Week 17 - October 3 - 9
One of the greatest feats of the week? Officially finding a place to live! I was hesitant to write about any of this until I new for sure we had managed to get the rental we were vying for, but! for once the advantage of blogging from behind? We got it...so now I can write it up with confidence!
First of all for the record...I moved five states north to Maryland site unseen (I did the same with Florida...I suppose I have a true sense of adventure!) and Daniel agreed to a townhome, signed a lease, paid thousands in deposits and fronted rent, and scheduled the movers site unseen. The Hals do not have trust issues!
On the last day of week 16 (Wednesday) I had visited a few rental options with my realtor Penny (wonderful! - if you need an agent recommendation in the area let me know) and as crazy as it may sound...the first place we visited was a resounding favorite! The other ones didn't quite match what I had envisioned or lacked some of the "must haves" that immediately crossed them off the list. So at the end of the day...there was one that stuck out in my mind. The only problem was that 1) we weren't sure if they would take Chance (case by case) 2) the monthly rental rate was just past the range we were hoping for. But here's why I loved it (and because it was past the target $ range I was really trying to not over think about why I loved it...but really...it was a slam dunk rental). So...townhome that is BRAND NEW, recently finished, never lived in and smells like fresh paint (mmmm!); 2100 square feet; 2 car garage and a driveway big enough for two cars to pull up into the drive way (visitors!); back yard access from the basement (yay for Chance!), no fenced yard - but there's grass and that's all we need!; living spaces were large enough for our couches and entertainment system and would be comfortably sized not cramped; actually had a dining room large enough for our dining room table; there was a decent size deck off the dining room/kitchen that overlooked trees!; the kitchen!!! - granite, stainless steel, lots of cabinets, cooktop stove; hardwood floors through kitchen and dining room; there's a half bath on the living level; upstairs three bedrooms (and the spare bedrooms are a nice size); two full baths including a four piece master ensuite; linen closet and nice size master walk in closet; lots of windows; - this place was just a WIN. I was trying SO hard not to get my hopes up and to realize it was just probably too good to be true. All of our must-haves were met and all but one of our wish list items too! (The one wish list no-go was having a washer/dryer on the bedroom floor...it's in the basement...more stairs and better fitness for us!)
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| Look at this kitchen!!! Yay!!! Enough space, a nice oven and stove top, hooray! |
But...Penny called me Thursday and said that she had inquired further and 1) Chance was approved 2) the leasing agent dropped the price of rent by enough that it was in our range!!! and 3) all lawn maintenance is included and they said utilities tend to be about $100 per month...seriously. I told Daniel, thinking I was still going to have to sweet talk him because it was at the top of our price range and he said - do it! Ahhhh! Thursday night before I filled out some of the rental apps I looked through our MLS rental options one more time and it only solidified my belief that I had found something awesome. So...Friday was an insane flurry of paper work. I was getting certified checks, filling out rental applications and background checks, faxing things to my doctors office so they would release my records, meeting with the realtor in Maryland with all the paperwork, managing conversations with our realtor in FL and adjusting the price there, and there was a job that had potential that I had applied for that I needed to scan in about fifteen documents to fully apply. It was an insane day - but in the end I got every single thing done! Very satisfying! I was told that by Tuesday or Wednesday we would know if we had a home or not.
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| It's no wonder I have an obsession with monkey stuff...Daniel picked these up for me at breakfast (by the time I get down there they are out and it makes me sad) - wanted to pep me up Friday so I could handle all of the craziness! |
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| Beautiful view on our way to dinner - at the Restaurants on the Lake area in Columbia, MD. It's beginning to look like fall!!! |
I spent the weekend trying not to get my hopes up...but also starting to play furniture tetris in my head. Even though the square footage was greater than our home, we were loosing rooms and I was doing a lot of mental shifting of things to figure out what the best layout would be. Tuesday I got a call and...we got it! YAY! I set a move in date right away and contacted Daniel who called the movers and ...they were able to move on the day we wanted! It was all falling into place! We weren't going to be homeless! There was a room that I could start envisioning as a nursery! It had a wonderful kitchen and was a place that I would really enjoy calling home! If it was a different year in our lives I would have been less obsessed with where to live, but considering I am currently unemployed, and therefore home a lot more than normal, and considering I am going to be here around the clock with a newborn...finding a place that would be a good fit for us was really really important. I'm super happy and excited about what we managed to find...we kept trying to figure out how on earth this place hadn't been snatched up...but the one thing that I think was in our favor was the fact that the online listing description said "unit may still be under construction, please contact agent." Regardless...we won! :)
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| Quick glipmse of an early bird fall tree - they aren't all colorful yet,but there are a few like this that give you an idea of what's in store! Gorgeous! So excited!!! |
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| Chance on a non-rainy day enjoying trouncing through the leaves to catch ropes and loving the cooler weather! |
Other Maryland adjustments? Continuing to explore and learn the area - and I am increasingly happy with what I find! Weather this week was pretty crummy though - it rained almost non-stop for nearly a week. I though Chance was going to loose it. Poor pup. I donned the rain coat and took him on a long walk regardless if we had back to back days of rain, but still - he was super bored and over it.
And Baby Hals and myself? Baby Hals is still a wiggling, growing cutie in there! I can tell that my baby maker is getting bigger - it's almost at my belly button now and I had an evening where I realized my gurgling "tummy" (consider tummy a collective term for all digestive organs) was gurgling from different places than normal - it was seriously weird. But, upon some fruitful internet searches I realized how displaced my stomach and small intestines already are and that yep...gurgling just below my ribcage is where that carries on now! Pretty crazy.
I'm still struggling to get in with the doctor's office, but I finally found out toward the end of this week that my doc's office mailed the new office all of my records. Mailed....not faxed. Good because it means it will be thorough...but bad because it means that it's going to take even longer for me to be seen. Sigh. Some day. I finally looked up the test I need and while it's standard to occur between 16-18 weeks, I have until 22 weeks technically. So...my attitude now? Que sera sera. I'll call a week after it was mailed and see where we are.
I am still so incredibly grateful that all of this has been going on during the second trimester and not during my first. I have thought of that frequently. My adventures in my attempts to work out still seem to continue. I have had several days where I have had a really good work out. Not one where I pushed way too hard, but work outs where I got sweaty, felt good and refreshed, and was really glad I had worked out. Not knocked out for the day or anything. But...the day after...has sucked. And it is a different part of me every time. One day it was everything around my tummy - to the extent that I wanted to only take Chance on a mini walk because walking was just uncomfortable (but I had been FINE the day before) or another day after an elliptical work out (which for the record I own one and have one at home that I use all the time) my hips and feet were so tenderly sore I could barely walk...it was just ridiculous (and again I had felt GREAT after that workout the day before). So...working out during pregnancy is like Russian roulette...I honestly have no idea what to expect the next day, but I definitely should not plan on being able to pull off consecutive workouts. Good grief. I tried prenatal yoga on Tuesday night and really enjoyed it! The next day? Felt like I had had a light workout....so at least that one was a success! I guess the biggest thing I have realized is that even if a workout is good one day...my body changes...pretty much every day...so the next time I attempt that same workout who knows how my body will feel afterwards. It's a really bizarre notion for a person to grasp who is one of those creature-of-habit-workout-
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| I think I am starting to have a bit of a bump! :) The picture on the left is Week 11, on the right Week 17! Six weeks makes a big difference! (Literally!) |
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