One-year Moveiversary, Part One.

One year ago yesterday, we moved into our current little home. I clearly remember the first time I saw it. While I thought the outside of this place definitely had some charm, once I walked in the front door, I whispered, "I hate it! I absolutely HATE it! The answer is NO" to my dear husband.

Isn't that typically a rather promising first response to things we think we will despise that actually turn out to be quite good for us? Or is it just me...?

We looked at this place in December on a whirlwind interview trip. My husband had a shot at a job he thought he just might completely love. The numbers worked. But the housing situation. Oh, the housing! Living and finding affordable housing in San Diego county was challenging enough for us (but a way was made for us!). Now we were considering moving from one expensive city to one far north of that. The difference? Oh, only about twice (gulp!) as expensive as our former city. With no real pay increase. But I was determined to find something for the sake of my husband.

After pouring over craigslist ads, calling around, and getting really frustrated with people not returning my calls since we were not local, there were really only one or two affordable options out there. One was the place I didn't exactly love and the other would be stretching our budget a little too much for my comfort. After all, if we were going to rent a larger place, we had better make sure that we could actually afford to feed "all the people we could potentially invite over" something more than crackers and tap water!

So that weekend with a nervous heart and a forced smile I said, "How much? We'll take it!"

Then I took some pictures, we drove home, and I freaked out each time I looked at the shots. I had only two months to figure out how on earth to make this living situation work well for our family of four!

Weird, ultra-narrow living room. Seriously, is this thing like six feet wide or what?!

Oddly shaped, but decent-sized bedroom that just needed some closet doors. Not shown: an entire wall of storage closets.

Teeny tiny room for the boys. "Jeez, would their furniture even fit in here?"

The kitchen, with a decent amount of storage space. "Hmm...isn't there something missing here, like a hood for the stove or something?"

Dining area with groovy wall heater.

It may not have any windows, but look! Huge bonus -EXTRA ROOM/CAVE! With its own laundry closet!

No medicine cabinet here, but in its place you get this neato sliding thingy.

No bathtub. Just a shower. Just like at our old place. But a nice little place here for a kitty litter box. (Yes, we cat people have to consider such things.)

Raised beds filled with poisonous vinca. Okay, I know I want to complain that there is no grass...but no lawn to mow? AWESOME! A little potential for a little garden, right?

So there it was. Although I was nervous that it wouldn't work, I was most certainly excited to see what type of solution I could come up with.

To be continued...