New house

After that couple made an offer on the house, I started pressuring my realtor to get me out looking at some of the house rentals I'd been seeing.  There were three that were so perfect- on a cul-de-sac, with a pool, and enough space for us inside and for the playground outside.  We almost made it out that day, but he cancelled on me, so by the next day those three were gone.

What was left was less than ideal.  One had a disgusting kitchen with food and grime all over, and melted stovetop handles and broken cabinetry.  One had a gigantic entry and formal living room completely painted gold.  Like.. shiny Aladdin's palace gold. And equally disturbing paint color schemes throughout the rest.  It was huge, and clean, but old and very kid-unfriendly.  There was another that was okay, but only a few houses down from a busy cross street, and had a lot of traffic.

I was disappointed.  My realtor asked if I'd been seeing any new ones, and I remembered one I'd seen the night before that hadn't been on our list.  I finally remembered the street name and he called his office to ask for the info as we drove over,  and then called the property management company as we stood on the front step.  While he was navigating their answering system, the blinds moved, so we popped our heads in and asked the cleaners if we could look.  They didn't speak English, but seemed like it was fine.

It was so nice!!  New carpet, nice kitchen.  Just as nice as the house we're in, but a little more house, a real pool, nicer neighborhood.  No monsters. My realtor commented on my exclamations, "Now THIS is what I want to hear when people are looking at their next house."  Then he got the MLS info from his office and we realized we weren't supposed to look at it until two days later!  He called and talked them into letting me fill out an application, even though they said no at first.  So I went over and spent an hour filling stuff out and doing a mini interview with them.  We were worried we wouldn't qualify, because our monthly salary isn't even close to their requirement.  But we told them we could pay the entire year lease up front with the money from our house, so they let us fill out the application.

I went back on the open house day with the kids.

WAY bigger closets. ;D

They said they'd tell us whether or not we got it Friday, which day I was supposed to drive up to Utah for a wedding. While I was sitting at the St. George McDonald's watching the kids stretch their legs in the play place, they called and said we got it!  I have no idea how lucky we were to sell so quickly or to rent so quickly.  They both seemed to go WAY more easily than we even dreamed.  

We haven't closed on the old house yet, and still haven't even gotten into the new one yet, (we went to try our new keys and the door wouldn't open, even though the key did turn the lock!) so I guess I won't count my chickens, but so far, this has been the exact opposite of our last move. :)

I'll post more pics when I can get in the house, ha.