4 days in Houston, the flu, and finally a home

Wow! What an exhausting weekend in Houston! Despite being on the company dime for this house-hunting trip, we hardly had any time to enjoy the free meals! Our goal for these 3 days (which turned into 4 when we decided to fly back a day later) was to come home with an address...and hopefully a place that we loved!

Throughout the four days, we changed our minds a million times about what we wanted....originally thinking about renting a house with a great yard and the ability to cook out and have friends over (before realizing how much money we would be throwing at RENTING when we could be saving some of that for a house in the future), to a condo or town home that offered the same amount of space but was cheaper and closer to David's office, to finally a garage apartment with a short lease, therefore buying us some more time before having to really decide WHERE we wanted to be and how much we were willing to spend.

On Tuesday morning, we visited this cute garage apartment and were all set to sign a lease but the owner couldn't give us a final decision until Friday. So sadly, as we drove to the airport Tuesday afternoon we still had NO address, despite looking at about 30 different places. Needless to say, we were exhausted, overwhelmed, scared at the idea of moving to this huge place, and to top it all off, David had come down with the flu! But once again, the Lord works in mysterious ways and as we are boarding the plane on Tuesday night, Beth (owner of the garage apt.) calls us and says we can have it!! It was the only place we really felt good about the whole weekend and we are only signing a 6 month lease - giving us plenty of time to get through these first few months and the holidays and then find a more permanent home! Here are a couple of pictures (while the pictures show it furnished with the owner's stuff, we will be bringing our own furniture, unfortunately, because since she is an interior decorator, hers is really cute!)

The garage apartment spans over a 4 car garage, and is full of charm and hardwood floors!

The living room/dining room combo is huge (overall apt. about 850 sq. ft.) and has tons of natural light.

I am definitely most excited about the kitchen, that will finally be able to house both our food (we haven't had a pantry this whole year) and all of my fun kitchen tools!

In addition, there is a huge bedroom, little office area, full bathroom and full utility room with full size washer and dryer. While you might say, where would I stay? We have a pull out sofa and a queen sized air mattress! So don't let that stop you! We are really close to lots of fun restaurants and great shopping (check out http://www.shophighlandvillage.com/).

So, we finish packing this weekend, say our goodbyes to Atlanta on Wednesday, spend 5 wonderful days in Montana with some college friends and then drive to Houston on Tuesday, Oct. 6th! It will be crazy! But hopefully we are up for the adventure!