Our Apartment

We have officially been Illinois residents for almost 3 weeks now. We are pretty well settled into our apartment, which is in the suburb of Chatham located south west of downtown. This was one of the only short-term rentals (6 months)we could find but the area was very highly recommended. We have a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment on the first floor of an 8 apartment complex. The style of the place is very open and it was just renovated so the appliances, bathrooms, flooring and carpeting are brand new. The main space is a living/dining/kitchen area with laminate flooring and lots of open space for Ally to crawl around. We have enough room for our kitchen table and the island in the kitchen gave us a little extra storage. We left the coffee table and end tables in storage so we just have one couch and a recliner in the living room. There is a large coat/storage closet in the kitchen, a big laundry room off the kitchen and a patio big enough for the grill and two chairs off the living room. The patio also has a very large storage closet so that's been perfect for boxes and extra things that don't fit inside.

Down the short hall is Ally's giant bedroom (compared to what she had), a full bathroom and then our room which also has its own bathroom. The closet space is a lot less that we are used to so our room has some wire racks for clothes along the walls. The master bath is also very small but its been ok so far. It's a little strange that the shower in our bathroom has the tub and the hall bath is just a shower but we are making it work. I'm getting used to bathing Ally in a small space!

As for the area we are in, we chose this place for the proximity to the important places like target, grocery store and best buy. It is also right next door to a huge park/sports complex so walking the paths and going to the playground has been a daily thing for us. The negative is that it is across from a lovely trailer park but other than being an eyesore, its really has not an issue. I feel safe here and there is lots of green space for Ella. The noise has taken some getting used to but so far everything has been going pretty well.

I would post some pictures, but its really not very exciting and its still a little cluttered with things yet to find a home. Now that we have a crawling baby, we need to rethink the placement of some things and do more baby-proofing. She is so fast!