Moving in - San Marcos!

So, why the move to San Marcos?  When we met, Danny was going to the community college in Bryan and was prepping/planning for where to go to continue his education.  He knew he wanted to go military and go through the ROTC program, and also get a degree in history.  When it came time to apply for schools, the top choices were either Texas A&M University in College Station, where I graduated and has a long history in military and ROTC with the Corps of Cadets, or Texas State University, where Danny did his freshman year.  (He also applied to University of North Texas, as plan c, just to be safe).  By November, all three schools had accepted him!  So now it was just picking A&M or TX State.

Since both had decent history programs, we talked with both schools' ROTC programs (at this point we weren't sure which branch he would join).  A&M has a navy branch (which also is marines), whereas Texas State only has Air Force and Army.  We were figuring either Marines or Air Force, so after talking to them, we realized that both would require Danny to complete the full four year ROTC course.  A&M's Corp of Cadets isn't exactly family friendly and is a much more involved program.  TX State's Air Force would also be a tough time getting in as the branch is making more cuts.  So, not sure what to do, lots of prayer and a trip to the temple, Danny told me, "We should talk to the army branch."  I was a bit surprised, since neither of us had really considered the army.  But we figured why not.  After talking with them, TX State Army ROTC would let Danny finish in just two years (he would have to take a 4-week summer course to catch up), with opportunities for scholarships as well.  The more we researched, the more it just felt right, as well as to go with TX State's program.

And so, we planned to move to San Marcos between semesters.  It was a little tricky at first (we had to break our apartment lease and find a new place in just two months) and I miss College Station at times (like having a Kroger, or flat roads), but the more things moved along, everything has been falling into place.  We found a nice decently priced apartment close to campus on a bus route with lots of space and ample parking (yay!) and a dishwasher (yay!!) and on a bus route and just a lot of other things that we were wanting.  Not even two weeks after we moved, I found a good job on campus in the Financial Aid Department (whereas I hadn't found anything in College Station in months).  Danny fit right in at school and in the Army ROTC and we both agree this is where we need to be.

So, here's our new place!  (... I think moving in is always a work in progress, and I still haven't gotten a lot of decent pictures of our place, so most of these are the pictures from the apartment complex's website)

We have a 835-sq ft, two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment, all on one floor this time (thankfully).  It's so nice to be able to have an office, and the numerous closets are wonderful.  We don't have a washer and dryer anymore, but we got an apartment just across the parking lot from the complex's laundry, so it's really not that bad - plus, it's kinda nice to be able to do three loads at once.  And the windows let in lots of sunshine! :)

the entrance... we live right on the highway, not too bad, but sometimes annoying since it's the access road and only one way.

We live on the first floor, very nice for moving in, plus it keeps the electric bill pretty low (well, anything would seem really low compared to our last place, lol).

(obviously our kitchen before we moved in... now the counters are covered with toaster, microwave, toaster oven, and knife block)

... one picture of our place currently, one of the few days the place is actually clean, haha.  *eventually* I'll get the place looking how I want and I'll post pictures, or maybe a video tour...

Now that we've moved, a few things I'm learning about moving:
 - always plan on taking twice as long as you think, with twice as many boxes and twice as much tape and ten times as much packing paper.  I never realized how many oddly shaped a/o breakable things we had.
 - labeling is always good (I did do this fairly well), but label the sides, not the tops, because once they're all stacked you can't see the tops anymore
 - double check when the aparment office closes on the day you move (we got in a lot later than planned, so I didn't even think to check that... thank heavens our new landlords were really nice and left us a key, since we got in three hours after they closed for the day)
 - pack a box of essentials ready to unpack first at the new place, including toilet paper, a change of clothes, the shower curtain, soap, bedding, etc. so you're not opening dozens of boxes trying to find them when all you want to do is take a shower and go to sleep.
 - don't be afraid to recruit lots of help (most of our recruits bailed last minute) ... but make sure you're actually ready for them when you say you'll be (Nick had to help us pack a lot of last minute boxes, and then we weren't even at the new place for over an hour after we told the new ward to meet us and help)
 - take pictures of the new place before any boxes even come in - it seemed sooo big and clean back then, it'd be nice to actually remember that.

Our First Place

Before we got married, I was living in an apartment complex for college students/singles (each room is rented out on its own lease in a furnished one-gender apt ... not exactly meant for marrieds) and Danny was renting out a bedroom from a friend's house.  Needless to say, we both had to move out so we got to find a place for us to live when we got married.  Another married couple friends of ours were living in a townhome-style apartment really close to campus but after two years there, decided they were ready to move to a house (he had just started his PhD and she taught chemistry at the high school, so they were going to be there a while).  They talked about how much they liked the apartment and how they wouldn't really leave except they wanted a yard so they could get dogs.  They showed us the place, and while older, it looked fine and definitely in our budget, so, they gave a good word for us, and it was great.  It had two bedrooms, one bath, and tons of closet space, and even a washer/dryer hook up (which we amazingly enough got for free from another friend who was updating hers, so while they looked like, and probably were, from the '70's and only had one setting, they worked), and for a really low monthly rent.  so, yay for us!

... then we actually started living in it.  ... let's just say, the price was cheap for a reason.  I can't deny that I liked having the amount of space and closets we had and the washer/dryer.  Those were the nice things.  ... the problems?  ... where to start?  They were built in about the '50's, and hadn't been upgraded since the 70's.  All the outlets were two-prong only, and often sparked when you plugged things in.  The insulation was very poor so the air conditioning didn't work very effectively (the heater didn't even work at all, though that wasn't as much of a problem in Texas until about December when we'd wake up and it'd be under 50 degrees ... inside. *sigh*).  You could see huge gaps under the front door when it was closed.  The blinds were missing panels.  The first floor (living/kitchen) was floor to ceiling, every wall, covered in dark wood paneling (and if that wasn't bad enough, a lot of the panels were bowing off the walls), with very little windows ... so it made it feel like a basement.  Plus all the kitchen cabinets were dark wood too (there were tons of cabinets, but many of them had broken hinges or sticky doors that wouldn't get clean and most were out of my reach, even with a chair... not very useful).  The upstairs was painted white (a little more inviting), but really poorly done with splashes of paint on the floor and all of the outlets, door hinges, etc. also painted over.  Which made it tricky when we had to take the doors off to get our furniture in since they were so narrow, plus the fact that each door was screwed on with different types and sizes of screws.  The carpets were kinda dingy, well, everything was, where the more you clean, the dirtier it feels just because you notice the dinginess so much more.  All of the plumbing was waaaay messed up, and just scary to look at.  The hot water pipe to the washer was broken, so everything had to be washed in cold water.  You'd have to warn someone when you were using the bathroom because the toliet could only be flushed once every half hour or so.  The shower head was at my eye level (about 5 feet high), so you can imagine as tricky as it was for me, what it was like for Danny to try and shower (he's 5'11"), though one good thing, since it was old, we had great water pressure (not water saving)! lol.  There wasn't any fan in the bathroom either, or any towel racks.  All the pipes leaked, and there was a huge leak from the bathroom (upstairs) above the kitchen stove that dripped constantly and flooded the oven and cabinets (and didn't get fixed for two months).  This also meant there was lots of mold in the walls of the kitchen and bathroom, which (I like to blame this at least) made me really sick almost the entire time I lived here.  There were only six parking spots on the street for the entire building of four apartments and the duplex next door.  If there weren't any openings, you just had to circle around and wait until someone finally left.  And, on top of all this, our landlord(ish) only owned our little building, like a side-job or something, so while he was nice, he was really hard to get a hold of and took even longer to get anything taken care of (like our kitchen leak), and things like our rent checks didn't even go through until three weeks or more after we sent them (very nerve wracking).

*phew*.  It was the place we lived for a while and it served it's purpose, but it never quite felt like home.  Danny calls it our "humbler". Every place after that will be great! haha.  I suppose that's true, since we certainly love our place here now, even if it's not the most expensive or trendy place here.  I guess the biggest factor for me, at least, in how I see the difference of our first place and our second... I actually want visitors here, haha.  so please don't be offended if I didn't want you to come to our first place, it's not you, it's the apartment. honest.  and if you don't believe me, I did take some pictures when it was at it's cleanest so it won't be forgotten... as if that were possible.

living room

kitchen (the large peninsula counter was nice for baking...)

... a set of salt and pepper shakers we got from the wedding.  When we first opened them, I was pretty much thinking, "uh, you've got to be kidding me... " (they're really bright and don't match any of our decor), but Danny at the same time said in all seriously, "... that's so cool!"  and so, we are still using them, and I'll admit, they do add a splash of color and they're growing on me.

... the stairs (one other upside, our quasi-landlord did actually replace this sconce that had been broken ... a month or two after we moved in...)

... our little bathroom

the bedroom

the office - my side (I am grateful we were able to get a two-bedroom apartment ... we both have L-desks and use them more than anything else, so it's nice to have space to put them)

the office - Danny's side