Lehi house

We loved the door to door public transportation to get Zack to work from our last place, but it was still an hour each way. Our lease was ending soon, and after a LOT of discussing, scouring of apartment listings, and a bunch of viewings, we felt like nothing was really clicking for us. We didn't want to just settle for something we didn't really like because we didn't want to have to move again for a while. Then we made a weird decision to see some places in Lehi, where Zack works. We found a place we liked, and surprisingly to us, we decided to go for it. Unfortunately, the place was just a home owned by an older couple that they were renting out and in a situation like that, they can cherry pick who they want living in their house. It's a popularity contest, or likeability contest, or something like that. And if you know us, you know we'll always lose in a situation like that. And lose we did. Even though we were the first to view the house and to say we'd take it, they chose someone else. Secretly, I was a little relieved. It was a great house, but had some weird things that I wasn't sure I could live with (carpet in the dining room, no doors on the master bathroom, those folding style doors on all the closets that pinch little fingers). The hunt continued. As we drew closer and closer to moving day, we got worried, and thought about just taking a place we didn't really love. We were still looking at places, but nothing seemed right.

A listing popped up on KSL and we set up a viewing but kinda counted it out because it wasn't as close to Z's work as we wanted.

Then we saw it.

It was perfect! It checked every box on our must haves list and a lot of the ones on our wish list too. So we took it, and we did something we never thought we'd do... we moved to Utah County.
This is also a home owned by a private owner, but they picked us based on more defined specifications, and not just some touchy-feely whatever.
We have been here since early July. We are still getting somewhat settled, but I already feel more settled here than I did in the last place. 
Moving day was a big chore, but our families really chipped in and made it go fast and easy. Here's the one picture I got from the move-- the chart showing everyone which room to take the boxes to.

This is a 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse (no one lives above us except ourselves!!!!). I have photographed the lower level only right now since the upstairs is going through some upheaval, but even the lower level has changed a lot since I actually took the photos. 

This is the living room in the back of the house, where we actually do most of our hanging out, watching TV, etc

 I have some decor hanging above the couch now. Too lazy to go take new pictures right now.

 Half bath on the lower level

 Dining space/pantry

 Kitchen

A little story: before we moved into the house, but after we'd already picked it, we ran into bar stools on clearance for a smashing deal at Target so we bought them. When we moved in and the first stool was assembled, we realized it was too tall for the counter.  (yeah, we didn't even think to  measure first. Go us!). Luckily, we were able to sell the stools for a profit, and got these other ones, which are the right height, for a very good deal also.

 Hallway from kitchen to the front of the house. The door knob and barely visible door to the left is the bathroom. The more visible door on the left is the closet, and the door in the other room is the front door. 

 View from the front door to the back of the house

 Looking left from the front door. We actually have a couch on this wall too now, which makes the room look much homier, and much less like a big empty cave.

 We moved Zack's desk upstairs now too so this area is empty right now. We're planning on putting the Christmas tree there.

 Front door/shoe rack

So there you have it. Upstairs pictures to come soon.
So far, Utah county isn't as horrible as we thought it would be. We were promptly put into the nursery in our new ward, so we haven't really gotten to know anyone. The commute to Zack's work is much nicer, about 10 mins by car and 20-25 by bike. We have a Thanksgiving Point membership and have been taking full advantage of that now that we live so close. All in all, we are very happy with our choice and glad we really found a place we can enjoy.

West valley

We absolutely loved our apartment in south salt lake, but the neighbors, not so much. The place clearly didn't have the most awesome construction so even the every day living noises of our upstairs neighbors (walking around, music, snoring) was intrusive. But we couldn't fault them for that. Unfortunately, it was much more than that. They kept strange hours and had 2 very energetic children. Almost every night in the 11 o clock hour, they would come home and make the biggest racket... I'm talking yelling and jumping off things and running around. They woke our baby up almost daily for months. Between the 11 PM nightly ritual and the daytime noise, it was often more than once a day. We tried to be understanding. People make noise. But our baby was just learning to sleep and everyone was suffering when they woke her up over and over. We tried talking to them. We tried banging on the ceiling with a broom. We even got the landlord involved. Nothing changed. As our lease expiration approached, we realized we were going to have to move. It was hard decision since we liked the layout of the apartment so much, but it had to be. We searched for an new apartment for a long time, and nothing really seemed to click. We kind of wanted to try living in a big complex since we had such a good experience in one in Philly. Maybe that was the problem. Anyway, we finally found something that was ok, and we were running out of time, so we took it. We were able to get a 9 month lease, so we weren't committing for too long. We knew we were expecting another baby and thought we might want a 3 bedroom place after the baby came and didn't want to be stuck in a long lease in the 2 bedroom. We were also able to get a first floor unit, which is really nice for moving in and out.  So it had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. Here are some pictures I took of the place.

Living Room 

It was small. Not much room for Clara to play.

 Kitchen

Clara's Room

Walk in Closet for Clara

It looks like I never got around to photographing the patio, dining area, hall bathroom, our bedroom, or our bathroom. A quick verbal description for memory's sake: patio off the living room with a big storage closet, which was really nice to have. Off the kitchen was a dining area, but for us, it became an office/misc area after the baby was born and we had to move stuff out of our room to fit him. In the hall was a large hall bathroom, and laundry machines. Our bedroom was at the end of the hall, and was medium sized, with a master bath. The master closet was in the bathroom and wasn't separated by a door or anything (not my favorite, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be).

Honestly, I'm not surprised at all that I didn't get pics of these rooms. When we moved in, I was newly pregnant and sick sick sicky sick. So I was either sick, quite pregnant, or had a newborn baby the whole time we lived there. The place never really got pulled all together in the first place as far as unpacking and hanging out decor and all that. We knew in the back of our minds that we would probably leave at the end of the 9 month term anyway. The place did have some perks. Zack could ride public transportation door to door from our house to work. He did have to ride 1 trax line to another to the frontrunner, and it was an hour each way, but I had free access to the car at all times. It had enough space for us. It was ok. But we could still hear the neighbors more that we liked, it was literally right next to the freeway, we decided we weren't fans of the huge apartment complex scene after all, and we really got cramped once the baby came. Plus the length of Zack's work commute was really starting to wear on us. So when our lease was coming to an end, we decided to get out of there.