Monday, July 24, 2006
Feeling sorry for not living in LA anymore is one thing...
...but moving ahead in life is a complete other.
It is not exaggerated when I say that sometimes, when we were still living in LA, we literally were going to bed hungry and with painfully rumbling stomachs, because for us it sometimes was between buying food, or buying gas to get to work to make money the next day. You have no idea how many times we had to ask our roommates for help to either pay rent, or to help pay for our weekly groceries, and if it weren't for them I don't know what we would have done sometimes. It wasn't always like that, but more often than not, unfortunately, it was. The Fiancé was working two jobs, and I was doing as much freelance as I could, yet it was never enough. Whatever little money we made, it immediately went into bills or debts, and there was just no moving ahead. There was staying afloat, at best.
This situation was one of my main motivators to consider the move back to Europe, and leave everything behind that was so dear to me. Give up such a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We wanted to move ahead in life, wanted to be on our own as opposed to living with roomates like we were stuck in our early twens, wanted to have jobs that would enable us to become financially stable and think of things in the future, like children.
The move was painful, and the memories still are... but today we just returned from the office, where I confirmed my interest in this large 2-bedroom apartment. A large 2-bedroom apartment that is located at the border of Vienna, very close to the Vienna woods and other green recreation areas. It is relatively quiet, and a small creek runs right by it that is surrounded by green, which is lovely to take strolls in or just relax. Instead of traffic noise there are birds singing. And what's best? The complex is still being built. It is still a raw concrete building. On August 1, 2007 we will be moving into a brand new apartment that nobody else has lived in before, where we are not subject to landlords, and where we can do whatever we want. Everything will be new and shiny, and it will be all ours. We have two bedrooms, a large living room with balcony, and a large kitchen. The ground around the complex will be covered with lawn, going directly into the nature area where the creek runs. There will be two playgrounds and two toddler playgrounds, one of which will be in direct sight of our balcony.
It will be a wonderful place to have a baby in.
You see where I am getting at? Only a year ago we were struggling for survival on a daily basis, and now we are 7 weeks away from our wedding, preparing for a 4 week vacation in México, getting ready to get a loan for this apartment that we will be able to deal with, are in the process of paying off our car in LA and importing it to here. The Fiancé is getting his driver's license and will have his work permit soon after the wedding. I have a business of my own. We are currently able to work on paying off those debts that we have. We are thinking about a time plan on when to try for a baby in earnest.
My head is spinning from all this, and I am so excited about everything that I don't know what to be excited over the most at any given point in time. :) The progress we have made since we left LA is amazing, more than I could have hoped for in our desperate situation.
What's more is that this apartment finally will be something we will be staying in for a good amount of years... not a temp solution like everything has been since I moved out of my parents' in 2001. I can ask my friend, The Architect, to design the place for us, and it will be money well spent to invest in nice furniture. We are having a Mexican style kitchen in mind, and an oasis of green on brick tiles and terracotta pots and a Mexican hammock for the balcony. Custom-made furniture everywhere else. Dreams... possibilities... potential...!
No more renting of pre-lived-in places with used old furniture that we can't do anything about. No more holding off on buying beautiful things because there is no point in fixing up an old temp place anyway.
Finally... our first real home.
It is not exaggerated when I say that sometimes, when we were still living in LA, we literally were going to bed hungry and with painfully rumbling stomachs, because for us it sometimes was between buying food, or buying gas to get to work to make money the next day. You have no idea how many times we had to ask our roommates for help to either pay rent, or to help pay for our weekly groceries, and if it weren't for them I don't know what we would have done sometimes. It wasn't always like that, but more often than not, unfortunately, it was. The Fiancé was working two jobs, and I was doing as much freelance as I could, yet it was never enough. Whatever little money we made, it immediately went into bills or debts, and there was just no moving ahead. There was staying afloat, at best.
This situation was one of my main motivators to consider the move back to Europe, and leave everything behind that was so dear to me. Give up such a once-in-a-lifetime thing. We wanted to move ahead in life, wanted to be on our own as opposed to living with roomates like we were stuck in our early twens, wanted to have jobs that would enable us to become financially stable and think of things in the future, like children.
The move was painful, and the memories still are... but today we just returned from the office, where I confirmed my interest in this large 2-bedroom apartment. A large 2-bedroom apartment that is located at the border of Vienna, very close to the Vienna woods and other green recreation areas. It is relatively quiet, and a small creek runs right by it that is surrounded by green, which is lovely to take strolls in or just relax. Instead of traffic noise there are birds singing. And what's best? The complex is still being built. It is still a raw concrete building. On August 1, 2007 we will be moving into a brand new apartment that nobody else has lived in before, where we are not subject to landlords, and where we can do whatever we want. Everything will be new and shiny, and it will be all ours. We have two bedrooms, a large living room with balcony, and a large kitchen. The ground around the complex will be covered with lawn, going directly into the nature area where the creek runs. There will be two playgrounds and two toddler playgrounds, one of which will be in direct sight of our balcony.
It will be a wonderful place to have a baby in.
You see where I am getting at? Only a year ago we were struggling for survival on a daily basis, and now we are 7 weeks away from our wedding, preparing for a 4 week vacation in México, getting ready to get a loan for this apartment that we will be able to deal with, are in the process of paying off our car in LA and importing it to here. The Fiancé is getting his driver's license and will have his work permit soon after the wedding. I have a business of my own. We are currently able to work on paying off those debts that we have. We are thinking about a time plan on when to try for a baby in earnest.
My head is spinning from all this, and I am so excited about everything that I don't know what to be excited over the most at any given point in time. :) The progress we have made since we left LA is amazing, more than I could have hoped for in our desperate situation.
What's more is that this apartment finally will be something we will be staying in for a good amount of years... not a temp solution like everything has been since I moved out of my parents' in 2001. I can ask my friend, The Architect, to design the place for us, and it will be money well spent to invest in nice furniture. We are having a Mexican style kitchen in mind, and an oasis of green on brick tiles and terracotta pots and a Mexican hammock for the balcony. Custom-made furniture everywhere else. Dreams... possibilities... potential...!
No more renting of pre-lived-in places with used old furniture that we can't do anything about. No more holding off on buying beautiful things because there is no point in fixing up an old temp place anyway.
Finally... our first real home.
