Boise, there we were!

Ever since I've started telling people we were moving to Boise (last year sometime), all I've ever heard about the place was pretty positive: It's a great city, you'll love it; the winters and summers are milder than Utah's; there is a lot to do and great bike paths. I had pretty high expectations going in...


And I loved it! Absolutely and entirely!


Here's the weekend rundown;


Kevin had done a ton of research about apartment complexes, narrowing down our choices to a few spots. We went to Idaho on Friday and looked at the 5 apartments Kevin had chosen. They were all pretty close to downtown where Kevin will be working, but some were lovely and some weren't. After going to all 5, we decided to go with the 2nd place we visited. It was initially recommended to us by a friend in our Provo ward, whose parents live in that area.


This apartment complex is a mile from Kevin's work, meaning he can ride his bike-- or even walk-- whenever he wants. It's right by downtown, but the area is residential and pretty quiet. There are several apartment complexes around, but just around one corner is a street full of classy, old homes. And around another corner is a big park. We're pretty close to the river, and it's just very beautiful in that part of town.


The actual apartment is pretty much average. It's smaller and more apartment-like than our idyllic cottage we're currently living in, but we knew that would be the case. It's a 1-bedroom, so we'll have to pare down our things. But we have a lot of things that we don't use, and a few things (fabric, books) are becoming so plentiful they're becoming clutter. So it will be a good exercise in simplified living.


I'm putting up the pictures we took. It's kind of hard to get a good picture of what a room looks like when all you have is empty floors and empty walls and no reference points. But here is what we have. Feel free to tell me how lovely it is-- or will be once we've moved in.

This is the tiny kitchen that actually has a dishwasher. Yay! And a dining area (the only one we looked at that did.

And I think this next one is the bedroom with one of the closets open and then a view into the bathroom. These pictures really give no reference to how big or small the place is. They just show a corner here and there. But I was really taking the pictures so I could compare the apartments as we looked at them throughout the day, and they worked well for that.

And they say this handsome, pensive fellow comes with the place-- but only as a move-in incentive specially for me. I think I'll take it!



The following picture is the outdoor view of our apartment. I think we've decided to take the upper corner one. It's quieter, with no upstairs neighbors and really only 2 neighbors total, instead of 3 like a middle apartment would have. We also have a better view of the yard and garden area, which is awesome.



This is a view of part of the yard/garden area. I can totally see myself bringing Penelope outside to hang out and chill under a tree or something. I can't say that about any of the other places we looked at.

This little fellow and I are going to become great friends, as I plan on spending all my time soaking in the pool trying to keep cool as a big pregnant lady in June and July.


And that's some of the cool parts about our new place.