** Idea for this post was completely stolen/inspired from my blog stock-ee (meaning the person I blog stalk) Janae. I have to include the quote too because I love it..."The rent here may be low, but I believe we have it on very hard terms."-Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility (the movie, not the book)
May-August of 2005
Tucson
"It was the best of times..."
Our first little home was a nice apartment in not-so-nice Tucson. Sorry all you Tucson fans but I have to call it like I saw it. We had a dishwasher, and a washer/dryer in the apartment, 2 bedrooms, HUGE walk-in closet, a community pool, racquetball court, and exercise room.
Tucson apt. (all borrowed furniture/TV)
This was living.
We actually got it really cheap thanks to my friend Macey. The couple who lived in the apartment had an internship in Vegas for the summer. So they gave us cheap rent and we let them keep all their stuff in the extra bedroom. Plus we used all their furniture, TV, and nice digital piano. Sweet! Less moving of heavy objects all around. After 3 months of marriage Matt's IBM Tucson internship was up and we needed to find an apartment in the Valley before school started.
Mesa
August 2005-May 2007
"it was the worst of times."
Our Mesa apartment had an awesome L.D.S. (Latter Day Saint- it's the abbreviation for our religion) landlord who let us have the place for $400 because he wanted good tenants.
-2 bedroom
-1 bathroom
-Good sized kitchen with tile and tons of cupboard space
-Carport with storage room and washer/dryer hook-ups
-NO Dishwasher- first and hopefully the last time that happens. Matt and I would take turns NOT doing the dishes for a week and then do all of them when we ran out!
-Smack dab in a rundown old Mesa neighborhood.
Oh how we hated that carpet!
We never parked in the carport because it was a pain to drive around. One day Matt caught some guys smoking pot back there.
Then the day after we got home from Hawaii I unpacked and put all our luggage away in the storage closet. These would be the two sets of nice luggage from Matt's mission and my high school graduation present. They were stolen the next day along with a bunch of my teaching stuff! Someone is out there with tons of nice luggage and some very cute bulletin board borders!
Lesson learned... procrastinate unpacking so all your luggage doesn't get stolen when they break into your storage closet.
I was hurt and now I was downright scared to go back there to move our laundry. I tried to get Matt to write a sign in English and Spanish that said they should be ashamed of themselves for stealing our stuff. He said that was silly.
Why would the sign need to be in Spanish you say? Because 90% of our neighbors were probably illegal immigrants from Mexico. Complete with their Mariachi music blaring all night. One of our neighbors had so many people living in the apartment there was never any parking on the street because of all their cars.
The other 10% of our neighbors were the only other people willing to live there. Poor newlywed Mormons. We called it the Mormon/Mexican neighborhood.
Then there was the other neighbor who told us everything about her sad, crime-ridden life. Not that we needed her to tell us. Because we heard her prayers. She would sit outside and very loudly tell God (using many four letter words) what exactly she wanted to happen to the people who had ruined her life including her children. Nice, real nice. I now know the true meaning of blasphemy.
Matt starting our first little, I mean really little, garden.
Despite all this I realize our apartment was a blessing. We had a lot of good memories there as a newlywed couple. Graduating college and starting our first real jobs.
We were also able to save money more quickly for a house. We were so excited to buy our first house 1.5 years after Matt finished college and 1 year after I finished at the ages of 25 and 22 respectively. Too bad we couldn't hold out a little longer until after the house market plunged; but that's another story. We miss the young couples that lived on the street and the cheap rent but that's about all we miss. I now know why location is the biggest rule of real estate.
Anyone have any good stories about the worst (or best) places you've lived?
I don't know if we can ever talk again after your comments about Tucson. I won't even say what I think about the Valley of the Sun...
ReplyDeleteOtherwise I enjoyed your post, I hadn't heard the story about the very vocal prayers of your delinquent neighbor. That must have been entertaining.
Great re-cap of your apartments!
ReplyDeleteHa, ha! That was really fun! The one real perk to our yucky apartment was that the neighbors were all wonderful and completely normal. Big fan of that. Especially after reading about the music, stolen luggage, and pot smoking. Ewww. I can't wait to have a house again. I'm so jealous that you have one already!
ReplyDeleteI like to brag about how I was "trailer trash" in college, hey my rent was $130-$150/month including utilities. When it was windy we thought it would blow over and when you flushed the toilet you wondered if it floor would fall out from underneath you.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky to have a house now. It is interesting to think about the various places you've lived.
ReplyDeletewe did a summer internship in Boise a couple summers. The uhaul costs were more than rent for a summer so we just took what could fit in our tiny car. A 300 sq ft studio (formerly a hotel room) with a rented bed, couch and table. But it was nice to learn EXACTLY what we could live without
ReplyDeleteAny Garden is a good garden. That's some good lookin dirt he's hoeing:)
ReplyDeleteWhat are we planting??? Feel free to come visit this summer! We love Babies & Family in this house! Charlotte is getting cuter & cuter!
That was a fun post! It's fun to think back on the different places that we live. We have some humorous stories about first couple apartments too.
ReplyDeleteOur family actually has some exciting news on that subject - we are in the process of buying a house! I am SO excited!