Monday, January 10, 2011

A Place to Call Home

Now that we have graduated, we decided it was time to move on.  Henry Lin (our landlord) sent us a notice inquiring if we wanted to sign a new one-year rental agreement. 

We didn’t want to do that…

...so our only option became finding a new apartment. It also gave us a deadline to find an apartment (end of August) and to get out of there. So we began our search…we thought we were done with KSL after finding our Accord, but we were right back at it again about a week later.

It turned out to be quite the process…checking the listing multiple times a day, calling those places that looked half-decent, visiting those places that might be worthwhile, being disgusted by the size and quality of the actual apartments when comparing them to their deceiving pictures, finding apartments that we loved but were above our price range…you know what I’m talking about. 

One day, a basement apartment in Lehi popped up on KSL. It was absolutely beautiful and totally UNDER-priced! We jumped on it, drove up there that night to check it out, and were actually more impressed by what we physically saw. It had an immaculate kitchen with gorgeous white cabinets, not to mention it was huge! There were high ceilings and wood flooring. The back room had a sliding door that opened up to the back yard. The yard was pleasant with flowers, raspberry bushes, and strawberry bushes. It also looked over a huge canal and provided a gorgeous view (especially for sunsets). It was perfect.

To make a long story short, we drove to Highland the next afternoon to meet the owner of the house and to fill out an application. The problems started when my Google Maps did not give me accurate directions to her house.  So, naturally, I called her for directions. To my utter horror, she decided to inform me that she would save us all some time because she had already sold it to someone (and this is after we had already driven from Provo to Thanksgiving Point).  I was shocked. After hanging up the phone, I couldn’t help but sob! I was so disappointed. I had been so anxious the previous night and that day with excitement. (I couldn’t even sleep the night before). And then all my dreams were crushed in a single moment. Jason and I were both pretty bummed that whole week. As we looked at other apartments, we couldn’t help but compare them to the Lehi apartment. 

We continued with patience, and the next week we found two awesome and spacious basement apartments (on the same day, I might add). We thought this story was finally going to have a happy ending...We loved them both, but knew we had to choose just one. We chose the Orem apartment. 

We couldn't have been happier. The house was HUGE and had its own private pool and tennis court (that we had access to). It also came furnished with a living room set, pool table, and washer and dryer! The yard was beautiful and I couldn’t wait to move in. 

Just four days after securing the apartment and paying our deposit, Jason got a call from the husband who owned the house. Up to this point, we had met with and made the agreement with the wife...not thinking twice about it. I guess, the husband had been out of town and the wife had posted the apartment without his knowledge. The husband had already promised the apartment to a BYU football player and his family. They hadn't cashed the check yet and we hadn't signed any papers so there was nothing we could do. Therefore, spousal miscommunication cost us not just one apartment, but two (the one we gave up to go with this one).

You can imagine my devastation at this point. Feelings of worthlessness and despair. 

It meant another weekend of apartment searching, just when we thought we could celebrate. 

We found a really nice spacious basement in Alpine that I was anxious to snatch (just in my desperation to have something set), but Jason kept his head and he knew that Alpine would not be wise with our work locations. 

The end of August was approaching, and at this point, it looked like we were going to be living with his parents for the next little while. Two days before our move out date, Jason received another phone call. It was the husband over the Orem apartment. To our disbelief, the football player could not come up with the deposit and so we were offered the apartment once again.

I was scared to believe it at first, after all of the ups and downs we had been through, but it was true! The apartment was ours!

This is just evidence that when one door closes, another one opens (sometimes even better than you could have hoped)! Some hardships and struggles can literally be “blessings in disguise”. Now we live just five minutes away from my work and we are loving our apartment and loving more space than we know what to do with!

 

 Doors that lead out to pool and tennis court

 The room continues back and to the right...that's the space we're not sure what do with.
It is mostly empty for now....
makes a nice workout/exercise/stretching place





The door on the right is the one we enter from


Hope you enjoyed the tour!

5 comments:

  1. I loved the tour!!! When can we physically see it?! Good gravy! You had a possibility of living in Lehi?!?!?! Do you know how amazing that would've been?! Bummer! But um glad you found something great!

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  2. Beautiful! I hate apartment hunting! We had the same issues this time too! So glad it all worked out for you!

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  3. I love your new place! Very spacious, and your bedroom set is so cute! I am jealous of your tennis courts...if you ever need a hitting buddy or doubles partners hit me up :)

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  4. what a cute apartment! you definitely have a good eye for decorating! i had no idea you had a pool too. that is so fun. and we still need to come see it in person sometime. :)

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  5. the last comment was from me (sarah) and not nate. :)

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