Our A/C unit hasn’t been blowing cold air this week so we decided to finally make an appointment to get our air ducts cleaned and have a free inspection while we were at it. We were hoping, and crossing our fingers, and wishing on every star that it just needed some fluids.

Well, I guess in a way we got our wish, we definitely needed more fluid. Like all the fluid, as in there was no freon. zip. zilch. nada.

At the end of our “inspection” we found out we have a small leak on the coils inside, a huge leak on the aluminum pipe outside, and mold all throughout the top of the unit inside and into the ducts. Yea!

We feel like the guys from Florida Air Duct Cleaners were very helpful in explaining everything (at least we think, we know nothing about this stuff), but they basically told us, there is nothing that can be done for the outside except replacing it because you can’t weld the aluminum, and although the inside coil piece can be replaced, it might be more expensive than buying a new one (because it runs on the old R22 freon). Plus, we have to have a treatment for the the mold in the ducts. Is it just me, or are we hemorrhaging money? This air conditioner issue is what we were trying to avoid when we paid $400 for a home inspection where they supposedly looked through and into the air handler.

Anyone know of a quality (cheap + awesome) air conditioner company we can give the rest of our emergency fund to?

10. Carrying groceries up the stairs.

9. The limited parking spots causing us to park blocks from where we actually live.

8. The gate that has only worked for maybe a total of a month out of our 5 years there. It seemed to only work on the days it rained.

7. When they renovated the outside of our building. A “6 week project” took 5 months, put a large hole in our wall that led outside, made a huge mess inside and outside, and killed all our plants on the balcony.

6. The windows that leak when it rains (which ironically were replaced during the renovation two years ago to prevent just that).

5. The incompetent staff. We lived there for 6 years (first year was just Jeremy and then I joined him), all of which we rented a garage. At least yearly they would call and ask what garage was ours, and even when we turned in our keys on Sunday, they called Monday to ask again.

4. Our sink that has not stopped dripping for the past year and our toilet that only flushes half the time, even though we’ve had maintenance out to fix both of them.

3. The time there was a clog in the pipes somewhere between the third and first floor which caused a back up in our toilet. First there was flooding, then there was sewage that came up into tub when we tried to plunge. And when we called maintenance we were told it wasn’t an emergency because we had a second toilet. Any time there is sewage coming up in my tub, that makes it an emergency to me.

2. The big foot neighbors upstairs and their yappy dog that barks for hours on end in the middle of the night causing me to get up out of bed, walk into the bathroom, and yell “SHUT UP” at the top of my lungs until he stops.

And the #1 Reason. The people with the garage below our bedroom that come home at three in the morning and feel the need to repeatedly open and close their garage door, waking us from our sleep and shaking our bed like we are staying in a cheap motel with a 25¢ vibrating bed.

For all the reasons we won’t miss our apartment (and there are more than this list of 10) there is one reason why we will. It was our first place together, the first place we called home, the place we spent the last 5 years of our lives making memories. So goodbye little apartment, we had some good times together.

It’s been crazy around here, but here’s a rundown on what happened in our first 24 hours as homeowners.

• We made multiple Home Depot runs. We were pleasantly surprised by the helpfulness of 3 of their employees.

• Jeremy killed wasps all around the perimeter the house.

• Jen helped sweep the garage to help Jeremy prep it for painting.

• Jeremy accidentally ran the truck battery dead listening to music and lighting up the garage while working late into the night cleaning, priming, and painting the garage floor. Resulting in an angry and exhausted pregnant wife driving over to jump the truck, she contemplated leaving him there to sleep on the floor.

• Hired a cleaning crew that took way longer than their estimated time. End result: Smells like cleaner and looks a bit better, but cost more than it should have.

• Jeremy had to deal with birds large and small, from the Sandhill Crane out back to the crazy Cardinal that wanted to be a part of our family. This cute little bird kept flying into our side and back windows throughout the morning. It sounded like gunshots and it just wouldn’t give up.

• Jeremy took tons of pictures to help us get a really good grasp on the before, so we can show off the afters when we get settled in.

• Jeremy leveled the stove, and installed some new shelves and drawers into the fridge (the sellers accidentally broke them).

• Jen called all around to update our address info everywhere she could from the doctors to the DMV.

• We moved a little bit of stuff over despite the rain with the help of our good friends, Alan and Gina. We originally planned to use the back of Alan’s pickup along with Jeremy’s truck, but the rain never let up, so we borrowed Jen’s dad’s Suburban which gave us a ton of covered transport to the new place.

Until we become homeowners! So crazy excited!

Hey friends, we’ve decided to make our move on Saturday Feb 27 starting at 9:30am and could use your help! We’ll provide all helpers with tasty food and drinks throughout the day. Let us know if you can help out.