We officially have a home of our own in Washington!  While I did not particularly enjoy the shopping for a home part of the process, the end result of our hard work was worth it.  I mean, seriously, check out this floor plan!  It’s just perfect for us and we love it.  Every other apartment we looked at had good things and bad things about it.  This apartment only has awesome things about it.  Let me tell you about it:

1. It has a loft!  Which means two floors!  Which means it feels huge!
2. Lot’s of sunlight!
3. Closets!  A lot of cheaper apartments are stripped down and don’t have any nooks and crannies.  This one has just the right amount of nook and cranny space for storage of little things.
4. It has a deck that’s actually square (rather than the all too common long and skinny) and the deck faces the water.
5. Washer & Dryer is included.  I loved this floor plan from the moment I saw the diagram, but the website said no W/D and that was pretty much a deal breaker for this girl.  But lo and behold, they are putting in a W/D in the apartment before we move in.
6. The layout is well-designed and makes sense.  Some apartment layouts are just crazy.
7. The apartment buildings themselves are all only two levels and you enter from the outside, to they sort of feel like town homes rather than apartments.  Love this!
8. It’s actually under our price range.

My absolute favorite thing: I’m loving the loft is because Bryan and I really wanted a second bedroom so we’d have space to create.  For Bryan to create music and for myself to write and sew and knit and plan and all that jazz.  But having a loft instead of the second bedroom means we get the space of a bedroom, without the confining-four-walls-and-one-tiny-window feel of a bedroom.  When I walked up to the loft, I was in love.  I felt like I could create there.  AND there is plenty of room up there to throw a mattress down and have guests (I’M TALKING TO YOU IOWANS!), so purchase your plane tickets to Seattle now.

Anyway, I’m a happy camper, and excited to move into our new home sometime at the end of May/beginning of June.