House Hunt

In a couple months, I will have lived in Michigan longer than I have lived uninterrupted in any one place in the eleven years I've lived away from home. When I first came here, I doubted I would ever feel as at home in Ann Arbor as I had felt in Provo. So I was surprised how quickly I became attached to this place. I love the people I have met here and the friends I have made. I love the ward I am in. I love the trees and the river and the parks that are on practically every block. I love the public library system, and the downtown area, and the Street Art Festival. I love northern Michigan, and our proximity to lakes and campgrounds and state parks and metro parks. I'm even beginning to feel some sort of fond attachment to Detroit.

I also like my apartment. A lot, actually. I like my bright, sunny painted walls, and my huge walk-in closet, and having a fitness center across the parking lot, and the pet-friendly management, and my very own bathroom. It's been such a great place for me these last couple years. But with just a year left in Ann Arbor (give or take), I have lost my wonderful roommate Ashley to graduation and real life and Florida, and am now facing a change for the duration of my last stretch. So with two wonderful new roommates in tow, I've been out on the house hunt once again.

It's been harder than I expected. The bare minimum requirements seem fairly straightforward: three bedrooms, rent less than or equal to what I'm paying now, dog-friendly (which can be a little limiting when your dog is a 65-pound German Shepherd mix). The problem is that while the bare minimum requirements are all that are necessary, they're not really sufficient. I'm moving from a place that I really, really like, and if I'm going to be happy about my new home, I need more than the bare minimum, and I need to make sure I have no reservations.

Everyone knows that when you have something very specific in mind (be it a pair of shoes, a new car, a job) you're never actually going to find what you're looking for. But, surprisingly, this time I seem to have found it. It's a little house a couple miles west of where I live now, in a quiet residential neighborhood that's also a great running location. It has three reasonably-sized bedrooms and two full bathrooms, a sunny kitchen, a fenced-in yard for Jin to run around in, a partially-finished and very livable basement, laundry, a second refrigerator, a basement study. It will save me about $100 a month in rent. And the landlord, who I talked to on the phone yesterday, seems very friendly and helpful, and as excited to have us as renters as we are to be doing the renting.

As the landlord's sister let us into the house to view it on Monday, she told us that the current tenants were out of town on a cross-country trip. "They're very religious," she said, "and they have lots of kids," and the suspicions that naturally arose from this statement were confirmed when we walked in and the first thing we saw was a picture of Christ and another picture of the temple. I wouldn't exactly say it was a sign (I would have loved the house anyway), but it was a happy little surprise. It also gave me a way to contact the current tenants, through the stake website, and I received a glowing, enthusiastic response that made me feel even better about our choice.

It's not perfect. I will be giving some things up (covered parking, free snow removal and lawncare, a fitness center). But that's just the way of life, and I'm also gaining enough in return that I feel like it's worth the trade. It will be fun to live in a house again. I'm curious to see how Jin will react to a move. I'm not excited about the actual moving part, but I am excited about arranging a new living space. We're moving in at the beginning of August, so I'll post some pictures in about a month and a half.

And now I get to start packing things up.