can give it a wash-down. There is also a party room in which we can host Passover and such, which will be nice!

So, as you can tell, we are both pretty stoked about moving in a month or so! Until then, its concerts, graduations, weddings, and packing!