Addison & Jace ::: en route

I suppose it’s time for Addison and I to come clean. We’re Addison & Jess, and we’re move-aholics.

Whew. That feels better. The truth is out there.

But not really. Because the truth is, we don’t like to move. We just seem to do it a lot, and we’re doing it again in a little less than two weeks. I know what you’re thinking: “Again?”

Yes. Again. This time, we’re moving a little more than one mile away, to a new apartment in Denver.

Why are we moving? Here’s the run-down of reasons:

1. We’ll save a lot of money every month without giving anything up and gaining a lot—same apartment size and many of the same amenities for a lot less money. (Honestly, we probably would have moved for this reason alone, given that we’re a debt-ladden couple who no longer wants to live paycheck-to-paycheck. But there are other reasons / perks of moving too.)

2. We’ll live close to my work—a four-block walk. Living this close to work, we have decided to not bring Addison’s car (which has been living at my parents’ house in South Carolina) out to Denver as we had planned to do in November. Instead, we’re going to sell the car and apply the money to some of our debt. I’ll continue to use a combination of walking and bus riding to get where I need to go.

3. We’ll live in a better / prettier neighborhood that’s close to a park and full of gorgeous old houses to look at while we’re walking Izzie. 

4. We’ll live in the “gayborhood” where many of our friends live.

5. We’ll be able to walk to coffee shops, grocery stores, restaurants, the place where I get my hair cut, and more.

6. We’ll escape all of the fraternity boys and sorority girls living in our current apartment complex.

7. We’ll have hardwood floors and tile instead of carpet and vinyl.

8. We’ll have a huge balcony, a much better kitchen, and tons more storage space.

9. We’ll leave behind the noise and aggravation of an apartment complex with more than 450 units. (Call me an old lady, but I like peace and quiet when I get home.)

10. We’ll live in a place we feel good about because we’re paying a good price for great space and amenities (as opposed to always feeling like we were paying through the nose for a place we only kind of liked).

Of course, I’ll be the first to admit that there are drawbacks to moving, specifically:

1. We actually have to pack and move. No fun.

2. We have to pay a fee to break our lease in our current place. An expected bummer. Still, with all we’ll save every month, we’ll make our money back in no time.

3. Did I mention we have to pack up our stuff and move?

4. We’re moving away from City Park, a park we so love. Fortunately, we’re moving one block away from a different park, Cheeseman Park. I hope we’ll like it as much as we like City Park. One perk we already know of: there are no geese (and therefore, no geese poop) in Cheeseman.

5. We’re giving up a swimming pool and gym in our current place. But, not surprisingly, we’ve used the pool twice and the gym once in 9 months so it’s not a big loss.

6. The one big concession we had to make: we won’t have a washer and dryer in our unit so we’ll have to go down to the laundry room in the building to do laundry. It’s a bummer to be sure, but I’m hoping it will make us a little better about laundry (i.e., not letting it build up and getting it all done at once instead of dragging it out for days).

7. Moving. Really. Sucks.

8. Seriously.

Because of these drawbacks, we didn’t make this decision to move lightly. Most of the annoying things about our building, we could have gotten over and dealt with. Most of the awesome things about our new place, we could live without. But our decision came down not to which apartment was better; it came down to money. 

Addison and I have made the decision to spend the next couple of years really paying down debt and trying to save some money so that we can be better prepared for the future. If we ever want to stop worrying about money every month, if we ever want to start a family, if we ever want to be able to take care of the ones we love as they age—we have to get our finances in order. And our plan starts now, with this move.