Moving!!

So I promised you I would update you all on what has been going on....a month later, I'm finally getting around to it!

As you all know, Kaleb and I have been living together in an apartment in Cedar Rapids. It has been great...but reallllly expensive. Our lease expires on the 31st, so a few months ago, we started thinking about other possibilities. I was not very optimistic about finding another apartment because it was so hard to find an apartment the first time around that accepted dogs and had washer/dryer hookups (as opposed to a common laundry room). However, God brought along an opportunity that I never saw coming. My uncle has been living in a mobile home that belonged to his parents (my grandparents) for several years now. This mobile home was "Grandma and Grandpa's house" for me when I was growing up (at least, when they were in Iowa; they spent time in Florida, too). My uncle has decided to move to Texas to be closer to his daughter and offered to sell the mobile home to me. At first, I wasn't sure. I never really pictured myself living in a mobile home, not that there is anything wrong with it, but it never crossed my mind as a possibility when looking for places to live. However, the more we talked about the benefits and the cost differences, the more I began to get excited.

Let me explain the cost differences first....rent alone is less than a third of what we are currently paying. Even with utilities, internet/cable, taxes, etc added on, we will still be paying less than what we are currently paying in rent alone. Other benefits include being able to paint walls (yay!), hang curtains/pictures, plant flowers, a screened-in porch, our own yard, no one living above/next to us, guaranteed parking spots (a driveway!), a shed (although, we have a garage currently, but again we pay extra for it...), oh, and a garbage disposal! (That may seem like a small thing but it's amazing how much of a difference it makes!)

As I mentioned earlier, this place was my grandparents when I was growing up. We would go over there just to visit; we would have sleepovers there. It has numerous memories for me. And, although we are going to change its looks, the memories will still be there, forever. That's the other part of this I need to explain. Our lease expires the 31st and my uncle isn't leaving until June 7th/8th. Plus, seeing as how the mobile home is about 30 years old, it needs some fixing up. So, on Monday, Kaleb and I will be moving back in with our parents while we fix up the mobile home. We are going to be doing stuff like tearing out and replacing the carpet and other flooring, possibly moving a wall, painting, installing new kitchen cabinet shelves, and adding a central air conditioner. It's going to be a whole lot easier to do all of this stuff while we are not living there, and our parents were gracious enough to let us move back in (rent free!) until the place is ready for us.

Because we decided this a couple of months ago, it hasn't really seemed real to me. Yes, I've talked about it with numerous people, but I haven't allowed myself to get too excited about it, because it was so far away and we aren't moving in right away. We have no idea how long it is going to take to do everything that needs done, so I didn't want to get excited about moving in there when we don't know when that is going to happen. However, now with our move being right around the corner, and June right around the next corner, I am starting to get excited again. I get to make all sorts of fun decisions (and, even though I'm kind of indecisive, it's exciting), like what color to paint, what color of carpet, what kind of flooring for the kitchen, etc. I feel like such a grown-up!! :)