I have a feeling this is going to end up being pretty long, because I have bajillion apartment/housing thoughts in my head, but I'm only writing them down here mostly for family-documentary purposes, so feel free to skip this post. No seriously, when I write, I write exactly how I think...this is going to be a novel.
For the past couple weeks Jon and I have been in a mad search for new housing to welcome this cute little baby into our family, and when I say mad search, I'm not exaggerating. I thought of a very logical comparison that makes perfect sense to me.
I once told Jon that if we were Nordstrom/Macy's shoppers or if I were an Anne Taylor/Anthropologie regular (I'm talking non-clearance, full-price everything here), that clothes shopping would be so easy. Find the clothes you like, pick the color you want, get your size, and voila--new outfit!! Cut out price comparison, and suddenly it becomes a simple game:
1. know what you want, 2. find what you want, 3. get what you want. Easy. Beautiful. I don't know if you've ever joined the masses at Ross, Marshall's, the Goodwill, or the like, but easy isn't the word I would use to explain it. It takes dedication! Not to mention patience, compromise, improvising (that zipper can totally be fixed, and that hole can go unnoticed), nothing comes with its match, when you find what you like it's rarely in your size (and good luck finding another), but when you walk away with a $4-$15 steal, it makes the whole madness worth it. This is a totally different kind of game:
1. go in open-minded about what you want, 2. compromise what you want, 3. get something that probably wasn't what you wanted at all, but makes for a pretty rockin' replacement, which in turn makes you feel on top of the bargain shopping world.
Well it turns out our style of shopping for clothes apparently overflows into other areas in our life, in this case, shopping for housing. If we were high-income housing searchers, this whole thing would have been over months ago.
1. know what we want, 2. find what we want, and 3. get what we want. Contract for loads of money to live in a super-sweet apartment, with granite countertops, brand new carpet, stainless steel appliances, washer and dryer in the unit-- basically a 2 bedroom urban mansion. Yet, we find ourselves in pure bargain shopping mode, not only because we've been spoiled in our current conditions by price and location, but also because throwing out nearly $2,000 (that's right THOUSAND) a month for a house seems completely ridiculous to us! In my head, that translates to mean "Come live in a safe, secure, beautiful apartment (not even talking about a home here, people, no picket fence or backyard) by giving up your monthly money for food and other such survival needs." People really pay that?!?! So believe me, I am ALL about Ross shopping for an apartment. Going through every rack until I find what fits us.
But it definitely comes at a price. I've seriously been having housing nightmares for like a week straight. And so the process has begun.
1. go in open minded about what you want. At this point I have memorized Craigslist and how to pick out a potential plot for our little American Dream. I know exactly where to flip to in the paper, I've memorized all the apartment listing websites and know exactly what questions to ask when I call one of the landlord hopefuls. I know which stats to scan for first, and I know the square footage, utilities costs, bedroom/bathroom ratio, parking, metro accessibility, etc. details that are essential to our decision. This should be easy, right?
2. compromise what you want. Well...we really have been spoiled in our current pad, and the reality of DC living costs is hitting us hard in the search. Thus far, to stay in what we consider 'reasonable' pricing, we
have to compromise something we want. Safety (which seems like a very illogical thing to do since the whole reason we want to move is to make a room for a home where the baby and I can stay all day), size (again illogical, since again the reason we're moving is to make ROOM for the baby), or location (which would be a total bummer, because that means either losing each other for longer amounts of time due to the commute, or moving out of the ward, which would be sad after taking so long to finally feel integrated into it, and frustrating to switch wards when we think this is a very short-termed move until we MOVE move westward anyway). Then I ask myself, is it our budget we need to compromise? But then that's hard too, because we're trying to hard to be thrifty and money-smart, and we'd hate to go throwing that logic out the window too. But something's gotta give. Either that or a miracle has to occur. I vote for option B.
Needless to say, we haven't yet made it to
step 3 of the shopping comparison, because this is not a post announcing our new apartment. We've come close to a couple, but that was before we saw the rave reviews from past tenants saying "I wouldn't recommend this place to my worst enemy!" or the google search that brought up a sex offender listing at the same apartment complex. Okay, so maybe we were leaning toward compromising on the safety option, but don't worry! We didn't go through with it!!!
Today as I was walking from work to the metro, of course lost in apartment searching thoughts, wondering if I'm just being high maintenance or completely off my rocker for trying to conquer this whole thing, I was reminded of the few times I've been walking down that very street when the Spirit has offered me feelings of peace and comfort...
about getting a new job, about having a baby...and even today, I felt the comforting reassurance that our search is not in vain.
I feel like I have very much been pushed forward to find a new place for us to live, and I've also felt a very strong peace that it will work out if we're patient. So I need to remember my bargain shopping skills: dedication, patience, compromise, improvising...and most important on top of all those things is seeking the Spirit and its guidance. I know that soon I'll be walking down that street after work and I'll feel that familiar comfort that everything is done within the Lord's timing
.
On that same walk from work tonight, I was also reminded of something from the
Sheri Dew book I read 2 years ago just before I met Jon (p.s. that anniversary was just last week, two years since the luau!!). It's from her book
If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard. In one of the final chapters, she's telling a story of when she went house shopping for a friend (with the friend), and after they went and looked at one her friend particularly liked, they said a prayer together. Sheri offered the prayer and said "bless her (her friend) that this house will work out, and if not, that she will be blessed with
something even better," or something like that. And then she goes on to talk about how the Lord really WANTS to bless us with great things, He's just waiting for us to ask for them. I'm kind of foggy on the whole thing, but I think that's the basic summary of her thought.
Well at the time I originally read that 2 years ago, I instantly felt like it applied to my dating and the several difficult experiences I'd had that just kept seeming to fall short of what I thought they needed to be to become something eternal. And suddenly, I felt like Sheri Dew had given me permission to ask the Lord for my
"something even better," just a little better. So I did. And less than a week later, Jon sat next to me at the ward luau. It wasn't one of those eternal plans at first sight sort of things, but it was interest and fun at first sight, and in the short month that relationship had to develop before I left to go back to Utah State, I knew and strongly felt that whether things worked out with Jon or not, the Lord had heard my prayer, and had blessed me with
"something better" at that time. I'm so grateful that it was a permanent something better, and soooo much better than anything I had hoped for.
Reminiscing aside, I now ironically found myself reminded of that part of Sheri Dew's book, and now directly in its original context--in searching for a house, or home, or housing, or whatever you may call it. I felt strongly that again, the Lord is giving me the opportunity to ask Him for
"something even better, " and that just as before, and as He has done in every other aspect of my life, He will hear me, answer me, and guide Jon and I together to what He knows is best for us.
This all may seem a little over the top for just looking for an apartment, but I'm pretty sure I could afford for Someone much wiser than myself to help us carry the stress at this point.
Life is so amazing, and I feel so blessed. I feel that way when my little brother calls out of nowhere, or when my sisters make sure I'm doing okay, or when my dad calls on a layover from a business trip or my mom reminds me of all the good things in life. I feel that when the weather's just perfect in the summer or when I get to look out a metro window and see the Washington monument in the distance. I feel that when a friend calls me to make plans on a Friday night when they know Jon's gone, or when it only takes us 10 minutes to get to
church and hear the same lessons they're teaching everywhere else in the church that Sunday. I feel that when I am reminded all the time how great my in-laws are, or when Lincoln (our turtle) does something really entertaining for Jon and I to watch. I especially feel that way when my scriptures are open in front of me, when the baby moves inside of me, or when Jon smiles at me like he hasn't seen me in months, and it's only been a day.
Life is so much fun. All these things and so many more are witnesses to me of how aware God is of each of us, and I know that Heavenly Father will help us, even in something as simple and seemingly trivial as finding temporary housing.Now if only I could figure out how to make myself a lily of the field or a fowl of the air that takes no thought of raiment or whatever all that other stuff is they don't have to worry about. But "how they grow..."
And I thought I'd contribute a bouquet of my own to keep that fresh feeling in our home. Or maybe I should use our fresh produce before it wilts. I'm skeptical about "crisper" bins in fridges actually preventing this.
