Getting Out and Moving On

The Background
June 24, 2010...I sign the dotted line on the lease for my very first apartment and my life as an independent adult begins.  At first everything is great.  My roommate and I are welcomed into the community by many of our neighbors.  We enjoy laying by the pool and soaking up the sun on our days off.  On the weekends we have some friends over and the 90 year old lady from downstairs does shots with us on my 21st birthday.  We were living the life.  Fast forward a few weeks.  At 2 am we are pulled out of bed in a panic to the sounds of banging on our door.  We collide in the hallway on the way to the door terrified that there is an emergency.  As we get to the door in the living room we hear wild giggling in the hallway.  We open the door and find two kids from downstairs laying on the floor kicking our door and finding it hilarious.  I go down to their apartment, knock on the door, and get told by their father that its 2 in the morning and I need to leave him alone.  He never gets his kids to come inside and my roommate and I spend the rest of the night awake.  Fast forward a few more weeks.  It's mid-fall and my roommates, we added a third over the summer, and I are moving from the apartment to a townhouse in the complex to escape the door banging bandits.  While attempting to move the extremely heavy sleeper sofa across the lawn we notice two girls sitting on the hood of my car.  I ask them to get off and they flip me the bird.  I tell them to get off and they climb onto the roof of the car.  I call the landlord and they run...and he does nothing.  The list of events is miles long but I will save you the boredom.  Fast forward to the present time.  My hubbling and I live in an apartment across the complex.  It is a massive apartment weighing in at a little over 1200 sq. feet.  We are in no way dying for more room here.  We love our layout and are displeased with very few things in the actual unit...we'd like a washer and dryer in there and sturdier doors for the two entrances to the apartment but that's it.  The neighborhood, however, has gone way way way downhill lately.  A kid across the complex was jumping from one hood of a car to another and went through the windshield when they miscalculated...their mom went off on the owner and the landlord supported her.  We have only one child in our building, the most beautiful two year old girl in the world, and yet there are usually about 9 kids running up and down our stairs yelling and screaming and banging on the doors.  The landlord just told me to call the cops...I don't know about you but I don't believe in wasting the time of our police on something so small.  My car took damage from being shot by an air soft gun operated by an 11 year old without any kind of adult supervising him.  My neighbors frequently leave trash in the hallways along with other large items that are easily tripped over.  My landlord tells us that we are in the wrong for asking them to remove said trash and items. 

The Plan
Needless to say, the hubbling and I have had enough and do not plan on extended our lease with this complex.  We have been looking and looking for a new place since January.  The problem with where we are is the lack of available rentals that fit our needs.  We do not want roommates or to live in a student complex with the JMU kids.  We like to be social and hang out with friends but living in a party complex simply won't work for us.  Most of the available rentals are geared toward students and are way over priced for what they are...but when Mommy and Daddy are paying the bill and you have to have a place to live to stay in school here, who cares.  Our plan was to find a cheap, little apartment, pay off some bills and start really building some savings so we can buy a home of our own here in the next few years.  Like I said, most apartments around here are wayyyy too expensive for what they are.  Our current place is a steal for its size but now we know why...who wants to pay good money to put up with that kind of drama?  So we found this little complex that we are really interested in and the next post will be all about it's downfalls, potential, and more!