Down To Two

Yesterday after work we went to an apartment complex down the road from my work to check it out as I heard they had good deals for those who work in the area. We went back to both again today in hopes of seeing them side-by-side, if you will. I am back to square one now. I thought I liked ABS more yesterday due to cost/savings but today after going to CB before ABS again I like CB's storage(I have A LOT of stuff).

I think we have narrowed it down to two apartments that we like. Let me rename them, the one next to my work, CloseBy and the other one ABitSmaller, CB and ABS respectively.

CB is RIGHT next to my work, you can see it from our break room. Their one bedrooms are 825 sq ft for $725. The pros to this complex are: the living room has a sunroom which would be okay to transform into my office area and has a nice view of either the golf course or pool area; more storage space; security system already comes installed and included in rent; one pool area; one fitness center; one business center (not needed); designated car wash area; newspaper stand by mailboxes(not important but very nice); volleyball court; everything included except washer/dryer; gated; further away from the crime; Cons to the complex are: only discount for living in area is $100 off first months rent; specials are few and far between, not really "good deals"; the employee didn't seem very friendly more of a snotty lady with the ear piece in her ear while we were touring (take it out, its not more professional when your blabbing about your weekend plans); she didn't hold the door open for us at any of the doors we went through; deposit $250 - $100 automatically does not get refunded; application fee $67.50; that sums up CB complex.

ABS is about a mile away from work, their one bedrooms are 808 sq ft for $720. The pros to this complex are: the staff is the friendly group of people I have ever met at any complex, opened doors for us, offered us cookies/coffee, explained every little question we had; has a built in desk in kitchen, lots of cabinets; comes with everything except a microwave and washer/dryer; patio(small and not needed, would rather have it expanding for the dinning area); two pools; two fitness centers; two business centers; 5% discount for working in area; offers lots of specials more often than not; gated; the cons to this complex are: closer to crime; rent is going up by $21 due to them adding the security systems in next month because of the crime; not a lot of space outside of the kitchen cabinets; dinning room area small; deposit is $250; application fee is $59.99; that sums up ABS complex.

I have no clue which one we will go with at this point. I think we will stick with these though, I want to be two seconds away from work, I've grown up in this area. When we go to buy a house in 08 then we will probably move further away but, for now, I want to stay here. M says whichever one is the cheapest in the end is the one we should go with, but storage space for my diaper cake/eB@y stuff is very important to me. I think we will take my mom/grandma/aunt with us in a few weeks to help us decide. We are looking at moving around Dec/Jan. I hope.

This is going to push us further away from doing treatments and adoptions, but I need to do this to save my relaitonship with M, my family is nuts.

Feel free to chime in, I might even get some pictures when we go look at them again to post before we make a final decision.