blog mondays: location and amenities

What are four things you love about where you live?

When Justin and I were apartment hunting in Ann Arbor last year before our wedding, we had pretty specific requirements for where we wanted to live. We knew it would be the first place we lived together as a married couple and we wanted it to be comfortable, convenient, charming, affordable and special. The place we ended up choosing was not really what I had been imagining for our first place together (we spent hours delibearting over what would be the best place), but our apartment has turned out to be just what we needed and what we didn't even know we wanted. We really love it and have almost no complaints. I am blessed to be able to say that I could list well over four things I love about our first, married home together.

Disclaimer: the first thing that comes to mind that I love about our current residence is our pool. However, because I've already written two blogs about the apartment pool, I figured I'd give you something new to read about (and obviously felt the need to still give it a little shout out to my beloved pool).

1. close to the architecture building: With Justin's long hours and late nights at school, being close to the architecture building on U of M's campus is a highly valued aspect of our apartment. It has allowed us to enjoy many dinners together, and makes for a quick walk home for him in the middle of the night after hours of working on a project. It also makes it convenient for me to pop in for a quick visit when I'm missing my husband.

2. no snow shoveling: Over the last couple of years, I've really started hating the winter season. I think this is mostly because driving in the snow stresses me out and the chore of shoveling snow is just that...a chore. Living in an apartment building erases all the stress of having to shovel my front steps or my driveway everytime I want to go someplace during the winter months. I actually found myself enjoying this past winter, not only because I now take the bus for a lot of my commutes (eliminating the stress of driving in inclement weather), but also because I am able to stay warm inside while our apartment's maintenance staff takes over the chore of snow shoveling.

3. patio/balcony: I can't write this post without mentioning our amazing patio. In the warmer months of the year, our patio space acts as a second living room. We've created an inviting little spot with comfy patio furniture, an awesome grill (courtesy of my husband's Dutch relatives who gave us money for our wedding to buy one),and lots of plants/flowers (courtesy of my very generous in-laws who work at a greenhouse). Another recent addition is a cool oak structure that my husband and his classmates put up for their summer class project. I really love it -- it adds a cozy feel to the cement nature of the patio and created a great place to hang our cute, little string of lantern lights (another wedding gift). The other amazing feature our patio offers is a five story view over Ann Arbor's arboritoreum which is home to beautiful trees making for a spectacular view of autumn leaves (we've also enjoyed some amazing lightning storm shows during the recent summer storms).

4. parking: This may seem minor, but free, convenient parking ranks pretty high in my book. It's just so nice to never have to hunt down a spot to park our car, not to mention it doesn't cost us a dime.

Home sweet home...