What I will miss about our apartment

That's right...

For those of you who I haven't blabbered to already... we will be moving shortly because we have purchased a home! On December 5th, we will be moving into our new home in Ballard's Sunset Hill area.

Fate seemed to play a part in our search. We looked at upwards of 35 homes - maybe even close to 50 - I lost count. But on the first day of our home search, we saw the one that we actually ended up purchasing.

My dad came down for a day of house hunting. In true PK style, he insisted on driving around in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Ballard. ("You should start at the top, Krista, and work your way down," he said. I rolled my eyes, and he started giggling.)

We pulled lots of flyers on many mansions, all in the 1-2 million dollar range. We kept ooohhing and aahhing over the water views. I was just having fun spending a day with my dad in Seattle.

Then we came across a home that looked very nice but was priced a whole lot lower than the others. We pulled the flyer, drove around it very slowly, looked at each other and said, "Huh. Interesting."

We drove around for another hour so so, and then came back to this one to check it out one more time. The older man in the window saw us both times, so he came out and asked us if we wanted to see the home. He gave us a prideful tour, explained that he and his wife have lived there for 32 years, and expressed surprise that it had been on the market for 5 months already.

We went out our merry way, met up with our realtor, and saw a ton of creepy expensive houses, some of which made the blog a couple weeks ago.

A whole lot of fateful occurances happened in between then and the home purchase, but basically we felt like this home was quality, and priced right. Then we ended up getting it for a whole lot less, so it was really priced right. I think this couple was tired of open houses, and wanted to get it off their hands before winter. Just goes to show you that timing is everything!

After tripping over each other (and 3 cats) for the last 6 months, we finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, and are anxiously awaiting the move. Personally, I am looking forward to setting up a REAL home office, so I don't have to climb up on a chair in my closet to take down my printer, and plug it in underneath my side table next to my couch, every time I need to print an invoice.

We've had good times in this little place. I moved here exactly 3 years ago. It's been a fantastic, and unique Seattle apartment. Nestled away next to a (an extremely creepy) park, it has an unobstructed view of Elliot Bay. I will really miss this view -- photos taken during last night's amazing sunset:








I've had a lot of fun memories here, not the the least of which is the annual Palm Springs "Geriatric and Fabulous" theme party. (P.S. I love how Google Earth's map of my place still features a bright green astroturf covered deck.)








That said, there are too many positives about the new place to look back.

For instance, a big, beautiful yard that I get to dig into:





A walk-in closet!




Hollywood Regency built-ins:




A pretty entry-way:




And a real bedroom for my mom, and Lindsay & David! (Look how cute and excited my mom is about not having to brave cats jumping off the couch onto her her face in the middle of the night!)








There are other things that we can't wait to get our hands on and make small cosmetic changes (the kitchen cabinets, the very colorful maroon tile in the bathroom!!), but no changes are dire.

And, can anyone say... New Year's Eve party in Ballard? We will finally get to use the trillions of champagne glasses that we received for the wedding.