Townhouse

So we've lived here for five months, and I'm already looking to move. This apartment has been great - the mainainance people are quick, and they even eventually fix the problem. We love the courtyard that is separated from the parking lot so Olivia can run around safely (with the exception of a couple residents who refuse to obey to rules and put their large dogs on leashes). We haven't had to turn on the heat basically all winter because the people below us like tropical temperatures. The layout of the apartment itself is spacious and I must say I'm getting better and better at decorating the more we move - this is our best-looking apartment yet!

However... I can't take the coin laundry anymore. The washing machine doesn't clean as well as our own does and it kills me to have to keep ours in storage at a $30/mo loss to us. Add to that the $40/mo in quarters we spend on laundry, and we're $70/mo poorer for having to use an old, disfunctional machine.

Another reason I'm looking to move is the fact that we're on the second floor. I know I'm not the first to be in this situation, but it's so exhausting! Every Monday, we go grocery shopping, and I have to carry 2 gallons of milk, 4 gallons of water, 2 jugs of juice, 1 gallon of orange juice, plus all the food we eat in a week up a flight of stairs and down the hall. All while carrying a toddler and a 7 month pregnant belly.

So I've found us an affordable townhouse. (It's the two bedroom). Here's the floor plan, except take the downstairs bathroom and make it a laundryroom:

So we haven't seen it yet; we've just driven around the parking lot. But it looks well-kept. We have an appointment for Friday to see a lived-in townhouse. They don't have any available right now and they don't know if they will have any in August. And even if they do, we'd only want one with the laundry room, which reduces our odds. So it's up to God whether He wants to continue to build my patience and physical strength, or whether He chooses to give a poor mom a break. :-)

The perks of this townhouse would be:

• Laundry room (saves $40/mo)
• Water/Trash/Sewage paid for! (Saves $30/mo)
• Might be able to squeeze all our stuff from storage in it (saves $30/mo)
• We ARE the neighbors upstairs. If someone's stomping around, we can go up there and stop them. (Currently, our upstairs neighbors have an 11-yr-old boy who plays pretty rough and stays up pretty late.
• The laundry room is downstairs. In our last apartment, the laundryroom was just off the bedroom - and we have a dryer with a buzzer that doesn't turn off and lasts for at LEAST a full 60 seconds. Very inconvenient for napping babies/children/parents and that last load you like to throw in before going to bed.
• The bedrooms are upstairs. The babies won't hear us watching LoTR (or vacuuming, whichever...)
• When carrying groceries, I can just drop them off inside the door - no stairs!
• The mail slot is in the door!
  

The drawbacks would be:

• We haven't seen it yet, so it could be completely run-down on the inside.
• They don't have the nice courtyard. In fact, we didn't see much lawn at all.
• We don't know what kind of a deal they'll give us on the price. Right now, it's $121/mo more than we pay here. They said they'll likely be able to give us some kind of deal, and when you calculate the savings I mentioned above, it might work out - but you never know.
• Since we'd be getting one with a laundry room, we would not have a bathroom downstairs. Not sure how difficult that would be with pottytraining...
• Heating might cost more. We still pay a pretty high gas bill for not having turned on our heat all winter ($60) so it might stay the same or at least not go up too much.
  
• Hmm... can't think of anything else! I might have more to add after Friday, though.