it’s official: we have an apartment

As some of you may know, I’m going to be moving in with my dear friend Jessica (or, as I like to call her, “Jessiker”) here in a couple months. We did our apartment searching a few months back and found one place where we put ourselves on the wait list, because it was just so nice. While we weren’t assured of a particular apartment that day, we did make a list of our top choices and they assured us openings would come about by the time we were ready to move in. Well, today Jess and I met for lunch and expressed mutual concern about our apartment situation being in limbo, so we gave them a call. The lady told me that an opening for our top choice had just come about today, so she put our name down for it and it’s all official now. We get everything we wanted in an apartment, namely:

• 2 bedroom, 2 bath (us girls got to have our bath space)
• washer and dryer included in the apartment
• dishwasher (hallelujah! you have no idea how disgusting I can be when it comes to dirty dishes, because I just hate doing them by hand)
• no gas—it’s all electric
• a quiet neighborhood

As for some other details that are also nice, here you are:

• <$800 per month rent, then we cover electric and water
• $200 off the first month’s rent because I’m a UK employee (whoo, go student research position!)
• reasonably similar-sized bedrooms (10' 6"x11' versus 13'x10' 9")
• separate dining room, kitchen, and living room (this will be such an improvement from my current studio apartment, which only has living room-bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom)
• a balcony
• pretty landscaping

So now Jess and I are all excited and are planning out the next steps. I need to contact my landlord and narrow down the date that I’ll be moving out (I’ve already given him a heads-up on the general date), and we need to get renter’s insurance (apparently a requirement at the new place). We’re looking into getting a Uhaul for a day to help the moving process, since we both have a lot of crap, not to mention large furniture (beds, bookshelves, dressers, tables, etc.). The lady I spoke with today said we could probably move in as early as mid-April, which would be great because we could avoid moving during finals week this semester. …Mid-April? I just realized, that’s when my birthday is! Whoo, maybe a combination birthday and house warming party!