Waiting for approval

On Thursday we drove and drove and drove around the suburbs of portland trying to find one that felt like "home".  What we discovered is it seems you have to look really hard for a bad neighborhood.  We found lots of areas we felt we could live in quite happily.  Beaverton won the day however, it was hands down the most comfortable area we drove through. 

Out of the nearly 20 apartments/duplexes we drove by yesterday, we'd picked three that we wanted to walk through.  We couldn't get hold of anyone to look at the two duplexes, so we decided to just drive up to the one apartment complex we were interested in and look at that then try the duplexes again.  When we drove into the complex, we were reminded again why this was our favorite.  It was beautiful, though this whole city is beautiful, the complex is away from the center of town and all the other complexes, it's actually in the neighborhood and the buildings are arranged on a hill, so you have beautiful views.  Strangely, what sold us was the fact that as we drove in, we passed a resident walking her Bull Mastiff. This place was large dog friendly and we happen to have ourselves a large dog!  There are trashcans and poo bag dispensers throughout the property to easily clean up after your pet's buisness.  There's a pool, a 24 hour fitness room and a small theater room in the clubhouse.  There is no playground on the property, but there is a big park about a mile and a half away that I could easily bike the kids to.  We walked through the apartment (2 bed/2 bath) and it was definately smaller than we're used to (it's about 1000 square feet and we currently live in 3200 square feet), but it felt livable. I'd hoped for a bigger fenced patio than this apartment offers, but it will do and the park I'd take the kids to also has an off leash dog area, so it would be easy to take Fancy there to run.  There's a small laundry room in the apartment that we could take the door off and put a baby gate up to keep the cat's litter away from the kids and the dog.  The boys room is large and would easily fit both their beds and lots of toys and their walk in closet could easily be used for extra storage.  The master and the living room is much smaller than we're used to, but again, livable, and the kitchen is small, but I don't cook, so not a problem at all.

We were sold. We filled out applications and put a deposit down on the apartment without even looking at the other places. Now we wait to see if we're approved. The leasing lady didn't think it would be a problem, but our situation is a little strange, so you just don't know.  We should find out Monday.  We're leaving tomorrow, so if we're not approved, we'll have to try to get into something else from Utah, which wouldn't be ideal, but at least we now have a good idea of the area, so not impossible.

The house in Utah has been officially listed for sale and it sounds like we've already had one showing while we've been here, so that's good news.  Hopefully things are starting to fall into place for our big life change!