A Little R&R: We Have a Home!

As of June 6th, Reid and I are the happy lessees of an apartment in Houston, Texas! This moving thing is really starting to sink in.

On our short trip to Texas we were able to see twelve apartments, but none of them felt quite right. We're weren't trying to be picky, but we just didn't have that sense of peace. In the end our choices came down to two factors: safety (almost every home and apartment complex is gated and many have a guard house at the entrance) and as selfish as it may sound - comfort. We figure we're here for Reid to study, and the best environment we can find for that the better. I'm going to be working full time which means most of my day will be spent out of the house. For these reasons, we nixed anything without a dishwasher and any place that seemed like it was going to require a lot of upkeep. We also wanted to have space for a desk for Reid which was proving interesting since a two bedroom was definitely out of our price range.

On the way back to NC at the end of trip, Reid and I were discussing our options and when it came down to it we really enjoyed the complex and the apartments where our friends Will and Jenn live. So we asked our realtor to search all the empty units there. We found a great 1 bedroom unit (that's almost the same size as our two bedroom now), and our realtor was able to talk the owner down $70.00 per month on the rent.

We'd actually not seen this place ourselves, but Will was able to see it. He's been in the housing industry before, so he could spot all the red flags if there were any. Once we got the thumbs up from Will and an email full of the pictures he took, we decided we better jump on this place. And it's a good thing we did. Just as we finished up the contract a couple from NY had put in an offer for a 1 year lease at full price! We've signed a two year contract in order to seal the deal (and to negotiate our late move-in in July), so we'll be there til 2013!

Here's some pictures of our soon-to-be home!