Cross your fingers

We put in an application for a townhouse about a mile from where we are staying today.  Trying to find affordable housing has been really difficult.  Many of you have wondered what prices are like here, so I'm here to share...

In Chandler, AZ, we had a 1300 sq ft townhouse, 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 bathroom, 2 car garage place that we paid $1000 for rent.  Now that was a few years ago now, so with inflation maybe they are charging $1200.  When we moved to West Jordan, we had a 900+ sq ft apartment, 3 bdrm, 2 bath. We paid $960 per month.

Finding anything closer to those prices here in Anchorage, puts us in some pretty dodgy neighborhoods.... Once place was down right scary!! After seeing that one we decided to pay a couple hundred extra for safety!! We found an adorable, but tiny apartment a block away (keeping kids in same schools) for $1500 and that INCLUDED utilities.  We jumped at it, but the owner, a cute older lady who lives there too, needed to back out before anything was signed because of a family emergency.  Hrumph!

So the application we put in for today is for townhouse with 1400 sq ft, 2 car garage, 3 bedroom 2 bathroom place. Its about a mile or so away from where we are right now. Its $1595 per month NOT including utilities!  YIKES!!! The master bedroom/bathroom is down stairs by the garage, and the rest of the house was upstairs.  I'm kinda liking the idea of a nice separation from our bedroom and the kids's rooms... or even the living room.  Maybe I can really  make our bedroom a sanctuary from the craziness that comes with 3 boys.  1400 sq ft is massive for us.  And with growing boys that sounds awesome!  I imagine it being a place where we can stay for a couple years until we are finally in the position to buy a house.

I'm not positive if the kids (at least the younger 2) will be in the same school.  I'm not stressing about it at this point.  I figure I can cross that bridge once we know if we got it or not, and possibly get an exception at least for the rest of the school year.  We should know in a couple days... and we could move in this weekend!! YAY!!

Now, before we moved, we pretty much got rid of EVERYTHING.  And we have not brought what we kept up from storage, yet (SOON!!)  We have no furniture, no kitchen things (except my Bosch Mixer).  We are starting from scratch!  Its kinda exciting, until I think about the cost involved.  Grandpa and Grandma bought the boys beds before we arrived, so they have that.  David and I have been using a queen bed that we can bring with us too (but will be replaced soon because its not super comfy to us)  Grandma is purging her kitchen and giving us duplicates that she may have to help us get started.  David's boss is selling a bedroom set for David and I and dining set, and TV for cheap, so we will probably snag those too.  We bought some pots and pans, a toaster and iron and ironing board today because they were on sale.