Moving Down

December 2007 is when we moved into this apartment. The actual move was quite a bit more difficult then we thought it would be, but living here has been great. The complex we live in is set up as a circle, the buildings surround a central common area with a large open grassy area and a playground and swings.

There are two drawbacks to our current apartment though. First the parking space assigned to us is a million miles away…

If you’ll remember the picture I shared back in February (and am sharing again here) it really isn’t QUITE a million, but it FEELS like a million especially when you’re lugging a 50 pound kid (with his spica cast), or when you’re attempting to carry two weeks of groceries inside in one trip (yes I’m stubborn, why make the long walk twice if I can get it all in the first time). The point being that one major drawback to living in this specific apartment is the walk TO the apartment… and that doesn’t count the stairs, which takes me to drawback number two

Three flights of stairs. The minor issue with the stairs is the kids that live next door, and on the second floor, and on the first floor… they thump up and down the stairs, they use the landings as clubhouses, and they make tons of noise (which drives the dog nuts, and makes the kid nag constantly to go outside and play… which he can’t do because he is NOT ready to play on stairs yet).

The slightly more major issue with the stairs is that I didn’t realize what a problem they would be until I was lugging groceries up them. I don’t mind a little exercise but after the walk to the stairs from the car the task of getting up the stairs is sometimes a little less than cheerful.

Two days after the Kiddo broke his leg, February 10th, these little niggling issues stopped being seeds and grew. I made an off the cuff comment to my mother in law that it would be a good time to try and move to a ground level apartment. A couple weeks after that my sister came to visit and I had an actual conversation with her about the plausibility of the idea, and if it would even be logistically possible. We tossed around thoughts and then I let it go for a bit, but the little seed of thought was growing.

Near the end of April, while getting the mail the Kiddo and I stopped into the office to say hi and in discussing his slow progress walking I happened to mention that a ground floor apartment would be an amazing thing to have at this point. She laughed, and then mentioned that they did have one available.

I thought about it, ground floor!! Parking space right in front of the building! No more worries about the dog and kid playing fetch (thump thump thump of running doggie feet) and the Kiddo could actually walk from the car inside by himself!! But what would transferring apartments cost us? She said nothing, they don’t have transfer fees at this complex. Really? But what about increased rent (it IS a slightly larger apartment), … that’s more complicated. When we moved in the market value was up, the rent we pay at our current apartment is actually higher then the rent that a ‘new move in’ would pay (insert grumble here!!), on top of that we didn’t know about the military discount the complex offers (maybe they didn’t have it back then I don’t know) so now we can get that too. So yes the apartment is technically more expensive than our current one, but what we would end up paying for it wouldn’t be. Interesting.

We could only think of one big reason not to move, the move itself!! I never have liked moving, I’ve done it a LOT and every time it’s a mess and people end up cranky.

But after much thought we decided the pro’s outweigh the con’s… and we put our name down for the new place. The Kiddo is over the moon, he is so excited that he will not have to be carried to and from the car anymore. His recovery is taking a lot longer then he thought it would, he keeps telling me the cast was on for a million years and it was awful and now learning to walk is taking a million years too! He hasn’t gotten mad about it yet, but he is frustrated and every little bit of freedom (him moving on his own power) helps ease that feeling.