A Sunny Saturday . . .

Happy Saturday, everyone! I love Saturday mornings! It is a crisp, beautiful sunny day outside. It is supposed to get up into the high-80s today, maybe even hit 90 by Sunday. But this morning is cool and gorgeous. I just started a load of laundry and thought I'd do a blog post this morning. We have a lot to do this weekend, as our move is sneaking up on us.

Speaking of moving, it's a good thing that we had planned on moving, because after I sent the letter to the property management company saying that we were not going to be renewing the lease, she called me and said that she was glad, because the same day she got our letter, the owner of the house called and said he had decided to sell it. Whew! Perfect timing!!

Beginning May 1st, we anxiously awaited a phone call from Mission Ranch Apts., saying that they had a 3-bedroom coming available in June. Of course, any time you have a specific apartment complex you want to move into, and can only move in a specific month, it is always difficult because you just don't know what apartments are going to come available. It's a total crap shoot. We got a phone call saying that a 3-bedroom had turned in their notice for June, but it was an upstairs. Foolishly, thinking that surely there would be a lot more vacancies -- we turned it down. A couple more nail-biting days went by, and nothing. Finally we called and said OKAY we will take an upstairs, if we HAVE to. I know we are going to hate an upstairs; that's why we are moving out of this house!!! But we love the apartments, and we love the layout, so we are kind of stuck. The apartment complex has an initial 6-month lease, and at the end of the six months, it goes to month-to-month, and the managers said that after we go to month-to-month, we can put in for a downstairs, and then move into that. It would be a pain, but worth it. That way we could wait for the "right" apartment to come available.

When we turned down the first 3-bedroom, and when we called back and said we'd take an upstairs, the first apt. they offered us was already taken. Apparently the June waiting list is LONG. I figured they'd have a lot of move-outs in June, because of the students leaving. But this is so far from campus, I guess there aren't a LOT of students in there (thank goodness). Anyway, she said the only other 3-bedroom was an apartment that had put in a 30-day notice, but then put a hold on it, because they had some friends that might be taking it over. There was NOTHING else available!! No other 3-bedroom apts. had given notice!!! YIKES! We went over to look at (from the outside) the one that MIGHT be coming available, and we didn't like the location. It faces East Ave., and has full Western exposure in the afternoons, and has a screaming child that lives below them (we know because we stood outside the apt. and heard him/her. YIKES!!).

We half-heartedly began looking at other apt. complexes, but you know how it is -- when you have your heart set on the "perfect" one, it is hard to change. Then they called and said someone living in a 3-bedroom (upstairs!!) apartment had picked up a 30-day notice to vacate, but hadn't yet turned it in. We were on pins and needles! They called yesterday and said the notice was turned in, and the apt. is ours!!!! Yahoo! What a relief. The apt. will be available on June 8th, and we can move in any time after that. They also said that if anyone with a downstairs turns in a 30-day notice, and it would be ready around the same time as the other one, that we could have that one, instead. We're crossing our fingers, but we're not too hopeful at this point. It takes them about a week after the tenants move out to make the apts. ready to move into, so they probably wouldn't give us a downstairs that comes available much later than the end of next week. Besides, we HAVE to move in by June 30, so we're up against a specific deadline. I don't know if anyone will turn in a notice in the next couple of days, but much longer than that they probably won't let us have it, because they can't hold the upstairs apartment off the market that long. We'll see.

The upstairs that we're getting actually isn't in too bad of a location. It's facing away from the parking lot, faces Mission Ranch Blvd. instead of East Ave., and has a northern exposure, which means NO western sun beating on it in the hot summertime!! Yay!! That will be nice. Our current bedroom is upstairs facing the western sun, and it is SO hot in here!! So, it could have been worse. That's the worst thing about an upstairs, is it is SO hot in the summer, and even with air conditioning.

I did call PG&E and ask what the current tenant's average PG&E bills are, just to get an idea. Of course, everyone is different, and I don't know how many people live there and how many are there all day long in the summer. For instance, if it is someone with two older kids, then it is possible that during the summer, the two parents are away at work all day, but the kids are home all day in June, July, and Aug. and run the air a lot. The PG&E guy said their bills run around $60-$90 in the winter, and $150-$200 in the summer. Not too bad! Our PG&E bills here run double that -- about $240 in the winter and about $400 in the summer. That will be a relief!

Here's the link to the apartment website here. I like the place, but I will miss my gas stove and self-cleaning oven! :-(( Oh well. The apt. has its own full-size washer and dryer inside the unit, so that will be nice. We will send everyone an email with our new address as soon as it's confirmed. We know the apt. number of our tentative upstairs one, but of course I don't want to publish it here! We will probably be moving mid-June. Wish us luck!!!

We're going to be sorting out the storage and the garage this weekend, and begin packing up a few things that we don't use very often. We are planning a joint yard sale with my friend Linda from work -- she has a great location for a yard sale. Here at the Doe Mill neighborhood, it's too off the beaten track to really be good for a yard sale. Besides, these stupid narrow streets don't make it easy for people to get in and park, and they get frustrated and leave. I've seen it happen with some of the neighbors. We will be SO glad to get out of here! These places aren't as great as we first thought.

Well, I need to get the first load of laundry out, and put in the second one. Hope everyone has a great weekend!