Brent and I are soon going to be moving away from Utah for 8 months. We usually leave for four months during the summer and keep our apartment and then move back when school starts up again. Since we are going to be gone for so long, we are actually giving up our apartment for good. We spent the first three years of our married life here together so it is going to be a bitter sweet good bye. Here is what our first apartment looked like so that we can always remember how we use to live!
First, how we found this apartment. I will admit I am very very thrifty... okay cheap. So before we got married I was looking online at the Brigham Young University housing website. There were terrible apartments for $400 dollars. They were small, dark, infested. One was so small you could sit you use the bathroom and the sink would be over your lap! Well I found this apartment listed for $425. As soon as we walked in I knew this is somewhere we could live! This was at the beginning of July. So I went to talk about and see if we could reserve the apartment in August. Well our landlord is 90 something and cheaper than me so she said NO and she has some "Mexican girl" who wanted it right away.
Well I picked up that the landlord really prefered to rent to us but was willing to play hard ball, so I used it. I said "Listen, I know you want us here. We are going to treat this like a home, not some party house. So we will take it this month if you could drop the rent $25 dollars a month." She was hesitant but finally agreed. Brent was able to sell his contract and moved in three days later. He also slept on the floor because we didn't get a bed until mid august anyway! She had no idea that we would stay for nearly three years losing her almost $1000 in rent! I didn't enjoy using her prejudice to help me
This is the taken from the front door.
Taken from the far window. Notice the big grate... that was our heater that we didn't mind. It was great when you were cold. Stand over it and be warm in 30 seconds!
Bedroom from the living room door. The hanging dog was my Valentines Day present, and I am not really sure how he got all the way up there!
This is from the far corner, my side of the bed! We had an entire wall of shelving and were SO SO grateful for it! By the way I made all the curtains and window treatments myself!
Our bed. Brent's Mom made the Comforter which we love. It is starting to look really worn, so now we have to try and convince her to make us a new one!
Back in the family room leading into the worlds shortest Hallway.
In the Hallway if you take and immediate right you will end up here. The Bathroom! Probably the worst places in our entire apartment, but something that we lived through because of cheap rent!
From the closed door at the far side!
What is through that door? Our Laundry room, which has the most junk in the whole place! That is why there is only one picture. Notice how the dryer isn't shut. It is because Brent broke it after he tried to climb in it while he was sick and on medication. That was a game of Hide-and- go seek that I will never forget. He didn't realize it was broken until he felt better the next morning.
From the Hallway into the Kitchen! Nothing to special. I got the white shelf for free from someone who was moving and the table was a gift from Maren. I make the wall Sconces too!
This is from the Back door perspective. I like that the cabinets are all country themed with white cabinets and green trim, and the floor is straight from the 1970's. I am not sure who decorated this apartment but it really adds to the overall chaos of the apartment! That Portable dishwasher was one of my single greatest purchases in history. The dishwasher is probably also from the 1970's and it took over two hours to run but it was the BEST $150 I have ever spent... thus far.
This is from the right side of the Dishwasher. Ever summer when we come home, before we can set her food out Caliah will run right next to the oven and meow... Notice her food. She is one odd cat because she ALWAYS wants someone to watch her eat. It starts out funny and gets annoying really quick!
This is from the left side of the dishwasher. This actually a pretty decent amount of cabinet space and a ton of shelving.
I always expected to live in a "dump" when I first got married and I think my expectations were pretty right on. Despite that fact this apartment made a pretty good home for Brent and I to spend the first three years of our lives together. This place was a hole, but it was a great find and keeping it for so long has permanently ingrained it in our minds and hearts! We consider ourselves pretty darn luckily for stumbling upon this humble abode at the right time.
Now we aren't terrible parents. We Love her but when Spencer commented on how bad she smelled we knew it was time to give her a bath. I was in charge of hosing her down, Brent held her (and got super clawed in the process, Spencer was in charge of the Shampoo application (suave kind) and Erica was on Camera duty!
Caliah was not happy, she freaked out really bad until Brent told me the water was burning so I turned on the cold and then she just started meowing SUPER SUPER LOUD, kept clawing but seemed a little more calm. Doesn't this picture break your heart?
Caliah was so calm after. She just stayed wrapped in her towel and cuddled with me. We probably stayed together for a good ten minutes with her just letting me hold her.
All in all the bath lasted about one minutes and Caliah wasn't a huge fan, but if you saw the dirt that came off of her you would say it was worth it too! It should have probably lasted a little longer. I think baths will become a monthly family activity!
Although I spent the majority of the weekend holding BBrody and listening to his cough while he was sick, Braden also played a prominent role in the weekend It was really fun because Braden doesn't realize he is one of the little kids. So when Stevie let the kids sword fight with him Braden was all in! 
He also watched intently as the the boys played with the wuffle ball game and they weren't the only ones to master the art!
Even some of the adults got in on the action!
Brent only held Brody a total of three times but brags because on time was a "whole twenty minutes!" Well I had trouble letting the little guy go!
