Once upon a time we had planned on taking a trip to Santa Cruz the last week of July (the 24th through 27th) to see if we could find an apartment. We were trying to be positive about this trip, but there were several reasons why we were not looking forward to it. Some of those reasons were that I would have been 35 weeks pregnant, and two 14 hour car rides in 4 days would have been miserably uncomfortable, Robert wasn't looking forward to driving all that way, it would have been hard on Lydia to have that quick of a trip that would not only be long rides there and back but would also mostly consist of a lot of driving around to different apartments while we were there. The 2 biggest reasons we didn't want to go were that my sister Katie was ready to have her baby any day and the thought of missing that was stressing me out, and we just didn't know how we were going to pay for the trip. Gas for the drive, hotel stays, plus most of the places we wanted were asking for 1st month rent which mostly ranged from $1300-1500 and a security deposit that ranged from $1300-2000 to sign for the place equals more money than we had. Needless to say, we were praying hard for some divine intervention.
Several months ago we got on the wait list for the family student housing that is right on UCSC campus. We were told when we got on it that it was highly unlikely that we'd be able to get into it in September, the soonest would maybe be January if that. Well, 2 days before we planned on taking the trip to Santa Cruz, we're sitting sorting through all of the apartment ads I had printed off of Craigslist and Robert says, "I think I'm going to call the student housing office and see if they can give us any idea on how soon we'll get in." After talking to one person who had no clue what was going on, he was transferred to the lady in charge. (Her name is Cheryl. I've become quite fond of her.) The first thing she says when Robert says his name is, "What a coincidence you called me right now. I was just getting ready to email you. You are next in line for an apartment and we have several available any time in September. All you need to do is pick your move in date and floor plan, and I'll draw up the paperwork." HURRAY!!! With how many utilities that were included in the rent (everything except gas and electric, including internet/cable and parking which is unheard of anywhere else), plus a security deposit of only $500, plus the money we save commute wise living right on campus ($50 a month for bus fare or $900 a year for a parking permit), it was by far our cheapest option. Not to mention that it saved us the trip out there. It was the answer to so many prayers!! And an answer once again that this is where we are supposed to go right now. Heavenly Father's hand has been guiding and helping us along through this whole process.
Without further ado, here are some pictures of the complex that I copied from the "Welcome Handbook" Cheryl sent us. There's also a picture of our floor plan. We ended up going with the one that is the smaller out of the choices we had (936 sq. ft. versus 1026 sq. ft.), but I felt that this one suited us much better and was more efficiently laid out. We're excited!!!
No pictures of the interior yet. You can see a virtual tour of one here to get an idea but it's not the same floor plan as ours. I'll be sure to post a bunch of pictures of the inside once we are settled in ONLY A MONTH!!! It's coming so fast, and I'm HAVING A BABY sometime between now and then. Crazy times ahead!!
Those have wonderful layouts! You'll have more bedrooms and it will be nice to have that study whatever you end up doing with it (storage, nursery). I'm excited for y'all even if that means y'all are moving.
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