We have a new home!

We woke up bright and early this morning to head over to the rental office to be the first to check out the keys for the house we thought was PERFECT for us.  After driving to the house, discovering they had given us the wrong keys, going back to the rental office to pick up the correct keys, and finally unlocking the house to take a look around, we were saddened to be greeted by a nasty odor.  It permeated the whole house and smelled like a combination of rotting flesh and cat.  Soooo that house was out because we just didn't think we'd be able to clear the smell enough to not be miserable living there.  Plus we didn't want to leave Lawton with all of our furniture and clothing smelling like that house.

Disappointed, we drove back to the rental office to return the keys.  While on the way over, I found a listing we hadn't noticed yesterday for a pet friendly house in our budget in a neighborhood we hadn't driven through yet.  The Mister asked for the keys to see that house when he went in to return the others, and one of the property managers suggested another house in a neighborhood we had previously written off.  When Chris said we weren't sure about the area, the property manager told him that the neighborhood was actually pretty nice and that we should give the house a chance.  We visited the house we'd found online first.  It had plenty of space and was a little nicer on the inside than the one with the smell, but we weren't totally sold.  Next, we went to see the house the property manager had suggested, and we were pleased to find out that the property manager was correct - the neighborhood really was full of well kept houses and seemed to be safer as we drove away from the main thoroughfare.  It had a bright, open feel on the inside and a big, well landscaped backyard for the doggies.  The only downside was that there were only two bedrooms, meaning we would have to do without a nursery for Liesl and an office for Chris in order to have a guest room for our family members.  However, the bedrooms were very large, and we decided we could make do with a "nursery area" for Liesl in our room for now.  And we were happy to find there was a lot of extra space in the back of the house in the laundry room area that we could make into an office nook by placing some kind of room divider by the washer and dryer.  We were also excited to see an entrance for a storm cellar in the garage - I'm way scared of tornado season out here this summer.

After we had resolved to go with the second house, we hurried over to the rental office to start the process of applying to rent as quickly as possible.  We are ready to be done with hotel living!  They were able to approve us in an hour or two, and we took our security deposit over this afternoon.  On Monday, we'll sign the lease agreement and hopefully move in depending on how quickly we can get the water and electric turned on.  I can't wait to show you the inside!  And to tell you what I'm planning to do to make it our own!

In other news, we went for a walk at a really nice park near our hotel, Elmer Thomas Park, this evening.  It had a beautiful, well maintained three-ish mile long trail.  And I saw prairie dogs up close for the first time! They are SO CUTE.  I want to bring one with me wherever we move after OK.  I can't imagine a life without prairie dogs now. : )

Thanks for checking in on us!  Hope you had a great week!