Matt probably can't count the number of times I have told him how much I'd like to be in a house, rather than an apartment. I tell him about how much I would like to have the space to be more hospitable to others, and how much I would love to have a yard for the dog... (whine, whine, I know).
Well, our lease at our apartment ends next month, so we've been talking about whether we want to stay, or go. We REALLY like our apartment. We haven't had any trouble there, we've gotten to know some of our neighbors pretty well, and the location is great. So we certainly weren't just dying to get out. So we decided that we would NOT move to another apartment complex, but that we would look around at rental houses and just see what was available.
Recently, we have been meeting with a group of people who are working to start a church in Pflugerville, just northeast of Austin. We have committed ourselves to this group, and one thing that we both felt pretty strongly about is that we would like to be part of that community. So we focused our efforts on looking for rental houses in Pflugerville.
I won't lie... I completely stressed over this entire process. Matt had to keep reminding me that we were perfectly content where we were, and if we didn't find the right place, we'd still be ok (he's a good man!).
We finally found a house that we were interested in, so we contacted the realtor about it. They, of course, want you to make a very quick decision and put some money down, but we weren't willing to do that yet. By the time we came back and said we wanted to view the house, the realtor informed us that someone else had already put in an application. She tried to get us to still put in our applications to be "back-up," but it would cost us nearly $100 to do that. "No, thanks," we said. I was disappointed, but we moved on.
We kept looking, but nothing was really standing out to us. When we would find one that looked nice, we'd call on it and find out it was already leased. We viewed a couple of houses, but weren't blown away by any. A few days passed and I decided to contact the realtor again about the house in Pflugerville and just find out if the other applicants were approved, and if it was, in fact, off the market. I was surprised when she told me the other couple was not approved, and asked if we wanted to view the house. I said yes, and proceeded to ask a few questions about the process, and let her know one thing that was key for us - we want a November 1st move-in date (this would limit how much rent overlap we pay between the house and the apartment). I also asked about the possibility of a long-term lease (18 months). She promptly told me that they would not hold it until November 1st, and that it would need to be a 12 month lease. I was disappointed, but we moved on. Again.
Fast forward about two days. I get an email from the realtor saying that the owners were very interested in us, specifically. She said they are a younger couple who, when they purchased the house as an investment property, talked about how much a house like that would've been a blessing to them when they were first married. They had been praying that the house could be a blessing for a young couple, and they wanted to see if we were still interested.
... Oh, and they would hold it until Nov. 1st and offer an 18 month lease. :)
We went and saw the house the next day and absolutely loved it. We turned in an application the next day, and found out last night that we've been approved! They even allowed us to push the move-in date out one more week, which really helps us a lot financially.
We are really excited about this move. The only bad thing about it all is that we have to pack. :-/ Anyway, I've attached a few pictures of the house below. It has two bedrooms, and two baths. And Ginny will have a yard! :)
I think we need a couple of rocking chairs for this front porch, don't you think? I'm working on Matt on that one... :)
The garage is behind the house. There is a small street that runs behind all of the houses that leads to the garages.
So there it is! We'll post more pictures in 1 month + once we have all of our stuff in.
(update: I just found out the owners both graduated from Texas A&M - I think this is going to work out nicely. ;-) I told Matt that they were both Aggies and got a big, "Oh great..." - Ha!)
