First, the Place....

It is going to take some time for me to back track a bit about all the new happenings around here.  First allow me to begin with our new "home".  Jarrod's cousin, Amanda (and her fiance Drew), were so kind to take some time to scope out apartments ahead of time for us.  After seeing 2 places, Amanda and Drew informed us of the best decision and so here we are at 820 W. Alabama St #23.  I believe there are about 30 apartments, all gated in and surrounding a somewhat lovely courtyard.  I say somewhat lovely because in addition to 30 apartments there are about 20 dogs.  Good for socializing Portland (kind of), bad for smells and walking around during the day or night.

Apparently most of the tenants here think that because we are enclosed you do not need to curb your dog.  UGH!  Poop everywhere and smellyness.... oh joy :P  Aside from their lack of clean up skills most of our neighbors seem nice.  Because of Portland's puppy excitement most of them head inside when they see us coming, but I can only hope that it is indeed him... and not me.

The apartment it's self is a good size for starting out.  There are two bedrooms, a bathroom, a small galley kitchen, and a living room/dining room combo.  Some of the walls are painted a rusted redish color which is nicer than all white.  We have central AC as well as ceiling fans so it always feels nice when we come in from outside.  The other nice part of the apartment is the tile floors throughout.... very easy to clean with two pets!

We've decided to hold off on decorating most of the place simply because we do not see ourselves staying here very long.  It is definitely a great first place, close to tons of stuff, but with more time we'd like to find something a little bigger and perhaps with less poopy neighbors.

Here are some photos from the new place:

Living Room as we were moving in... in the rain...

Dining Room

Bedroom (we did not put the mirrors up!)

Bathroom with our Map Curtain :)

The beginning of our ever important Bar area

2nd Bedroom/Office

Next up... The puppy :)

We're Here and the Weather is HOT!

We did mean to post during our drive down as well, but alas things got in the way.  I will say that we are here, we have an apartment (though we're already on the search for a different place) and we have a new member of our already new family!  On Wednesday, July 21st, we adopted Portland, a mut of a muts, as Uncle Kirk would say :)  I will fill the blog world in on the details of our arrival, our mini-moon, our new pup and our new place in the next blog but for now I need to spend every minute with Jarrod before he leaves for Maine :(  We already got lucky with his flight being delayed till tomorrow, so off the computer I go! Enjoy these few clips: