Sew In Love: Rental Sweet Rental

We move {a lot} which means window coverings need to be inexpensive or repurposed, furniture sometimes doesn't fit, and we have never lived in a house long enough to justify painting the walls. With each move we've found great rentals and each one is better than the last. We are so lucky to have found our newest home.... and I do mean L-U-C-K-Y!

Back in August, I booked a last minute trip to Las Vegas for house hunting and thought it was all working out perfectly when a realtor agreed to show me 5 houses with only 3 days notice. The tears started flowing {and not tears of joy} when ALL of the houses were awful! I don't mean bad floor plans or ugly carpet kind of awful---they were disgusting, dirty, don't.touch.anything, and keep an eye on your car or it may not be there when you're done touring the house, BAD! After touring all 5 houses, I felt like I was going to puke.

Jessica drove over from Phoenix to house hunt with me and she kept me from having a total meltdown. We decided that lunch might help clear our minds and restore our faith in finding a house for my family. So of course, we went to Chipotle (at the time, this restaurant was the ONLY good thing that Vegas had to offer) and there we used up all the battery power in both of our iPhones and iPads to look for rentals in a different area of town, a better area of town. It's pretty far from base, but it's safe, beautiful, and we crossed our fingers that there would be rentals available.

We no longer had a realtor with us. I'd called every single realtor or property manager that I'd communicated with, but most didn't answer or told me it was too short notice to meet with them. The house hunt was looking pretty unsuccessful. The dark gray cloud of rental-doom was following us, but then God opened up the clouds and sent down a ray of sunshine pointing right to this place.

I decided that I couldn't handle any more rejection that day and that I would call the property manager in a few weeks, after we'd actually moved to Las Vegas. But, Jessica encouraged me to call... get just one more NO before we throw in the towel.

I called.

I expected to get voicemail.

I prepared myself to leave a message.

But then...

what's going on?! Did he answer?

"Hello (here's my story) I want to see this property... right now, please?!?"

I waited for a Big Fat NO from the property manager, but he said "Sure, I'll be there to show you the house in 20 minutes."

As soon as he agreed to show me the house, I knew this was it. This was our new home. Once he arrived, opened the door, and we walked in... I began moving in. I pictured my family in this house, started mentally rearranging furniture, and didn't stop smiling! It really is a perfect house for us. Not because it was the only thing available... it actually is perfect! The walls don't need painting, the carpet is great, all of our furniture fits, and it even has a landscaped backyard (which is not easy to find out here in the desert).

We signed the papers, moved in, decorated, and (3 weeks later) here's the tour --- Welcome to our new home!

The Living Room

I still haven't figured out how to decorate the built-in, but it's good enough for now. I made new pillowcases and added gray/yellow colors to freshen up the decor.

The Yard (easily the best one on the block)

This is Owen's favorite part of the whole house! He needed a yard to run around in and it is nice and shady in the afternoon, too!

The Dining Room

We bought a new table and recovered our seat cushions. All that's missing are curtains, but that requires a trip to IKEA so for now it will have to wait.

The Kitchen

Stainless appliances in a rental?!?

I hit the rental house JACKPOT!

The Laundry Room

This room is at the top of the stairs, so it needed to be a little bit cute, but also needed to store a lot of stuff. I used curtains from my college apartment to make a hiding spot for miscellaneous craft items and cat food.

Owen's Room

The Man-Loft

I'm hoping to hang the framed Tampa Bay Lightning jerseys up on the back wall.

The Biggest Master Bedroom E.V.E.R.

The room is so big we have our entire oversized bedroom set, a gigantic desk, and ~~what we thought was a big~~ bookshelf, plus Owen's entire train track. And, the room still isn't full!