Our new place

We flew in to Omaha this weekend to look for a home to rent. We saw 4 places, it was supposed to be 6, but one was rented just before we got here and another cancelled the showing. SO, of the 4 we saw, 3 were the EXACT same floor plan. The builders out here went a little NUTS and you'll find that same house all over Omaha and the surrounding areas. The layout was a little awkward, but it would have worked.

One of the 4 places was different. I knew from the second I saw it online that I wanted it. It was the cheapest  of the 4 places, and surprisingly the newest and nicest too. It's about 20 minutes out of downtown Omaha, in a 5 year old development. I told Ryan and his mom that this was our home, and this was where we'd be moving, but I just had to go see it to be sure. 

It's a 4 level home with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and a GIGANTIC (unfenced) backyard. 

On the main level you have the living room

Kitchen

 tiny dining area, and back porch entry. The deck/porch is nice and big. Great for a grill and some chairs

From the main level, you go down a few steps into this family/bonus room which is attached to the garage and that door to the left of the stairs goes down into the unfinished basement with laundry area. It's huge down there and great for storing all of Ryans crap, I mean Star Wars collectibles.

 family room

Then from the main level, you can also go upstairs to the 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. All are pretty small, but having so much more house than we are used to kind of makes up for it, so we're really excited.

The best part of all is the price. We are paying $400 LESS than the CHEAPEST rent we paid for an old tiny condo in Orange County. And we have a whole HOUSE. It's madness.

The worst part is the fact that now we have to do yard work, and the back lawn is BIG, like you need a riding mower big. And we have to do snow removal on the driveway and sidewalks. And our driveway is LONG, like 4-5 cars deep. AND since it's a house, it doesn't come with a washer/dryer...the owners took it with them. So we'll need to get a lawn mower (or a mowing service), a snow blower (because a shovel won't cut it), and a washer/dryer. That's a lot of stuff! Thank goodness for craigslist!!

So that's the place. We move in on January 28th!! Less than 3 weeks. Also, right now the weather is "nice", it's only 30-50 degrees with clear skies and no snow on the ground. The locals predict that because it's been so mild, there will probably be a huge storm in the next month or so. The perfect welcome home gift to us, from Nebraska.