New digs!

It is very important to me that you know the exact layout of my Apartment Home, so, please, periodically refer to the floor plan throughout this post. Our place is exactly like the blueprint, not reversed like other more stupid apartment complexes sometimes do. As a result, our Apartment Home was almost exactly like how I'd pictured it in my dreams during the weeks prior to move-in.

[floorplan redacted. I don't need any psychos doing Google image searches to figure out where I live.]

Okay. You have just walked in the front door. Penny greets you with a squeaky toy in her mouth. (Omg I'm about to digress already. That squeaky toy was the best three dollars I ever spent, and I can't believe I only just recently bought her one. She hasn't yet figured out how to make it squeak; she thinks it has something to do with rolling it around with her nose. Every once in a while she steps on it with her foot, perpetuating her misconception. Love that little dog like crazy, but I can't deny that she's a bit of a dummy.)

That giant empty space between the loveseat and the bookshelf is where a table is supposed to go. Don't mind all the bare walls. We're still getting settled.

Standing in the doorway looking right.

Standing in front of the couch. The living room is smaller than I expected, but our stuff fits so no big deal. (I plan on painting that table, btw. We bought it in Canada for 20 bucks and it was supposed to be a natural wood color. Surprise, you bought an eyesore! In their defense, the box DID say the actual product could vary from the picture, I just didn't realize that meant it would be a completely different color. Related: Does anyone have any tips for painting furniture?)

Our patio. Penny's going to love having the option to go out there as soon as the temperature dips below 90.

Kitchen. Someday there will be stools.

My mom gave me those two prints when I graduated high school. These pictures were all level four days ago when I hung them :\

My first PANTRY!!!

Hard to reach that top shelf. Hope Jon's Malt-o-Meal cocoa puffs aren't prone to nosebleeds.

Hallway(ish) area off the kitchen. Closet to the right, spare bathroom to the left.

Laundry room

Doubles for tote and lamp storage

Your bathroom!! There will be towels when you come visit.

Your bedroom! It's still a work in progress.

Spare/Jon's closet YES WE HAVE TWO WALK-IN CLOSETS.

Our room

The tealight holders were a souvenir from Statia. My mom bought me the three prints in the front in Paris, and the drawing of me was a Christmas gift from my sister Annie.  (She's an art major at BYU and when we stayed at her place on our way down here I asked to see her most recent work. One was a sketch of a woman sweeping, and that's when Annie busted out the suggested literature for her figure drawing class. It's a famous book apparently [in the art world at least], compiled by that guy who photographed a galloping horse for the first time in history, and is chock full of nudes doing all manner of gender-specific activities. Wrestling, running, and lifting weights for men. Carrying pails of water and spanking children for the women. I KID YOU NOT, there was a half-page spread of a woman falling onto a mattress. You should have seen the resulting laughter. MANIACAL.)

Penny's bed

Master closet

Ugh. One thing I don't like about our place. Have you ever seen such silliness? No bar to hang clothes? Instead you have to place things individually and can't slide items over to make more space. And I hang like items together, so heaven forbid if I ever buy five more shirts - I'll have to painstakingly rearrange the entire closet one item at a time. Not to mention the waste of space, having things so spread out.

Master bath

Overall we're really pleased with our new place. Management is awesome and all our small problems have been resolved quickly and amiably.  Our neighbors are friendly, the grounds are nice, and it feels really safe despite being in a busy part of town. Full disclosure: at first we were a little concerned about the location. It was much more commercial than we'd expected, and by that I mean, "Turn left at the Shell station" because we literally share a driveway. But we're set back from the road and it's actually really peaceful. No noise or anything. 

We went to church on Sunday and our new ward seems great - we had tons of people introducing themselves, a far cry from our old Tucson ward which, there is no other way to say it, was awful. 

Two last things. First: our dishwasher was leaking, so maintenance ordered a new one. In the meantime, our dishes started to pile up in the sink. On the second day, I suggested, "I guess we could wash them by hand..." and then we both started laughing hysterically.

Second: Our apartment must have sat empty for a while before we moved in, because the spare toilet was full of black mold. I mentioned it to management, and when the guys came over to look at our dishwasher they also investigated the loo. So the one guy was asking me these questions like, "How often do you use this bathroom?" and, "How long has it been like this?" Finally when he asked me the last time I'd cleaned it, I realized that he didn't know we had just moved in. He thought I was just some tenant that never cleaned her toilet and then complained to management about mold!! And what a guy, he never once asked, "Excuse me, are you an idiot???" or called me revolting. I can't say I would have behaved as well if I'd been on the other end of that misunderstanding.