I can’t believe that I’ve failed to mention this for the past 2 days! On Wednesday, Jesse and I signed a lease and put down our deposit on a lovely little townhouse here in Atascadero!
Our lease is a year long, which means that we will be waiting at least that long until we buy a house. After we’ve completed a year lease, we can rent month to month without any penalty or increase in rent. This works out well, since there are really only 2 times (ideally) for us to move– Christmas break and summer break. Although we’ve been advised that housing prices are 3-5% lower during the winter time (same with rentals– the rental agency we’re going through won’t even let us give a 30 day notice in the months of Nov- Jan., since no one wants to move then), summer works out better in a whole lot of ways. One big reason– Jesse and I don’t handle the inter-marital stress of moving all too well 🙂 Having 3 months to move in without the pressures of working is ideal with two young kids.
Anyways, on to the townhome! It’s really true that God couldn’t have designed a better place on so many levels. It’s got 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (ideally, I’d have liked a 3rd bedroom as an office, but it wasn’t as high as other things on my list of priorities). It has a pretty little yard. It has a 2 car garage! It has washer and dryer connections– a must with babies.
Financially speaking, it’s less $/month than what we were paying at our old apartment complex in Texas! Blows a huge hole in the theory that our living expenses would have to go up by moving to CA, that’s for sure. Some of this has to do with the fact that it’s not part of a giant complex with a pool and a gym (there are only 3 units total), but, to be honest, we rarely used either unless it was during the summer, and my parents have a giant pool less than 5 minutes away. And gym memberships around here are pretty cheap (my father in law pays $10/month for his).
Not only is the rent lower, but it also includes over $100/month’s worth of utilities! Including a gardener! So we’ll never have to mow our lawn 🙂 I won’t have to worry about our water bill when I do cloth diapers, so it will literally be free for us to diaper our kids.
Best part, however, is, once again, the proximity. I have to admit, I’ve fallen head over heels in love with the Central Coast’s obsession with hardly having to drive anywhere. Long commutes are the minority here, for some reason (gas prices?). A long commute for us is 15-30 minutes, but that’s better than average in LA or Dallas, for instance.
Anyways, the proximity. We will be, once again, within walking distance of the school! There’s a little back path that goes up over a hill and pops out right at the public high school across the street from where we work. In “Biola Terms”, it’s the distance from Hart Hall to the Sutherland Belltower (why do I like using Biola distances? I’m not sure– probably because college was the last time Jesse and I used walking as our primary mode of transportation).
Yay for only needing 1 car! Jesse can walk to school and I can have the car every day. No 2nd mode of transportation needed! Also, going back and forth to nurse the babies? Easy. Walking to school to have lunch with Jesse? Easy.
We move on May 18th, 2 weeks before school gets out (yikes!). Please, say a prayer of thanksgiving for us, as we couldn’t have found a better situation for this waiting period!
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