The Search Begins for Rental Homes in Texas

For months now we have been looking at rental homes in the Arlington/Mansfield, Texas area. This was the weekend we were scheduled to go to look at them in person.  We left for Dallas on Wednesday night around 11pm. We finally arrived early morning on Thursday around 6am, our flight was delayed and with the 2 hour time difference we were exhausted. My boss and his wife let us stay at their house for the weekend so when we got there we took a short nap because we were scheduled to meet with the realtor at 11am. She took us around to a few houses, the first one we really liked, but it was the first one so we wanted to make sure we weren't missing out on something else. We decided we would wait until after we saw all the homes we were scheduled to see that weekend before making a final decision.

Thursday night we took a journey down to Fort Worth to get some sushi. We went to BLUE Sushi Saki Grill. It was a great atmosphere and pretty good sushi, Justin said it was the best he ever had.

I forgot to take a picture so I grabbed this one from their site. 

On the way to Sushi we saw "Texas Street" 

We got home around 9pm and went straight to bed, we were so tired we couldn't stay up any longer, plus we had an even busier day on Friday! I had an appointment at 9am with a client and Justin was going to a networking event with John (my boss). The networking event went really well, Justin met a lot of great new people that he is looking forward to  working with. Justin was able to make a connection with a gentlemen that promised him a phone call later that day. Sure enough he received the phone call and was basically offered a job on the spot, working with a company who is contracted with Home Depot's install team. They are the people that install tile, flooring, kitchen cabinets for Home Depot. The company is run by one of our clients so we look forward to Justin being able to work with them, even if it is for a little bit so Justin can get to know the area, suppliers, and some people in the field should he need to hire extra help.

After both of our meetings we went to look at a few more houses, nothing to promising and we were both kind of let down but still had the first house in the back of our minds, just hoped for something better Saturday. That night we just hung out at John's house, we BBQ'd, played Just Dance for Wii. Leah, John's wife, and Justin kicked our butts, John and I looked pretty goofy dancing. Then we stayed up playing Wii Bowling, guess who won! ME! I love that game!

Saturday morning came and it was the last day we had to look at houses and we hadn't found anything promising yet, with the exception of the first one we liked. House after house was just a let down and so we finally made the decision to put in an application on the first home that we saw on Thursday. We called the rental agency and told them we wanted to put an application in. What do you know, someone beat us to it. We were both SUPER bummed and I instantly went to panic mode. We didnt have a house and we were leaving the next night! I got on Craigslist in hopes of finding something and it must have been in Gods plan for us because there was the perfect house, in the perfect location, for a good price. We drove over to the house, and the drive alone made me fall in love with it.

My future drive to work. So green and pretty

When we got there we were so happy to see that the lawn was manicured and the house was taken care of. We met the homeowner and he was a long time resident of Mansfield and a great guy to talk to. He was open to us fixing up stuff in the house if we wanted and very reasonable on the rent and deposit. He even split the deposit in two for us. What rental company would do that!? We got so lucky on this one.

Our New street. 

Our new Home :) 

Let me tell you this is the perfect house for us. It is just big enough for the two of us and Levi and Indy. The backyard is full of tall mature trees, grass and a covered patio. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. It has a brick fireplace, hardwood floors in the living room, carpet in the bedrooms. We are both so excited for this place, and more importantly cant wait to live together :) Oh, and Justin cant wait to mow the lawn, haha he was already talking about hiring the neighbor kids to do it!

Saturday night we decided we would go out to celebrate so we went to meet up with Missy and Wes. We drove up to their house in Keller, TX, which is only about 30 minutes (with no traffic) from where we live. We had a yummy vegan pizza at their house and then headed down to Fort Worth for a night out on the town.

Fort Worth at Night 

Horse drawn Carriage in the middle of Fort Worth

Awesome Architecture 

Missy, Me, Justin and Wes

At Pete's Dueling Piano Bar in Fort Worth

Sunday morning we woke up to a thunderstorm and then drove down to Arlington to go to Church. It was an overall great trip and we both look forward to moving there in a few weeks. 25 more days until we are official Texans! Yeehaw!