Where We Belong

Looking for apartments was a discouraging process. I just wanted to find the perfect place and be done with the search. I'm glad I didn't rush the process because otherwise we wouldn't have ended up where we are now.

Let me back up... when I first toured our basement apartment it felt right. I think my mom was surprised when I asked how much the deposit was at the end of the tour and wrote a check. The place felt like home from the beginning. A lot of that has to do with our landlords. While on the tour, in all seriousness, our landlord asked if we wanted him to go walk around upstairs, so we could see how loud it would be for us in the basement. I thought he was joking. Since then, I have come to realize that our landlords are some of the most genuine people that I have ever met.

One morning, I walked outside to head to work. I passed my broken bike like normal, but did a double take. My bike was no longer broken... It was fixed. My landlord bought and installed a new tire. When I confronted him about this he brushed it off and said it was no big deal. I tried to pay him for the new tire, but he wouldn't let me. He also told me that he noticed that the brakes needed some adjusting, and not to worry because he would get to fixing them soon.

One Saturday night, dinner-time was approaching and we needed to go grocery shopping. We didn't really have any ingredients for dinner and we were getting hungry. Just before we left, we heard a knock at the door. It was our landlord inviting us to come over for dinner. When I asked if we could bring anything, I was turned down.

One night I was making dessert (this happens often) and realized that we didn't have any cocoa. We had just gone to the store and I didn't want to go back so soon. When asked if we could borrow some cocoa, our landlords just gave us their entire container and told us to keep it.

After hearing that I was a teacher, my landlord gave my resume to the director at the charter school she works at. She followed up with the principal several times in hopes of getting me an interview.

By now, you get the point. I could go on for another several pages with all the nice things our landlords have done for us. The other day I was writing them a thank-you card, and I didn't even know where to begin. It was hard to fit everything in one card. I closed the card with something like, "thank you for treating us like we are your own kids." That's how they have made us feel.

On top of our landlords, here are some of our favorite things about our place:

     -A washer and dryer in our apartment! (This is something we did NOT have in our last place and it makes a huge difference.)

     -A dishwasher. I love going into the kitchen and not seeing dishes piled up all over the place or drying. 

     -A garbage disposal. Do you know how stinky your hands get after putting them down the sink cleaning out all the gunk?

     -An island with stools. We got rid of our table when we moved and now have so much living space.

     -A place to park both of our cars off the street. 

We are loving where we live and I know it wasn't just a coincidence that things are working out so well. We are living here for a reason.