The Great Escape

July 5th, while still recovering from the surgery, we started our move out of the basement apartment. While the apartment itself was spacious and great, we were over the basement apartment idea.

We loved the spacious apartment, the pool table, the laundry room, and the amazing location...but we decided basement apartments are just not for us. Helping develop this opinion were eccentric/intense homeowners, 7:00 AM vacuum runs on Sunday mornings, midnight and later piano sing-alongs, ghost day-time visitors (coming home to the lights on..that we did not leave on), and a pool and hot tub that we were not comfortable using.

We were blessed with a perfect exit strategy when Jason's friend, Richard, offered an amazing opportunity. Richard's brother owned a house with his family in Alpine, and they were away for the summer months. He was out selling for Vivint Solar in Hawaii and in New Jersey. While they were away, they allowed us to stay and house-sit their home in Alpine. We were thrilled! This was a perfect chance to leave the basement apartment and stay in an actual house...for free! The length of stay was unknown, since the family was unsure how long they would be out selling. But we didn't care. One month, two months, three months....didn't matter...we were in!

George, Nancy, and Karl: Always the first to help!

Their home is an older house, but they completely remodeled the inside. It looks amazing! They did a great job. Most of our things ended up staying boxed up in the Gruber's garage. (The Tadje's did not leave for the summer expecting occupants).

 I loved the way Cindy decorated the family room! So bright and so cute!

Our stay ended up being shorter than we originally hoped. We moved in the first week of July, and moved out mid-August. However, that short month and a half was such a blast. Lots of eating out and lots of 30 Rock. The house is right across the street from the new park in Alpine. We went on bike rides and played lots of tennis (Jason had a big job on his hands teaching me the game). I remember playing tennis one time with my friend Amy and we left after 30 minutes of frustration...never being able to return the ball back to each other. Yeah...we had no idea what we were doing!

Jason on his beach cruiser...you can see the tennis courts in the back.

We also lived just down the street from Jason's parents. Literally, a five minute walk...if that. We had lots of tennis dates with them. George and Nancy are actually dang good at tennis. They could totally kick our butts! It was really fun.

Lots of fun memories at the Tadje house!