So its that time of year again for us to pack up and move. This time, it has been a little harder then the others. We tend to move almost every year. We just get bored with where we are living or get tired of either the neighbors, community, atmosphere, etc.... we seem to not be able to stay in a place longer then a year.

This is actually my fear of buying a house. Because I get so bored so easily and like change, I like to move often. So I was really excited to start looking at houses to rent.

I'm so tired of living in apartments and just wanted a house where my daughter could have a yard to play in and we could just have the convenience of living in a house without buying one yet.

So I looked for months, building up a list of ones that were of interest and we were about to go looking at those houses when UH OH.... they are off the market now. That bites. So I went searching again and the prices seemed to have increased in the area. We gave ourselves a limit of wanting to only spend $1200/month or less for a house. I wanted a three bedroom, but they were all at least $2400/month or more. Two bedroom houses for rent were about $1500-$2000/month.

Then we thought well, disappointment has kicked in but we decided to just go ahead and look into apartments again. Blah, but oh well. At least we know that we won't have to worry about lawn care nor trying to worry about something breaking and getting it fixed. Pest control, ect....

So we went and looked at these one apartments that I really was excited to see. They were in our price range. Well, the two bedroom anyway. I really want a three bedroom apartment, but these were two bedroom for $1180/month so we were in our budget. They were pretty decent. Had a garage attached to every apartment and nice living area. The three bedrooms were $1500/month. That's a little steep for me to be spending. I might as well go out and buy a house if I'm going to just spend that on an apartment. But $1200 and under is fine.

Sadly, these didn't WOW us like we thought they would. They were nicer then what we are living in now, but just seemed to "ordinary" for the price they were asking. So we are going to look again this next weekend. We don't have much time either. We are looking to start moving the middle of March or earlier.

So I found three more apartments that seem very nice. The two bedrooms in each complex range from $1100-$1300/month so I'm hoping to get a nice sized one for what we can afford. We live in a pretty big apartment now sq. foot wise compared to some we have lived in. So I would like to have the next one be just as big or bigger for the price, ya know? I don't want to spend all that money and then be stuck in a closet.

These all seem nice. They look amazing and glamorous in the pictures so we shall see. As we all know, looks can be deceiving. Especially when you are apartment hunting. I would like to have one picked by next weekend so we can start the paperwork and get all the freakin deposits paid.

I started adding it up and just to move into a new apartment, you throw down around $6000 just at move in. Its crazy. First months rent, last months rent, administer fees, security deposits, application fees, renters insurance fees, pet deposit (if any), the ones wit the garage say a garage operator fee, front gate fee, security fee.... I added it up for the one apartment and we need around $6000 to move in if we choose to go with them.

That's a pretty big chunk of money. What six, is that we do this almost every year and man, all that money just to move. But we can't live somewhere where we are no longer as happy as we were when we moved in. So it has to be done. Good thing for tax refunds, huh? :0) Don't know what I would do without them.

But I'm exited. I love moving into a new place. I just hope we find that one that WOW's us and we can be excited to move there. I think we will know when we see it, and like I said, hopefully it will be one of the three we are going to be looking at this weekend coming up.