Almost Home

Wow! I wrote one whole post in the month of August. *hangs head in absolute shame* Sorry about that. And you’d think I’d have a good excuse for my absence, too. Well, does moving count? Here’s hoping!

Last month, Z and I moved out of the shithole rental house (that once cost someone an asinine amount of 300 g’s but is truly worth maybe 100, if that) and into a semi-permanent condo. I say semi-permanent cuz

a.) we signed an extended 18-month lease (per our request), and

b.) it may become permament cuz we are thinking of buying it from the bank.

I kinda explained it in this post, but I’ll explain it better now (cuz, really, no one’s gonna click that link, I’m sure of it). Once upon a time, the condo development I live in was built to sell as upscale homes. Unfortunately, by the time they were completed and hit the market, the economy sank and the builder filed for bankruptcy and got the hell outta dodge. So, the condos that hadn’t been sold yet became owned by the bank, and they still are today. A property management company takes care of leasing the condos, but if the price is right, the bank will (of course) sell them. For cheap. So, we are considering buying ours. But we have time to decide.

But, yes, our condo is bank-owned right now.

I gotta tell ya, I seriously love love love our new home. Z and I have come to realize that living in a complex instead of a private home is ideal for our lifestyle. Cuz, since there’s only two of us (which is not expected to change), we really don’t see the  benefit of owning a house. We actually like having access to a fitness center & pool, without having to worry about the maintenance of them. And since our complex is so small (75-ish units), the common areas are not often busy & crowded.

As for the condo, let me take you on a for-the-moment picture-less tour (cuz we’re still decorating). The specs: it’s a 1,700 square feet, 3-story townhouse. On the first floor is a 2-car garage, which enters into a hallway w/coat closet & a large den (which is serving as our basement {read: storage space}). We also have a front door & porch with enough room for a table & 2 chairs. Up the stairs to the second floor is the great room (which is truly ‘great’ indeed, as it extends the full length of the condo), the ah-mazing kitchen with eat-in nook, & a small balcony area.

The kitchen should really have its own post dedicated to it – granite counters with backsplash that reaches the upper cabinets, breakfast bar, extra-tall and deep cabinets with actual handles/hardware (a rare find in a rental), and stainless steel appliances (did you know they make microwaves with 3-shelves inside?). The oven is … well, there are no words. First of all, even though we are not the first residents, I’m pretty sure we’re the first ones to actually use it, due to the new-smell odor it exuded when we first turned it on. Go figure. It’s a convection oven, which also has this temperature probe thing, which you can stick inside your meat and it will cook to the pre-set temperature you select. Never heard of such a feature, but coolness, right? And the cooktop also has a section in the middle which you can replace with a griddle. I found a picture of the stove, but I couldn’t figure out how to embed it, so you can click this link to see what it looks like. Not the same exact model, but close enough.

Enough about the awesome kitchen.

On the way up to the 3rd floor is a powder room, which is temporarily serving as the cats’ bathroom. (Don’t ask.) And on the 3rd floor is the laundry room and two master bedrooms with baths. Our bathroom does not contain a bathtub, but the shower is big enough for four people, if we decide to get kinky. So there’s that.

Now, it’s not the perfect house, but, with my high standards, what besides a mansion would be? So, it’s good enough. And the best we could find in Las Vegas, for sure.

On getting rid of the old house, it was (more than) kinda aggravating cuz the management company had all of these rules set in order for us to get our deposit back. And the management company was not the same management company that was taking care of the property when we first moved in. So, even though we moved into an absolute scummy dirty dump of a rental (which I had blogged about here), it had to be immaculate upon moving out. And they even made us “professionally steam clean” the carpets, even though they weren’t even vacuumed when we moved in (and the first owners were smokers). (Don’t even get me started on this bullshit double-standard – I’m still furious about it all.)

Oh, well, moving on … literally.

This weekend, we are painting an accent wall in our great room a nice olive color, and then we’ll start getting pictures up on the wall. Then, it’ll actually feel like we’re (almost) home. I might even post some pictures. Hopefully it won’t take another month to publish them.