Another Home Fiasco Turns Sweet

One of the oddities about starting medical school as the first class to enter a campus is that housing in the area does not function like housing in an establish college community. Apartment complexes in Lebanon, Oregon do not yet offer Fall/Winter contracts, or prepare for apartments to be vacated and occupied again come August. There is no on-campus housing either, but luckily for us Cascade Ridge Apartments is a relatively new complex that is across the street from the school.

Scott and I decided a few things early on:

- I am willing to pay more for the possibility of seeing Scott more often during the grueling hours of medical school by living in close proximity

- It's better to rent and get an idea for the area instead of buying right away (even though, as many have told us, the market is hot here right now)

- Once an apartment comes up in our ideal location, we need to snatch it

And snatch it we did! In fact, I think we have the best set-up in all of Cascade Ridge! But I'm getting ahead of myself...

An apartment opened up to be moved into in the middle of May. We signed a lease without seeing the place, because we were assured we would receive a model quality home. We were given a time frame to move in. About a week before the move I contacted Cascade to tell them that we had booked a moving van in that time frame and were planning to move to Oregon on Tuesday. They responded with the go ahead. My mom graciously offered her services as driving companion as we had a two vehicle caravan going to Lebanon. Thanks Mom for flying down!

Scott arrived first, of course, even though he was driving the larger vehicle laden with all our belongings. When he walked into the office to introduce himself as the new move in, he was told our apartment wasn't ready! Complications! A few members from church were here to help us move everything out of the Budget van, which was due back on Friday. After some discussion, management decided to let us move our things onto the hard floors of the apartment. 

Carpets would be cleaned the next day, and two days from move in we would be allowed to... well, move in! It was stressful, for sure, and not what we had planned! But Cascade Ridge management did all they could to help us get everything worked out. The carpet cleaner came and fixed some stains on the beige carpets, CR's maintenance guru came up to fix creaky floors, and the corporate office sent us an apology gift for our troubles.

We're actually quite pleased with the outcome. We ended up with the best situated apartment in the complex! We love the L-shape layout with open kitchen, dining room, and living area. We have a beautiful back porch view of a grassy meadow (as opposed to the alternative views of development or other living spaces). We were able to locate a very nice/inexpensive hotel in the area for future visitors. Not to mention, I told Scott how excited I was to use my "Home Fiasco" label again on my blog. I didn't think that would happen again after bats and ants! Plus our apology gift from corporate has gotten us a smidgen closer to making our apartment more cozy! Here's a little sneak peak: