The Apartment

So we've had quite an adventure when it comes to our apartment. :)
Pastor Kevin had looked for an apartment for us (called the El Dorado Apartments)before we got to FDL, so we were expecting to move into that apartment shortly after arriving here. When we got here, we found out that the El Dorado manager had not returned Kevin's phone calls, and our apartment search was a little up in the air. So we stayed at Dan and Kathy's house (members of the launch team), and were treated so well!
Thursday, we looked through the ads in the paper to try and find a different apartment. We got ahold of an upstairs apartment in a house that was willing to do a 3 month lease and could meet us that morning, so we jumped on that. As we were walking over to see this apartment, the El Dorado lady called back and said we could have the original apartment. So at this point we had two options.
After seeing both apartments, we were leaning more toward the El Dorado and then went for lunch. During lunch, we met a lady from the church and she asked what we were doing. We told her we were looking at apartments, and she said, "I hope not the El Dorado Apartments!" out of the blue. We told her that we actually were looking at those, and asked what she knew about them. She told us she lived there and would advise against moving in, so we decided on the upstairs apartment.
The landlord told us that the other guy had to move some stuff out yet and clean it up, so we could get in on Sunday. On Sunday, we met the landlord after church to sign the papers, but the man had not come back yet to move out his things...it was a disaster!
Finally we got a call Monday morning that the man was out, but the landlord hadn't seen it yet. So we decided to go over there anyway and started moving in. When we walked up the stairs, we were disgusted! The man had moved most of his big things out, but left half his fridge and freezer full, about 20 empty Vodka bottles, plates, dishes, and drawers/closets full of his things. So Brent and I got to work! We've been cleaning absolutely everything with Lysol for the past 3 days, and we're getting there! We were a bit discouraged, but now things are coming together, and we see it as our project and gift to the landlord. Maybe he'll wonder why we're putting so much effort into a clean house. Anyway, we have quite a housing story to tell and will load the pictures as soon as we have more time!