Pros & Cons

We spent most of Memorial Day Weekend unpacking

and got all of the boxes cleared out of the living room.

That fake fireplace in the corner gave us a little
trouble trying to decide how to arrange furniture.

It's not my favorite set up.  We've never had a sofa and
love seat in an apartment before, but it's functional.

We're settling in nicely.  Except for having to get rid of so many belongings and still having a little trouble finding a place for what was left, I'm enjoying living in a smaller place. There are PROS and CONS to every situation, of course.  Here are a few:

 PRO:  This super fun iPod docking station.  It's located in the kitchen and there is a speaker/volume knob in the living room and master bedroom too.  So you can play music and hear it in every room or turn the music off in a room if you want.  It also charges the iPod while it's docked... I'm loving it!

CON:  Our complex doesn't have a swimming pool.  It's new construction and there isn't an office on site or a fitness center either.  Bonus features you usually get living in an apartment but we don't have them.

PRO: We can have our grill on our balcony. Apartments we've lived in before had rules against this.  Also, we have a big grill and it fits on our balcony just fine.


CON: Our balcony is three floors up, which scares me a little.
I'm pretty cautious about letting the boys out there.

PRO: When we look off our balcony we see fields and farms.  It's nice, quiet and although we live in a building with 12 units, it has a bit of a country feel.

We also saw this paraplane flying one evening.  Grandpa Don has one of these that Derek is convinced he's going to purchase from him someday...  and now says he knows where he'd fly it.  :-/  So PRO or CON?  It's a toss up.


We also had a great view of the moon the other night!

CON: My laundry room is small.  Although, maybe this is a pro since I have to do a load of laundry every few minutes to keep up with such small loads.  The laundry never sits and gets stinky. What, you've never had laundry sit and get stinky?  You must have a stacking washer/dryer too.  Another small PRO stuck in there is that it's right off the living room and it's easy to remember and keep laundry going.  My laundry room was in the basement at our house and easy to forget about.  Hence, stinky laundry.

PRO: I can also see this off our balcony!  That's a brand new :::HUGE::: Aldi!

And it just happens to be right next to a brand new super Wal-Mart.  I'm set.

CON:  We have to walk our trash out to a dumpster that isn't too far,

but not too close either.

PRO: Our apartment has a doorbell.  I like that.

And the boys think it's fun too. We never enter our own door without ringing it first.

PRO with a CON: We have a garage.  (that's the PRO)

But the inside is open to everyone else's. (There's the CON)

So although it's covered parking,

it's not good for storage since there are no separating walls.

PRO: We live a half mile from a new outdoor shopping center.

Derek might argue this as a CON, but I'm going with PRO!

 CON: These wooden breezeways are loud when small feet run through them!

Speaking of small feet... they're loud when running around an apartment too.

So, CON: I spend my time trying to keep the boys from running.at.all.

Who knew such little feet could sound like elephants?

...or a whole herd!?